England 269-6 (50 overs). Australia 221-9 (50 overs) Boxing isn’t everyone’s cup of Twinings, but the blogosphere would be a much poorer place without boxing analogies. Saturday’s ODI at Edgbaston was round one of the forthcoming heavyweight contest between England and Australia. England didn’t quite secure a knockout blow – they’re far too cautious for that – but they won comfortably on points. George Bailey’s team must have felt like Wladimir Klitschko’s latest opponent: the Aussies just...
Are New Zealand better than Australia now?
Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that this is not a joke. It isn’t my intention to poke our rivals in the ribs like Glenn McGrath used to do with his 5-0 series predictions. It’s meant to be a serious discussion (as if you’d expect anything else from that blog that brought you the ten best Ashes jokes from 2011). Over the last twenty five years (or is it one hundred and twenty five?) Australia have been far better than New Zealand at cricket. To claim that the Black Caps are superior...
Intimidated? I don’t think so
Part of my Christmas ritual (and probably yours too) is staying up to watch the first session of the Boxing Day test from the MCG. It used to be a dispiriting experience fifteen years ago. A succession of worthy challengers (some of which contained great bowlers like Ambrose, Walsh and Waqar Younis) would turn up with high hopes, but concede four hundred runs in a day and lose by an innings. How on earth was England’s attack (which at this point was led by Alan Mullally) going to take a single...
Overseas, overpaid and over here
Recognise this bloke? Neither do we. Apparently he’s Michael Klinger, Worcs’ new overseas signing Following on from guest writer Garreth Duncan’s article about Durham, which took a romantic and misty eyed look at county cricket, we’d like to re-establish a prevailing sense of cynicism and exasperation by looking at one of the less satisfying aspects of the modern county game: overseas players. One of the things I admire about Durham is the depth and quality of youngsters they’ve...
Australia’s ‘WACAs’ not up to test standard
WACAs, ‘whackers’, you get the idea. Australia batted unbelievably poorly on day one at Perth. Only one batsman was out to a ball he could do nothing about – and that was the exasperatingly exemplary Mike Hussey. The rest of them got out to shots that were as ill advised as the selection of Australia’s final XI. What on earth were the Aussies thinking? Test cricket requires discipline and patience – not whackers like Phil Hughes and Steve Smith. Unless they can get a fast start against an under...
