England 167 & 421-6. New Zealand 460-9. Match Drawn. Apologies for the awful headline. Watching a tailender block for almost five hours can do strange things to the brain. In the end the pitch won. It’s no coincidence that England’s hero with the bat yesterday, nighwatchman Steve Finn, managed to compile his first ever first class fifty. The word ‘featherbed’ doesn’t quite cut it. A combination of Warne, Ambrose, Marshall, Hadlee (even the mighty Jack Shantry) would’ve struggled to take...
Now we’re Cookin’ – day two from Kolkata
India 316. England 216-1. Stumps. If the fairy godmother (Geoff Boycott in a pink leotard and sparkly skirt?) had visited Alastair Cook in the middle of yesterday night, and asked him how he wanted day two to unfold, he might have said something like this: ‘I’d like to polish India off without conceding more than about forty runs, then put on a huge opening stand with Compton and get close to India’s score without losing more than one wicket’. Then, just as sparkly Geoff was about to disappear...
Banana skin avoided
Go get ’em Wrighty England 196-5 (20 overs) Afghanistan 80 (17.2 overs) England were always going to beat Afghanistan. Never once did it cross our minds that we might actually lose. Not even when the third best batsman wicket-keeper in the side, Craig Kieswetter, played out a maiden and then got bowled – leaving us 0-1 after the first over. It’s not like we have a history of losing these types of games. We all just imagined the defeat to Holland at Lord’s and the loss to Ireland when...
Good day or missed opportunity? day one at Lord’s
South Africa 262-7 I really must stop sitting on the fence. It’s not me. Having failed miserably to take sides in the Kevin Pietersen debacle, I now can’t decide whether England have had a good day or a bad one. Does that make me indecisive? I can’t decide. On the one hand, we should be pleased because England are still very much in this game. Bowling South Africa out for around 300 (as seems likely tomorrow) is a good effort for a four man attack that hasn’t been firing on all cylinders all...
Back for good?
The worst kept secret in English cricket was revealed on Sunday. Ravi Bopara, a man that polarises opinion in the same way as a Ramprakash or Hick, was recalled to the test side in place of Jonny Bairstow. But in the words of Gary Barlow, a man with no relevance to cricket whatsoever, will Ravi be back for good? This is a golden opportunity for Bopara to cement his place. He’s been in great form with the bat (and also with the ball) in recent weeks, and there are no real contenders for his spot...
First impressions of the 2012 Aussies
“Five more pies please” – is it just us, or has Shane Watson put on six stone? It’s obviously still early days in the ODI series against the Canary Yellows, but we’ve seen enough to make some sweeping and probably inaccurate generalisations. So here goes … First of all, it appears that we’ve still got the wood over them. There’s something about our swagger. In the 1990s you just knew from the way Matthew Hayden ate his gum that the Aussies were going to win. With every...
