Here’s something to take your mind off the horrors of Perth for a moment.
Sachin Tendulkar today recorded his fiftieth test century – not that it’s likely to prevent India’s impending defeat to South Africa at Centurion.
What an extraordinary achievement. Can it ever be beaten? And without taking anything away from Sachin’s brilliance, would he have scored quite so many centuries if he’d played his home tests on pitches outside Asia?
Day four at Perth (well an hour of it, anyway)
I’m sure you don’t want to read about England’s predictably meek surrender in Perth this morning, so let’s talk about something else. I quite like speculating about Perth’s long-term sustainability as a city. Apparently, water shortages in the Western Australian capital are now so severe that the city might have to be abandoned in the next twenty years or so. Hallelujah! England might not have to play in this God forsaken town much longer. England were bowled out very quickly this morning (it...
Day three at Perth
Stumps: England 81-5 and 187. Australia 268 and 309. Oh Christ. That last session has changed everything. Until then, this was a competitive, scrappy match in which Australia held the edge, mainly because their tail had wagged after a first innings batting collapse, while ours had not. We’d done pretty well to restrict them to a second innings 309, on a decent pitch – with only two of their batsmen making scores. Set 391, we were still heading for defeat – but probably not by...
Pie-chucker makes the critics eat their words
It has taken me forty eight hours to find the willpower to write something about events at Perth. I’ve been avoiding the Ashes since the first session of day two. I even avoided the news channels in case there was a sports update. And I’ve particularly avoided tattoo parlours that specialise in ridiculous and effeminate cherry blossom designs. The reason, of course, is that they remind me of Mitchell Johnson. I could write something balanced and insightful about the third test but that’s not my...
Day two at Perth
Stumps: Australia 119-3 and 268. England 187. I hate to say ‘I told you so’, but… It was obviously all too good to last. And impossible that England would go through an entire series in Australia without a day like this. The big question is – how many more will there be? As now seems obvious, we became a little too over-excited after Adelaide. That result was rather an exaggeration: we are neither quite so good, nor Australia quite so bad. Remember, they bested us for...
The catches of Collingwood
Colly’s amazing catch today underlines his status as the best England fielder for a generation – and perhaps one of the greatest catchers the game has ever known.
The Daily Telegraph lists five of his most remarkable efforts, including this ripper off Matt Hayden in 2005:
