Reason to keep faith?
So for now we’re all wondering whether 260 is a workable first innings total.
And perhaps it’s better than we thought: TFT reader Allan got in touch to flag up an interesting Sheffield Shield match at the Gabba earlier this month. New South Wales made 262 first dig – and won by an innings, after bowling out Queensland twice in a row for 75 and 96.
You can see the full scorecard here.
Fingers crossed history can repeat itself.
Who’s more foolish, the fool or the fool that follows England?
I dislike football analogies, but I’m going to make one anyway. Before the summer’s World Cup people inevitably got caught up in the hype. The press got behind Capello’s boys and thousands of people bought little red and white flags to attach to their cars. 2010 was going to be our year. Football was coming home. However, all the pre-tournament optimism evaporated after 45 minutes of turgid rubbish against the USA. Suddenly people realised that despite the hype, Emile Heskey was still Emile...
Day one at the Gabba
Stumps: Australia 25-0. England 260. Before the start of any overseas Ashes series, buy yourself a cat. It will give you something to kick when you wake up in the morning and see the score. Most disappointing about our first innings total was the relative innocuousness of the Australian bowling. They are essentially the same team as in 2009, and we ought to be able to play this stuff. Overall it was another very English day of batsmen making decent starts but no one able to knuckle down and...
Unbearable hope
It feels a bit like Christmas Eve today. We know that something very important and exciting begins late tonight. It makes us anxious, uneasy, but exhilarated. The clock ticks down towards midnight (or 10am in Brisbane) – slowly but inexorably, each elapsed hour pregnant with significance. Our minds race at the possibilities which await. Tomorrow – or rather, the next seven weeks – could bring us unconfined joy…or terrible disappointment. For an England supporter, this...
Serena Botham – and why Australia will be so hard to beat
I bet you a thousand pounds that Ian Botham’s Sky contract includes the stipulation that he must be referred to, at all times, as ‘Sir’ Ian. How else to explain the extraordinary, forelock-tugging obsequiousness of his Sky Sports colleagues, who are now compelled to defer to him as some kind of feudal overlord. He’s not just ‘Sir Ian’ for formal links and handovers. – but every single reference, no matter how throwaway, jokey, or informal. It must feel...
