Roar Rookie
Joined February 2012
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I like Tim Bresnan and Alastair Cook. "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail" "Never let your schooling get in the way of your education."
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The fact is simple: England need to win this match to retain the number one Test ranking. If England don't win, South Africa will…
The Sri Lankan Test cricket side have won only one match since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. Their highest-ranked bowler is the left-arm spinner…
The West Indies have taken out the second match of the one day international series in the Caribbean, comfortably defeating Australia by five wickets.…
As usual, the already slow Arnos Vale pitch slowed down in the second innings. But as the history of match results attests, teams still…
note to my editor “Ravi Bopara (six-foot-eight; born in 1985) is a talented but under-performing batsmen who routinely plays one shot too many.” – I wrote that Ravi is 5’10”. If Ravi is 6’8”, then I’m a Keynesian.
Thumbs up to my editor: “The Fonz now routinely bowls over 145km/h” – that was a good change from “Finn now routinely …”.
Bresnan the obvious choice for England's critical game
What do you thinik of the way he bats? Based on his technique, he looks like a proper batsmen. We only see 2-3 Country Championship matches on Sky Sports in the UK. I can’t remember seeing him bat for Yorkshire in a first class televised match. I have vague memories of him hitting a 50 in a domestic one-day match as a 16 year old.
Bresnan the obvious choice for England's critical game
“There’s also apparently a basketball team on the Gold Coast, although like all Australian basketball teams, its existence has yet to be independently confirmed.” – nice piece of wit. 🙂
Time for the Gold Coast to give up on sports
LOL re “This is to be verified.” but the fact that “everyone” knows that about Wikipedia makes people skeptical of all sources and that is an EXTREMELY good thing. This “due diligence” is why Australian banks did not fail in the financial crisis. The Australian public know there’s no bank deposit insurance from the government and thus Aussies watch their banks very closely and thus the banks take far fewer risks because there’s no moral hazard caused by the government trying to take the risk away by promising bail-outs. Forgive my digression on to Austrian School (eg Ron Paul and Peter Schiff) Economics but I am praising Australian common-sense here. 🙂
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
@Lolly I fear Dave Warner and Michael Hussey (if he’s playing) … but not against Graham Swann. A BIG reason to pick an offspinner such as Swann is that he has a bowling average of under 23 against the lefties.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
@Ian Adelaide might not be a spin friendly wicket but it’s less unfriendly to the spinner than it is to the seamer/swinger. Good place to play 2 spinners: Monty and Swann. Due to India’s refusal to play under it, Australians have yet to see the full impact of DRS making the playing of spin far more complicated especially for those players who don’t use their feet. We should see yet another Clarke masterclass of footwork-based batting against spin in the upcoming test series against West Indies … if Narine gives the IPL the elbow in favour of test cricket against Australia. Here’s hoping the Australian board pays Narine to play against them. If Australia want to be number 1 again, they need to test their players against the best opposition possible.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
Swann’s record is good against Australia when it counts eg The Oval in 2009 and Adelaide in 2010. The games when the spinner is expected to win the match. The rest of the time, he bowls quite economically, scores runs and he catches at slip. Swann doesn’t need to be good when the conditions favour Anderson, Finn, Bresnan and Broad.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
@Johnno England rarely play in the subcontinent and after Nov & Dec tour of India, they don’t go to the subcontinent again untill October 2015. 2013 is New Zealand away and home and Australia home and away. Via a process of elimination and set cycles, I reckon that England will play Pakistan and India at home in 2014 then go to South Africa in 2014/15. NB: The Ashes were brought forward to avoid clashing with the world cup in aus in 2015. It’s now very easy to remember: Every odd year is an Ashes year.
The Ashes being brought forward means more money for both sides and a bigger chance of England winning because the next 3 series [2013 in Eng, 2013 in Aus, 2015 in Eng] should all happen b4 Swann retires. He’s now 33. The next ashes after 2015 is Nov 2017 where Swann will probably be too old but Monty [4 years younger] might still be around.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
I’m gonna be writing a preview of the 2nd Test on Sunday [UK time]. There are two facts: (1) England MUST win to retain #1 status, (2) Stuart has left Sri Lanka due to injury. In hindsight, his carried ankle injury is why he bowled so many no balls and why Finn should have played in his stead.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
“Like” = read. 😉
Also, I don’t dislike your article. I’m neutral on it.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
“over the British in Galle.” – Strictly, the team should be referred to as “England and “Wales” because it’s the “England and Wales Cricket Board”. Scotland have thieir own national team. I think it should be called England and Wales inorder to give the Welsh some love. The most recent proper Welsh players being Robert Croft and Simon Jones. Robert Croft onced said that playing for Glamorgan is like playing for Wales.
Sri Lanka break home test drought
@JJ, England can’t play quality spin but, fortunately, Australia can’t bowl it. 😉
Sri Lanka break home test drought
Americans hold their knife in their left hand because it was seen as less threatening in wild west saloons. Also when cutting a piece of meat, all the fork hand is doing is holding the meat still while the knife does the delicate part.
Do right handed American surgeons hold the knife in their right hand? 😉 I hope so.
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
From Wikipedia “Cross-dominance, also known as mixed-handedness, mixed dominance, or hand-confusion, is a motor skill manifestation where a person favors one hand for some tasks and the other hand for others. For example, a cross-dominant person might write with the left hand but throw primarily with the right. Ambidexterity is a well-known but rare variant of cross-dominance, but cross-dominant people may also be left or right-handed rather than ambidextrous.”
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
Some cross-dextrous players playing now: Michael Clarke is lefthanded and bats tophanded. He throws and bowls left-arm. Michael Hussey throws and bowls righthanded. Dave Warner is also righthanded and he bowls legspin. Narine bats lefthanded. The left-arm spinner Samit Patel bats right-handed.
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
This is discussed on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
I think there’s a term called “cross-dextrous” in the case of Stuart Broad but he might just be a righhanded top-hander. Michael Clarke might bat righthanded because his boyhood hero was the righthander Michael Slater and he wanted to emulate him.
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
I’m trying to remove this comment of mine beause someone else made the same point. It has now been replaced with this.
The weird world of ambidextrous Test cricketers
It’s been suggested that Ireland play in the county championship but one of the Irish higher-ups has stated that they wouldn’t be able to pay their star players (the ones now playing county cricket eg the O’Brien brothers and Boyd Rankin) the going rate. Their star players are professionals after all.
It’s a real shame. Truth be told: Ireland would probably beat Bangladesh in a test match.
Sacked Eoin Morgan belongs in Irish cricket
Australia didn’t win in India for ages until 2004 when they had Michael Clarke. The reason why England won’t drop any of the top six is that there are not the players to come in. We have nearly 3 XIs worth of bowlers but not the batsmen. Maybe we could poach some more from South Africa.
7 Bresnan, Samit
8 Broad
9 Swann, Monty Panesar, Scot Borthwick
10Anderson
11Finn, Onions, Tremlett, Dernbach
Looking back on Jayawardene's day out
Jayawardene is good in England which is where I’ve mostly seen him play.
Looking back on Jayawardene's day out
“Like” = read it not agree. 😉
Lee is poor against England in test matches. If Australia had a good 6th bowler then Lee could be accomodated on his off days.
Wiickes are very important in ODIs and I’d say that when Lee takes a wicket, it slows the run rate for the bowler at the other end who bowls a better length than Lee. Lee’s pitch map is like a garden path whereas McGraphs was like a Newspaper sized puddle.
Brett Lee: Drop the man, and the chainsaw
Actually thinking about it, Kallis did badly against Australia when the were good. He’s no Graham Thorpe. I’m dropping Kallis from my all-time 11 and replacing him with Wally Hammond. I have Sobers at 6 to be a fifth bowler so I don’t need Kallis.
I have the suspcion that Kallis’s stats are padded by runs against the weaker teams. A bit like Sir Everton Weeks.
I can’t pick a great player in a helmet over one that didn’t wear one. Also, Tendular’s stats need to have matches in the sub-continent stripped out. In the past, Tendular has done well against the good teams outside of the subcontinent.
Alastair might end up scoring more test match hundreds than Tendular. He’s 26 and he already has 19. 3 short of the England record.
Windies hammer Australia to level ODI series at 1-1
Was Dravid a walker?
Rahul Dravid - cricket's consummate gentleman