It’s been a long time coming and there were questionable claims that it had arrived at Lord’s, but has Jimmy “in the form of his life” Anderson finally located the form of his life?
I was just thinking, Graham Onions having provided the early inroads, that it was time for Jimmy to get in on the act and suddenly, [...]
Entries from July 2009
July 31, 2009
Ashes update, third Test, second day lunch: Jimmy Anderson finds his form of the series
July 30, 2009
Ashes update: Knackered Shane Warne has reason to be grateful to the tooth fairy
As Sky’s introductions for the third Test on the wetlands in Birmingham got under way this morning, I confess that I couldn’t quite decide which had had the more work done on it: the Edgbaston outfield or Shane Warne’s teeth.
I eventually decided it must be the latter, for from the mouth of the Aussie former [...]
July 29, 2009
Ashes preview: The Test there is no point in previewing
Shame. I was so looking forward to the third Test with all its ponderables – would Andrew Strauss be punished by the cricket gods for becoming the latest and most signficant Ashes protagonist to question Australia’s aura, would Ian Bell get a run, would Brad Haddin prove misguided in his bizarre assertion that Mitchell Johnson ”is [...]
July 27, 2009
Ashes chat: Troy Cooley – maybe the ECB played a blinder
As we head into another Ashes week, there is a question that I think needs answering.
Is Troy Cooley all he’s cracked up to be?
I ask because all the perceived wisdom is that he was instrumental in turning England’s fast bowlers from also-rans to world-beaters, almost in the space of one series: England v Australia in [...]
July 24, 2009
Kevin Pietersen struck down by the Reverse Sweep Ashes hoodoo
The curse of Reverse Sweep’s Ashes astrological predictions has struck again: having seen off Michael Vaughan and Brett Lee, in association with cricket’s finest clairvoyant, Mystic Mags, we correctly foresaw that Andrew Flintfoff would have injury problems at Lord’s and give the pedalos another workout http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2539980/Fred-on-a-ped-II.html.
We also crystal-balled that Jimmy “in the form of his [...]
July 23, 2009
Ashes comment: Those Kevin Pietersen replacement operatives in full
The pundits have been racing to their lap-tops since the news broke of Kevin Pietersen’s exclusion from the rest of the Ashes, throwing out so many names about a possible replacement that we would need a whole series of rings to contain them.
But we know that the only man who will be stepping into KP’s enormous [...]
July 20, 2009
Ashes update, second Test, final day: History made thanks to Flintoff and the flying fish
An England victory at Lord’s – especially over Australia – is about as common as a force of giant flying squid terrorising the California coast http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/17/giant-squid-attack-san-diego-divers. But when both happen in the same week, you know you are living in fairly special times.
And with a perfect sense of timing, it was Freddie Flintfoff who inspired [...]
July 20, 2009
Ashes update, second Test, final day preview: England’s doubts are creeping in again
It’s self doubt time again. Andrew Strauss somewhat gave the game away with his spontaneous huddle shortly before the new ball was taken. It might have looked business-like and determined but I think Australia will have taken a lot of comfort from it.
What England may have taken comfort from is Australia’s desire to come off [...]
July 18, 2009
Ashes update, day 2, close: Are Australia the new England and is Jimmy Anderson really that good?
Falling to well-set fields, wide long-hops and ill-advised bravura pull shots, only one possible conclusion can be drawn about the second day’s play at Lord’s: Australia are the new England.
For there was a wholesale dereliction of duty in the tourists’ batting ranks on a par with what England supporters have grown used to in recent [...]
July 17, 2009
Ashes update, day 2, lunch: Ponting’s innings Rudi interrupted
Do two wrongs make a right? In the hands of Rudi Koertzen they probably do.
There was no way on earth that Ricky Ponting was caught at first slip by Andrew Strauss, although the ball did rebound off his pad to be well clutched by the England captain, but he almost certainly was leg-before, which is [...]
