As the Ashes moves on to the third Test there is certainly no lack of headlines and talking points. Although the players got an extra day of rest following Australia’s thoroughly dominating victory at Lord’s, the same cannot be said for the media who have written or talked about every way to fix English cricket since Sunday. To be honest, most didn’t wait that long and some merely never stopped since the World Cup.
For all the stories, many of them non-stories, the Ashes carnival picked up its tent stakes and moved north this week from London to Birmingham with the series not over and done, but actually level at one all. Sure, there is no denying that England were absolutely walloped at Lord’s. They couldn’t bowl and when they went to bat, well they couldn’t do much of that either. Australia from the top to the bottom defeated the hosts in every facet of the great game. And now it is merely history. Edgbaston awaits and gives both teams the opportunity to take a firm grasp on securing the urn.
Continue reading
Onward to Edgbaston: The Ashes Third Test Preview
Filed under The Ashes
Video: The Original Trinidadian Mystery Spinner
In front of a packed Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad and Tobago fought their way to a 27 run victory over Jamaica in the first semifinal of the 2015 Caribbean Premier League. With each six struck or wicket claimed, the telecast was quick to cut to the partisan Port of Spain crowd in an attempt to capture their rapturous celebration. Yet, of the thousands in attendance, one in particular stood out amongst the rest: Trinidadian off-spinner Sunil Narine.
Filed under history, Uncategorized, West Indies
Bangladesh v. South Africa: Test Preview
So with most of the cricketing world focused on The Ashes and Lord’s this weekend, it’s a good reminder that there is another pretty intriguing tour going on between Bangladesh and South Africa. The visitors made easy work of Bangladesh in the opening two T20 series matches, winning by 52 and 31 runs respectively. Three ODIs followed and South Africa got off to a red hot start in the first match when debutant Kagiso Rabada took 6 wickets in 8 overs including a hat-trick. Yet as quickly as South Africa started the series, they fell back to earth with similar speed. Bangladesh took the next two matches and the ODI series with impressive skill and win margins of 7 and 9 wickets.
And so here we are on the eve of the first of two Tests. It is going to be a different Protea side than the one that has been playing on the tour so far, with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, and Morne Morkel joining their teammates in Chittagong. It will certainly be interesting to see how those three do having been on a decent break from all forms of cricket for a couple months.
Given that South Africa have been sluggish thus far on the tour, Bangladesh will be confident that their spinners can grab some wickets and put up a good fight against the number one Test team. The hosts are certainly hitting their form and proving to be a challenge for teams in the ODI format. It would be great for not only Bangladesh and their rabid home fans, but cricket as a whole if their good ODI form can transfer over to sustained success in Test matches. The opportunity to prove themselves has arrived with bigger challenge than the Proteas. With a break in the Ashes tomorrow, this should hold over any fan before Australia and England meet again at Edgbaston.
As for a prediction, it seems impossible to bet against the Proteas in this one. They have the depth and the bowling attack to get wickets, but they’ll need better partnerships than they had in the tour’s earlier ODIs. Although a draw in the first Test would not be a shocker to anyone who has watched the impressive Bangladesh side develop over the last 9 months.
Filed under Uncategorized
Live By the Pitch; Die By the Pitch: Australia Seizes Control of the Second Test
Thus far, in this edition of the Ashes, groundskeepers have seemingly gotten more press than any individual batsman or bowler. Much was made of the first pitch in Cardiff—and while it eventually proved to be a surface conducive to entertaining cricket—the claim that England is intentionally preparing slow, flat wickets will only gain steam after Lord’s proved to be even more lifeless than Sophia Gardens.
England, however, were not the beneficiary of the deadened pitch. In a day that saw only a single wicket fall, Australia—who had won the toss and chose to bat first—suffocated any chance of a victory for the home side after a mere three sessions. By evening, the tourists were 337-1, with the loss of David Warner’s wicket attributable to the batsman’s foolish bravado rather than any menace from England’s attack. For Alastair Cook and company, it was, as they say, a bad toss to lose.
Filed under Match Review, Test, The Ashes, Uncategorized
That Ball
In honor of today’s second Test beginning at Lord’s, take a moment to look back at Shane Warne’s delivery to Andrew Strauss during the second Test from the 2005 Ashes series. Part of the beauty of Shane Warne’s wonderball is the build up. Watching him bowl the first ball of the over to Strauss, he seems completely certain he is going to get the wicket on the next delivery. And that he does. An incredible bit of bowling in what is often deemed the greatest Ashes series of all time. Here is to seeing some more great cricket this time around!
Filed under Uncategorized
Kagiso Rabada’s Dream Debut
Following South Africa’s clean sweep on the opening two T20 matches of their Bangladesh tour, the visitors played the first of three ODIs on Friday. For Kagiso Rabada, the fresh-faced fast bowler, this was a record-breaking coming out party.
Photo: AFP
Filed under Uncategorized
South Africa’s Bangladesh Tour Report: T20 Series
Photo: AFP
The Proteas have been on a bit of a cricketing hiatus since their World Cup ended in that exciting semi-final in New Zealand, but the men in green and gold returned to the field this week, playing and winning both the opening T20 matches of their Bangladesh tour in comfortable fashion.
Filed under Uncategorized
Yorkshire Put England Ahead By a Nose
As the old cliché goes: strong Yorkshire, strong England. But on the opening day of the 2015 Ashes, those in attendance at Sophia Gardens were reminded that every tired maxim contains at least a kernel of truth. After a shaky opening that saw England fall to 43 for three after just 14 overs, Yorkshire’s own Gary Ballance and Joe Root stabilized the home side and led a spirited fightback on a slow, plodding pitch, putting England ahead of Australia going into the second day.
Leading up to a series such as the Ashes, simplistic, often misleading narratives abound. However, in the opening session, the match followed the media-industrial complex’s script to a T. Alastair Cook, Adam Lyth, and Ian Bell—all considered enigmas to varying degrees—combined for a meager sum of just 27 runs. English supporters, at first replete with optimism after their side’s swashbuckling performance in the ODI series against New Zealand, grew nervous. For England, the match needed saving.
Cue Yorkshire.
Filed under Match Review, Test, The Ashes
For Posterity, a Prediction
“There is a distinct difference between suspense and surprise, and yet many pictures continually confuse the two.” – Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock may have been discussing the finer points of filmmaking, but he could have just as easily been talking about sport—an endeavor defined by soul crushing anxiety. Yet, of its innumerable permutations, perhaps no sport is better representative of terror in its most distilled form than cricket. And considering that one of Hitchcock’s films uses the 1938 Ashes as a major plot point, who’s to say he wasn’t acutely aware of this fact?
Windies of Change: T20, the CPL, and the Future of Cricket in the Caribbean
In 1963, CLR James predicted the genesis of T20 cricket—or, at least, that the future of cricket lay in the improvisation and controlled recklessness that we now associate with the shortest form of the game.
Eulogizing Wilton St. Hill—a well-known Trinidadian batsman from the 1920s—James recalled the vicious beauty of Hill’s technique. Facing off against a fearsome paceman, Hill “…[w]ith his shoulder well up, almost scoop[ed] up the ball, his body following through almost towards point… hurtling [the ball] over mid-off’s head.” It was a shot that James believed Hill “had never had to make…before in his life.” For Hill, if success “required the invention of a stroke on the spot, invented it would be.” Presciently, James believed Hill’s style was “where a future for big cricket lies.”
Filed under West Indies
From Hyderabad to Hove 