Tuesday, February 9, 2010
“It’s a lack of respect for Test cricket. It’s disappointing that the captain of England decides to have a rest from a Test series, I can’t comprehend that… I hope they are not taking Bangladesh too easy because they can be quite strong” – watch out folks, here’s Shane Warne back at his post, fighting the Ashes air war on Ricky Ponting’s behalf. Stand by your beds!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
“England’s players are like the planets of an orrery: when one is passing close to the sun and in decent nick, another will inevitably be orbiting on the dark side and struggling for form – and so the cycle continues with each passing series. The planets will need to be perfectly aligned against the Aussies, or England could get buried” – Ben Dirs reflects on the series for BBC sport.
“[Sunday's play] ended a dreadful series for Pietersen – though Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior have fared equally poorly with the bat” – BBC match report. Hmmm. And what do those four have in common?
“I’m going to score my maiden test century tomorrow… you heard it here first” – the irrepressible Graeme Swann, ever the optimist, on Twitter last night.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
When England are experiencing bad times, such as the current bloodbath in Johannesburg, your correspondent finds it very, very tough to keep listening to the radio commentary. This might hold equally true for television; we can’t comment on that since we follow our cricket on the radio. But for the last couple of days the radio has been off.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
“I am in Parktown a kilometre away from the Bullring and it’s not raining. I call this witchcraft by the Poms” – a BBC Live Text contributor from South Africa commenting on the apposite appearance of rain during the Fourth Test. Mate, if we could command supernatural forces, we’d be using them to get the ball to turn. Or maybe to help Daryl Harper locate his glasses and his hearing aid.
“It was a moment too perfect. The sun had just come out, the openers waded purposefully to the crease and the Barmy Army had just timed the climax of an unusually tuneful rendition of Jerusalem with expert precision. I love that moment in a Test match – the fielders getting into position, the confident rehearsal of strokes – whatever the state of the pitch – by the batsmen, the brief unity they enjoy as teammates, before splitting off and undergoing one of the greatest individual tests of character in sport. Then Dale Steyn shattered everything with the first ball of the match” – Rich Abbott writes from Johannesburg for The Corridor blog about the first few moments of a particularly horrible day for England at the Wanderers.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
“One match to decide the series, on a pitch that rules out a draw, in the most antagonistic stadium in the country; green grass on the track, thunderstorms overhead and a wounded, hostile opposition ready to throw caution to the clouds. Win, and England will have secured successive series victories over their two biggest cricketing rivals. Lose, and the critical carpers who say they have only been lucky last-wicket stands away from double defeat will be shouting all the louder” – BBC Sport’s Tom Fordyce previews today’s Fifth Test Match in Johannesburg.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
“Nothing Bell endured came close to matching the insane intensity of the confrontation between Steyn and Collingwood. It was a duel every bit as breathtaking to watch as Allan Donald’s against Michael Atherton at Trent Bridge, or Michael Holding’s over to Geoffrey Boycott at Bridgetown in 1981, only not nearly so mismatched. After that encounter Boycott, the most meticulous and scientific of batsmen, was left studying the video footage of the spell, rewinding it over and again to watching it through in frame by frame. He eventually concluded that he was innocent, and that Holding had simply been too fast” – The Spin’s Andy Bull celebrates the return of dangerous fast bowling.
“Stuart Broad has the reddish complexion of a man who grew up holding his breath a lot when he didn’t get what he wanted. I can just imagine the exasperated Mrs Broad wailing at her satanic little son to “just wait until your father gets home”, a threat to which he could gleefully counter with the information that Dad is on tour to New Zealand and won’t be home for months” – Harris Harrison suggests on his blog that maybe Broad Junior needs to be careful where he treads in future, whether the ball is turning or not.
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