That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties is, though never irrelevant, a very tired cliché. That Test cricket is the most severe examination a player can get, though not clichéd, is not exactly new. West Indies did learn a new cricketing truth today, however. It is that, even when …
Read More »Best: Will West Indies keel over and die? Holder to the rescue against Root’s rampant England
Conventional wisdom holds that Stuart Broad’s Sunday evening new ball spell killed off the West Indies chances in the Second Test at Old Trafford. The truth, however, is that, had Jason Holder been at the top of his game on Monday morning, he might have found a pulse where the …
Read More »Best: Holder’s West Indies to win the Wisden Trophy? You bet!
I am willing to wager more than a few quid on a West Indies victory. Only a handful of England’s actors (skipper Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad) remain on the 2020 set. But Jason Holder has no fewer than seven of his 2017 West Indians, including …
Read More »Captaincy playbook: Brearley: ‘You need to be both inventive and cautious…’
I had been reading Mike Brearley’s 1985 classic, ‘The Art of Captaincy’, and re-reading ‘Frank Worrell’, by Ernest Eytle. It struck me in both that in a sense, like Richie Benaud, they did not become captains of teams, but rather, they moulded teams out of collections of individuals. In their …
Read More »W/Cup addict comments: Lord’s luck—Pt 3: What care they for cricket who dare not tell England no?
Writing on the same WhatsApp chat as his erstwhile captain, Valentino Singh, former QRC opener Zafar Khan opts not to focus on the tiebreaker and the seemingly unfair outcome. He does not say so explicitly but it is clear that he agrees with Singh about how unsatisfactory the eventual outcome …
Read More »W/Cup addict comments: Lord’s luck—Pt 2; Media, players hit ICC from beyond the boundary
An excellent ESPNcricinfo piece with an Osman Saimuddin by-line headlined “What the luck! New Zealand and the randomness of life” has this to say: You can analyse events down to their minutest detail. This happened because he did this and he did that and next time he did this and …
Read More »W/Cup addict comments: Why the Lord’s luck fell to the English lappe
Yeah, I take the piss out of it all the time. I think I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet. If any of my mates ask on the phone, “What are you up to?” I just say “I’m hanging around, waiting for a bit of luck, mate.” He …
Read More »Fine margins! England’s finest claim first World Cup title in what if final
A yard and a half! Arguably already influenced by a fine, World Cup 2019’s finest hour was finally settled by that fine a margin at Lord’s yesterday; in fact, the official margin of victory was calculated on the countback of England’s 26 boundaries to Kane Williamson’s New Zealand’s 17. On …
Read More »W/Cup addict comments: cutarse trophy for England? S/Lanka, Aussies upset Morgan’s 4-year plan
Lord’s, Tuesday 25 June. Knowing that his team simply cannot afford another slip-up, England captain Eoin Morgan called on his men to “front up for the next game.” The last game was on Friday 21 June at Trent Bridge against Dimuth Karunaratne’s unfancied Sri Lankans. Here is how it, no, …
Read More »W/Cup addict: The major message of Morgan’s massacre: England mean business!
Eoin Morgan’s England hit 25 sixes off Afghanistan! And Morgan alone hit 17 of them. And just four fours! Don’t rub your eyes, there’s no mistake. 4 x 4, 17 x 6! That is what the England captain produced in a blistering, whirlwind of an innings during his team’s 150-run …
Read More »Injury question marks as England down WI to go second; Caribbean Cavaliers in trouble
England duly got past an off-colour West Indies by eight wickets at the Rose Bowl in Southampton yesterday to move to second in the standings on six points from four games. Joe Root hit his second century of the tournament and England lost only Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes in …
Read More »England’s batsmen batter Bangladesh; New Zealand stay on top with third win
Bangladesh captain Masrafe Mortaza should have spoken to Michael Holding before he won the toss and asked victorious England skipper Eoin Morgan to take first strike. “That greenish sheen on the top of the pitch,” the former-West-Indies-pacer-turned-international-television-commentator warned several times during subsequent commentary, “is a mirage.” England shattered all Mortaza’s …
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