It’s that time again — the nights are long, the air is cold, but soon the radio will fire into life and bring the sounds of Australian summer to our ears. Will England come back from the previous whitewash with a win (as they did in 2010-11, or will Australia complete a 3rd whitewash in 4 series. I for one am betting it won’t be a draw!
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Posts Tagged: Graeme Swann
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India take the initiative into the third test
Two tests in, 1–0 to India. England’s poor summer continued apace today with a shocking (sorry, appalling) collapse after lunch today to hand the visitors the initiative going forward into the rest of the series. On current evidence it would be hard to see past India winning the series.
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0England in need of Moore summer class
Apologies one and all for a lack of recent musings – it’s all due to a new arrival in the household which has meant my waking (and sleeping) hours are completely dominated by bottle feeding sessions and nappy changes – yes a little bambino has arrived. Give her about 18 years and she’ll be playing for England.
Anyway; to business.
Well, to paraphrase William Shakespeare somewhat, that was a winter of discontent for England. After pretty inept performances in the Ashes most would have thought it couldn’t get any worse. It did – the humiliating defeat against the Netherlands (even if it was a ‘dead rubber’) proving the coup de grâce. Before and since that final shambolic outing there have been some high profile casualties — gone are coach Andy Flower, middle order mainstay Jonathan Trott and spin king Graeme Swann. And then of course there is the whole saga around Kevin Pietersen. Gloveman Matt Prior will also be nervously looking over his shoulder as others threaten his place in the side.… Read Full Article
0Australia steam on in battle against Proteas
When England squared up to Australia in the last Ashes series I, like many, thought the visitors would retain the urn during the five match series. It was always going to a tougher battle than the summer showdown but victory was expected.
Player for player England were just too strong, weren’t they? At the time, with the standout exception of middle-order maestro Michael Clarke, a combined XI of the two sides would have been dominated by the three lions. Other than skipper Clarke who would have made the combined side? Perhaps David Warner for Michael Carberry? A fit Ryan Harris in for either Chris Tremlett or Tim Bresnan? Certainly the former, probably the latter. A place for Shane Watson? Maybe – but who would he replace? On the face of it, however, England certainly appeared the stronger outfit.… Read Full Article
0Ashes to Ashes, England to Dust
For what I am about to say may I be struck down from above…but I am glad that this Ashes series is at an end. Quite simply Australia have played far better than the sum of their individual parts and England have been, for the large part, absolutely diabolical.
As sure as night follows day the Aussies wrapped up a devastating 5–0 series win, yet again bowling England out for a pitiful total not worthy of an international line up. The visitors now need to go back, re-group and pick up the pieces from this potentially disastrous tour down-under.… Read Full Article
0Graeme Swann announces immediate retirement
Amongst the wreckage of the Ashes tour comes another seismic bombshell — the best English spinner in a generation has handed his ticket in.
Yes it’s true — Graeme Swann has announced his immediate retirement. What a massive loss. Swann was a great player, competitor, fighter and all-round team man. He could even hold a bat the right way round.
Having taken 255 wickets in his test career at a shade under 30 a piece, his record is there for all to see and it’s going to be very hard to replace him. As always with England there’s hardly a queue of spinners banging down the door to take his place in the side. So does that mean we go back to the days of only ever picking a twirler when the pitch suits rather than a first choice?… Read Full Article
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England’s BROADside about resting players
As I sit listening to the T20 freak-show (it marginally beats whatever soap based rubbish the wife is watching) I’ve been contemplating the debate that’s been stirred after England rested five key players for the ODI series.
Captain Cook, Bell, Graeme Swann, Jimmy Anderson and T20 captain Stuart Broad are all putting their feet up and letting a new-look England take on the Aussies for the five match series.
Former Captain Michael Vaughan has had his say and Stuart Broad has fired back. The media have of course jumped on to a healthy debate and stirred it into a bit of a row.… Read Full Article
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Australia hold the upper hand — in a dead rubber match
Two days in and Australia certainly have the upper hand. But so what. The Ashes are won and won pretty convincingly at that. This is a dead-rubber match and is very reminiscent of Ashes series of old when England used to suddenly pull a decent performance out of the hat when the urn was in the possession of the Aussies. Players who time and time again let the team down would suddenly grab a five-for or score a century and their series average to the historic observer would look half-decent.… Read Full Article
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Aussies Tonked — Now to the Future
Firstly an apology for not updating the site much of late – along with the other author for this site I’ve been on a drive through Europe.
We are back now though, so fear not.
So, England wrapped up the Ashes with a barnstorming performance on the last day to well and truly send them packing. A lot has been written already about England’s performance and, in particular, Stuart Broad’s performance. It was excellent, end of.
So I’m going to concentrate on something a little different, a little off-centre if you will.
When Australia were at their peak a few years back (seems so long ago now!) the one mistake they made was not to blood up-and-coming youngsters so they had a chance to experience the highs and lows of test match cricket.… Read Full Article
03–0 to England… what have we learned?
I’ve been away on holiday for the past 2½ weeks and haven’t had chance to write about the cricket. During that time there have been 2 more Ashes test matches and England have extended their lead to 3–0. Having been away from all the talking heads I haven’t heard what they have to say, so here are some of my own thoughts, uninfluenced by the pundits.
“The pink ball appears grey/blue in red/green deficient vision, depending on its severity. I did a simulation with colour blindness…”