Posts Tagged: Joe Root

1The Ashes urnJob Done — England Take a 2–0 Lead

Published by & filed under The Ashes. Last updated .

Job done. Aus­tralia thrashed.

They didn’t really have the answer to the com­bined hero­ics of Root (massive cen­tury and a couple of handy wick­ets), Bell (a very import­ant first innings ton with a decent half cen­tury in the second (although he should have been out, caught, on 20-odd) and Swann (9 wick­ets). It has to be wor­ry­ing for the vis­it­ors when their second best play­er, Wat­son, is hav­ing his tech­nique exposed by the Eng­land attack in a big way – he was yet again a LBW vic­tim today.… Read Full Article

0The Ashes urnSecond Ashes Test — Walking in a Yorkshire Wonderland

Posted by & filed under The Ashes.

There’s not much to say on the last couple of days – basic­ally Eng­land have ground Aus­tralia into dust. That’s my sum­mary. Eng­land lead by 566 runs with wick­ets and time in hand. Pretty comfortable.…

Instead I’m going to con­cen­trate on today’s hero, Joe Root.

“I were chuffed to bits”…so said Joe when asked to reflect on his stu­pendously good ‘mega ton’ he scored today. I was rather happy too.… Read Full Article

0The Ashes urnHeart attack beckons after nervewracking finale

Published by & filed under The Ashes. Last updated .

WOW!!  What a match. Gran­ted the shock­ing umpir­ing decisions (when you include 3rd umpires) per­haps made it a little closer than it should have been (although both sides suffered) but what a fant­ast­ic advert YET AGAIN for test match cricket.

Going into this series it looked like it was going to be hard going for Aus­tralia. On paper only three play­ers, at best, would make it into the Eng­land start­ing XI from the Aus­trali­an squad – Clarke, Wat­son and Siddle. Few people gave them a chance.  But through some hero­ic dis­plays they proved that, when it comes to the Ashes at least, as a team they are great­er than the sum of their indi­vidu­al parts.… Read Full Article

0The Ashes urnDays Two and Three — A Right Old See Saw

Published by & filed under The Ashes. Last updated .

I was so incensed last night at England’s abil­ity to snatch defeat from the jaws of vic­tory by fail­ing to bowl a debut 19 year old num­ber 11 rab­bit out (helped by an appalling umpir­ing decision) and then their per­fect fol­low­ing of the script by los­ing two crick­et wick­ets in reply (note again – appalling decision) that I was unable to put key­board to laptop.

It looked that today might a have been a second day of radio silence but Eng­land man­aged to dig deep and loc­ate some so far as of yet reserves of guts and bottle (Ander­son aside). Well played to Cook and to KP for some decent con­tri­bu­tions but espe­cially to Ian Bell. I’ve been one of his harshest crit­ics of late – but only because he hasn’t been weigh­ing in with decent scores when they mat­ter. But today it was time to step up to the plate and he did so, ably assisted by Broad at the oth­er end.… Read Full Article

0Traditional Spirit of CricketWhere’s the spirit of cricket?

Posted by & filed under Uncategorised.

So we’re only x days into the ICC cham­pi­ons trophy and there have been 2 very dis­ap­point­ing incid­ents involving play­ers in the tour­na­ment, one on the pitch and one off.  Whilst crick­et has had issue with gambling related cor­rup­tion (e.g. Han­sie Cronje or the Spot-Fix­ing scan­dal from 2011) the game has a repu­ta­tion for good spir­it and hon­est play between play­ers.  Are these recent events a sign that times are chan­ging, or are they merely an unfor­tu­nate blip?
… Read Full Article

0England v New ZealandEngland vs New Zealand: Second Test, Day 5

Published by & filed under Test Cricket. Last updated .

And so it happened.

Eng­land wrapped up a con­vin­cing vic­tory thus tak­ing the series 2–0. It was all a little too easy. Only the weath­er could have saved New Zea­l­and from cer­tain defeat. It rained, but just not quite enough, and Eng­land stepped up to the plate and showed their true class.

They are a far bet­ter side than New Zea­l­and and they proved it. The bowl­ing attack in par­tic­u­lar through­out the series have per­formed very well although the Kiwis’ attack hasn’t done too badly either.… Read Full Article

0England v New ZealandEngland vs New Zealand: Second Test, Day 2

Published by & filed under Test Cricket. Last updated .

First off a great big cherry bun with extra icing con­grat­u­la­tions to my fel­low York­shire lad Joe Root for his maid­en cen­tury. Joe – who even went to the same school as me and my fel­low author of this web­site (King Ecg­berts in Shef­field) – simply oozes class. Bar­ring injury he’s going to be an Eng­land fix­ture for many years to come.

But Joe aside there has to be con­cern at the form, or lack there­of, of the Eng­land top order. And ques­tions need to be raised for a team with designs on the World num­ber one test rank­ing.… Read Full Article