Matches (14)
IPL (2)
PSL (3)
Women's Tri-Series (SL) (1)
Women's One-Day Cup (1)
County DIV1 (3)
County DIV2 (4)

The Surfer

England left baffled after three-day win

All presumptions before the Ashes series have been quashed after England's victory at Edgbaston in under three days

Greg Baum, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, paints a descriptive picture of the unpredictability of the ongoing Ashes series so far, and how most presumed results cannot be expected in this series. Australia lost the third Test at Edgbaston within three days, and "the English were baffled to have won, by so much, and so soon".
Bafflement has become this series' factory setting. So many presumptions have been confounded. Australia would be too strong all round? Not so. Momentum matters? Patently not. Winning the toss guarantees victory? At Edgbaston, it didn't. It was not as if Michael Clarke made a maverick decision in batting first; Alastair Cook would have, too. Batting first guarantees victory? Again, Edgbaston explodes that theory.
All is not lost. There is frailty in both teams, which means that history might be defied yet. The loss of Jimmy Anderson, the best bowler on either side in these conditions, is a grievous blow for England. And unaccountably, England continue to offer Adam Lyth as a kind of parliamentary pair for Clarke. On such happenstance do series sometimes turn.
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'Grounded' Sarkar looks to prolong success

Bishwajit Roy of the Daily Star interviews Bangladesh's new batting sensation Soumya Sarkar about his role models, how he is handling the fame at the age of 22, playing under Mashrafe Mortaza, and more

01-Aug-2015
Bishwajit Roy of the Daily Star interviews Bangladesh's new batting sensation Soumya Sarkar during one of the rain breaks against South Africa. Sarkar talks about his role models, how he is handling the fame at the age of 22, how his family has always supported him, playing under Mashrafe Mortaza, and more.
My aim is to play for Bangladesh for a very long time, at least 10-12 years. I know I will have to work very hard for that. I was getting a lot of starts since the World Cup, but I couldn't convert them into big knocks. Finally, I managed to break that pattern and make some big scores. That was due to two major reasons. After reaching twenty runs, I put more value on my wicket and became more selective with my shots.
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'Teams in this era find it hard to play from behind'

A round-up of opinion and analysis after England beat Australia by eight wickets inside three days at Edgbaston

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Baum writes that while it may not be easy to predict the result of the upcoming fourth Test at Trent Bridge, he says the result of that match - like the other three in this series - will be known early in the contest.
Anticipating Trent Bridge, we can be certain that the result will be counter-intuitive. It has been that sort of series. But what should we intuit? That it is Australia's turn? England's pattern this summer has been win-loss-win-loss-win-loss, and now win. Oddness prevails even in this detail. Australia scarcely has been a model of consistency, winning five of 11 Tests in the last 12 months. So another reversal stands to reason. Or should we think that England now has not just the lead, but a road map and Australia's measure?
We can presume that the result will be known early. It has in all three Tests so far; the team that has taken the initiative on day one has dominated. Cricket teams in this era find it harder than ever to play from behind. They do not know how to pause and neutralise a match. They are trained and tuned to press on, even to their own certain ruin. The arrival of Ian Bell at the crease on Friday heralded an instance of this syndrome writ small. Bell drove five fours from the first nine balls he faced from Mitchell Starc, who kept bowling him balls to drive. From the 11th, he was dropped.
Barney Ronay, writing in the Guardian, says how well England leave the ball in the last two Tests could determine whether they win the Ashes.
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The best cricketer not to play a Test?

In an obituary in the Telegraph, Scyld Berry gives a detailed description of the playing days of Clive Rice

Scyld Berry, writing in the Telegraph, pays tribute to Clive Rice in a moving obituary. The former South Africa captain died aged 66 in Cape Town after suffering from a brain tumour. Considered one of the greatest cricketers of his generation, Rice led South Africa in their first three ODIs after isolation and Nottinghamshire to the County Championship.
His career fell exactly into the period when apartheid South Africa was banned from the international scene. It is no exaggeration to say that Rice could have been bracketed with the four great all-rounders of the 1980s - Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev - if politics had allowed.
Growing up and playing for Transvaal, he started in the hardest school in South Africa. Rice would take the new ball, bowl rapid outswing with a searing bouncer, and fitted into "the mean machine" as Transvaal's pace attack was called.
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How would Bradman fare in the big bat era?

Writing in the Hindu, Greg Chappell wonders how Don Bradman, the greatest of them all, would have tackled modern-day cricket

If Bradman had been born in the current era, he would have been stronger and fitter as a full time player, and would have had the same opportunity of playing on smaller grounds with more powerful and forgiving bats. Against that, he may not have had the variety of stimuli that kept his mind sharp. Let there be no doubt: it was his mind more than his talent that put him in a class of his own.
Two statistics separate him from the rest. He started innings better and he made a higher percentage of big scores per innings than everyone else. Without that, he would not have averaged nearly twice as much, as most other legendary batsmen
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Ben Wheeler, from the backyard to the big stage

Ben Wheeler, the 23-year old New Zealand fast bowler, speaks to Mark Geenty at stuff.co.nz about how backyard battles with his two brothers helped him on his path to becoming an international cricketer

26-Jul-2015
Ben Wheeler, the 23-year old left-arm fast bowler, made his ODI debut for New Zealand in June. He is the youngest of three boys, all of whom played age-group cricket for Central Districts and one of whom later went on to become a Super Rugby title-winner with the Highlanders. Speaking to Mark Geenty at stuff.co.nz, Wheeler remembers old backyard battles and looks ahead to playing more international cricket.
"Yep, there was plenty [of bowling]," Wheeler said as he departed for Africa with the Black Caps. "Being the younger brother, there were always rules made up. I had to bowl this, or had to field there for a certain amount of time. If they couldn't get me out, there was always a restriction on how many balls you were allowed to face. It was always good fun."
Wheeler caught the eye of then-Central Districts coaching director Scott Briasco at age 13, the latter reckoned he was already the complete product with bat, ball and in the field.
Soon he was in the New Zealand team at the under-19 World Cup on home soil, alongside Doug Bracewell, Jimmy Neesham, Corey Anderson and Tom Latham
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The two sides of Jason Gillespie

Talking to Greg Baum, of the Age, the former Australia fast bowler opens up about coaching English county champions Yorkshire

26-Jul-2015
"My job is to help those lads achieve their dream. I don't want to see them play for England and fail." As we talk, involuntary exclamations escape his lips as a wicket falls or a catch goes down; his heart and soul is in this job.
Yorkshire now is as Yorkshire long ago, winning, and almost entirely home-grown. He can list without looking it up the birthplace of everyone in his squad, including two born outside the county boundaries and when they moved to Yorkshire.
He and his wife, Anna, are settled in Yorkshire, the youngest of their four children was born here, and all have Yorkshire accents, which amuses their father. "But they identify very much as Aussies, don't worry about that."
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Cricket's sanctity restored

The Indian media reacts to the Lodha Committee judgment, suspending the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals

15-Jul-2015
Welcoming the suspension of the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, The Indian Express calls the Lodha Committee judgment "a moment of closure that could help reinstate cricket's credibility".
By basing the quantum of punishment solely on the codes and rules of the BCCI, the Lodha panel has held up a mirror to cricket. The tight group that has historically rallied around its own has been told that rules shouldn't just be followed in letter, but in spirit, too. This is a reminder that checks and balances do exist, but motivated overwriting or selective punishment can defeat the most complete constitution. The BCCI has got a public shouting for ignoring cricket's inner voice.
The Hindu says the punishment handed out by the committee "ought to be welcomed by cricket fans and all those who cherish the game's purity", and holds that concerns about players having to bear part of the punishment for team owners' misdeeds are misplaced.
Punishing teams for misconduct is nothing new in international sport. The scandal that rocked Italian football in 2006 led to even a top team, Juventus, being relegated and stripped of two titles. Mr. Lodha has made it clear that the spirit of cricket is larger than any individuals or franchises, or financial losses. In any case, the BCCI has the option to hold a fresh auction for the Chennai and Jaipur franchises, or let the affected players be bought by other teams.
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Plans come together for captain Cook

England's victory in Cardiff has put them 1-0 up in the Investec Ashes and it also unleashed a wave of positivity in the media

Even if he did not excel with the bat here, this victory was a personal triumph for Cook as well. He has become the face of England's fall from grace in the last two years, widely pilloried for his caution as skipper and blamed for England's decline.
But Cook has also been liberated by the influence of Farbrace and Bayliss. His field settings were aggressive and imaginative during this Test. England came into the match with plans for each batsmen and Cook and his bowlers stuck to them. They were disciplined and they were patient.
During England's struggles, in particular the 2013-14 whitewash, Cook came in for heavy criticism as a leader. Steve James, in the Telegraph, suggests that while a lot of this was misplaced now was time to single him out for praise. The wicket of Brad Haddin, caught spectacularly by Cook at short midwicket off Moeen Ali, was one of the "sweetest" moments of the Test:
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Stuart Broad, England's warrior

Stuart Broad became England's highest wicket taker in the fourth innings of a winning Test, and was one of the decisive forces plotting Australia's undoing in Cardiff

12-Jul-2015
In his column for The Telegraph, Jonathan Liew heaps praise on Stuart Broad's strong character and calls him a player who can with The Ashes by himself.
He has been an England player for almost nine years now, and in that time he has been pounded, pilloried and parodied. He has been barracked by an entire nation and bashed in the face, and along the way has bowled more balls in international cricket than anyone apart from James Anderson. And yet he has emerged from it all - not stronger exactly, but still standing, still undeterred. Which would be commendable enough in itself. The thing is, Broad also wins cricket matches. It was easy to overlook amid the surgical genius of Joe Root, and the warm tummy-rubbing glow of England's win yesterday evening, but Broad had another outstanding Ashes Test.
After England's emphatic win over Australia in Cardiff The Guardian's Barney Ronay describes how Broad has found his form and is fast becoming a decisive part of Australia's downfall.
Most compelling of all was Broad's duel with David Warner, a pedigree attacking opener but a man in need not just of a way into this series, but of a start in England, a method of playing in a country where he averages 22 after six Tests, against 46 elsewhere. England won here in part because they batted with new-found brio and aggression. But also because of the same-old same-old, England's most prolific fast-bowling pair performing as required in occasionally helpful conditions. That it was Broad rather than Jimmy Anderson who produced the decisive spell on day four might have come as a surprise to some. On a day of passing cloud and tepid high summer heat, Broad bowled with wonderful urgency and precision, in the process turning this first Test decisively England's way. There is an ease to his approach at his best, this great slender conifer of a man leaning forward at first, ears pinned back, then gradually, almost bashfully unfurling himself to his full height at the point of delivery. Not so much a wrecking ball, he was instead a relentless, suffocating presence running in from the Cathedral Road end.
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