Category Archives: English cricket

September 3, 2018 · 10:13 am

Pulsating Test Cricket in England says Joe Root

Vipin Darwade in Cricket Age, 3 September 2018, with this title “India-England series shows Test cricket is alive and kicking”

The hard-fought five-match series against India shows that Test cricket is still alive and kicking, said skipper Joe Root after England secured a 60-run win in the fourth rubber to take a series-clinching 3-1 lead. “I think it’s a really good sign for Test cricket. It shows that for me Test cricket is still alive and kicking — very much at the pinnacle of the sport,” Root said.

“Credit to India — they’ve played some really fine cricket throughout, not just this game but the whole series. It must have been great viewing for people at home to see the way that especially the first game and this one, how tight they’ve been, how it swung both ways.”

Pic from Getty Images

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July 28, 2018 · 7:59 pm

A Miracle at Lords: England Down India in Thriller … Now, Now Where were you Then?

Melinda Farrell in ESPNcricinfo, 24 July 2018, “Where were you?”

Where were you when England won the World Cup?

Where were you on Sunday morning when the queues to get into the ground, half of them women and girls, stretched along Wellington Parade almost the entire way to St John’s Wood station? Were you in the excited, buzzing throng, ignoring the touts? Who could have imagined they would ever hear the slightly seedy muttering of “Buy or sell any tickets? Buy or sell any tickets?” on their way to a women’s match?

 Alex Hartley enjoys taking the wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur AFP

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June 20, 2018 · 7:25 am

Records Galore as England Thrash Australia

George Dobell, in ESPNcricinfo,

England 481 for 6 (Hales 147, Bairstow 139) beat Australia 239 (Rashid 4-47, Moeen 3-28) by 242 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

England thrashed the highest score in the history of ODI cricket to set up the most crushing defeat – in terms of runs – ever inflicted upon Australia.

On the same Trent Bridge ground where they plundered the previous record – 444 for 3 against Pakistan in August 2016 in the most recent completed ODI on the ground – England thrashed 21 sixes and 41 fours in becoming the first side to reach 450 in ODI history. Only once in the 56-year history of List A cricket – when Surrey scored 496 for 4 against Gloucestershire at The Oval  in 2007 – has any side scored more.

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Filed under Australian cricket, cricketing records, English cricket, George Dobell

June 11, 2018 · 4:47 pm

That Ground-Breaking Scotland-England Match: Implications

ONE: The Statistical Story

371 – Scotland’s total, the highest by any Associate team in ODIs.The previous highest was Kenya’s 347 for 3 against Bangladesh in 1997. Scotland’s previous best was 341, against Canada in 2014. In matches between an Associate and a Full Member team, the next highest is Ireland’s 331 for 8 against Zimbabwe in the 2015 World Cup. (Afghanistan made 333 for 3 against Zimbabwe in Sharjah, but that was after they gained official Test status.)

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June 11, 2018 · 4:05 pm

Flower of Scotland down English in Nail-Biting Finish

Peter Della Penna, in ESPNcricinfo, June 2018, where the title is “The Stockbridge soundtrack to Scotland’s sensational Sunday”

Five minutes before the start of play on Sunday morning at The Grange, a bagpiper led the players onto the field. Moments later, the Scotland players cleared their throats to sing “Flower of Scotland”. The consensus amongst local journalists in the media box who had stood on the boundary edge to take it in was that none of Scotland’s 13-man squad was ever going to stand a chance against Paul Potts in a sing-off, let alone any other contestant past or present on Britain’s Got Talent.

But a funny thing happened. As the players’ off-key voices grew louder, so did those of the Stockbridge faithful who had poured into The Grange through the gates off Arboretum Avenue to the east and Portgower Place to the west. The fans didn’t care how they sounded, and the players had sung their last false note of the day. From here on, their willows would produce a melody for the ages.

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May 28, 2018 · 1:53 pm

Al-Jazeera’s Sensation: Two More Presentations

ONE =Sport24: “Sri Lanka suspends two caught in pitch-fixing sting,” https://m.sport24.co.za/Cricket/sri-lanka-suspends-two-caught-in-pitch-fixing-sting-20180527

Colombo – Sri Lanka Cricket on Sunday suspended a player and a groundsman who allegedly agreed to tamper with the pitch to alter the result of an upcoming Test against England, as police launched an investigation into the claims.The Sri Lankan board (SLC) said it had suspended the curator of the Galle International Stadium as well as a professional player, who were featured in an Al Jazeera documentary on corruption in cricket. The board also lodged a complaint with the local police, who launched a criminal investigation into the scandal exposed by the Doha-based television network.

 A View of the Galle Cricket Ground from the Fort -where marriages are made beyond the bed

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May 6, 2018 · 1:09 pm

Dhanasiri Weerasinghe enters the Fray: Stormy Currents in Ceylon Cricket in the 1960s

Sa’adi Thawfeeq, in Daily News 21 April 2018, where the title is “The cricket tour that never took place but changed national selection policy” …. AND where Thawfeeq’s sub-title line runs thus: “Dhanasiri Weerasinghe a key figure in the controversy spills the beans after 50 years

It is fifty years since Sri Lanka first attempted a full cricket tour of England, that failed to materialize for several reasons. Many are of the view had that tour taken place in the summer of 1968, Sri Lanka would not have to wait to gain Test status for as long as 1981 but become a full member of the ICC much earlier.

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Filed under cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketing icons, English cricket, performance, player selections, politics and cricket, Sa'adi Thawfeeq, sportsmanship, Sri Lanka Cricket

February 4, 2018 · 12:36 am

Bodyline Bar Adelaide Oval

Amateur Photographs in bad light while play –on field and in the bar –continued

  Woodful hit by Larwood

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Filed under Adelaide Oval, Australian cricket, Bradman, child of empire, cricketing icons, cricketing rules, English cricket, performance, unusual people, violent intrusions

January 15, 2018 · 5:29 pm

Savin Perera of Middlesex and England U19

Data from ESPNcricinfo

Full name Savin Perera

Born May 3, 1999, Colombo

Current age 18 years 257 days

Major teams England Under-19s, Middlesex 2nd XI

Playing role Opening batsman

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Savin Perera A compact left-handed opener, Perera is strong square of the wicket and elegant all around the ground. He earned his Under-19 chance after impressing as an over-age player in the Super Fours series last year and then seized that opportunity with a good showing on tour in South Africa in December 2017. Perera moved over to the UK from Sri Lanka as a teenager and has since become a regular in the Middlesex 2nd XI side.

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January 4, 2018 · 2:01 pm

Australian Aboriginal Cricket Team vs MCC at Lords 1867

Scyld Berry,  The Telegraph, 3 January 2018, where the title is  “Australian Aboriginal team became cricket pioneers 150 years ago this week

Exactly 150 years ago this week, a team of cricketers were preparing in Sydney for the first sports tour by Australians, and for the first cricket tour to England. Before they set sail on Feb 8, the Duke of Edinburgh attended their practice on a couple of days, although when Queen Victoria’s second son watched cricket, he was normally not amused.

These pioneers were Aboriginal Australians. Five years earlier, they had never seen cricket, let alone played it. Yet they took to the sport with such natural dexterity that when they played MCC at Lord’s, they led on first innings and might have won if two of their players had not been injured.

 The first Aboriginal cricket team outside the MCC pavilion of the Melbourne Cricket Ground -Pic fr Wikipedia

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