Three-match series starts in Adelaide on Thursday and is a rare chance to test 50-over tactics before World Cup next yearLike many a distressed film protagonist, you could fall to your knees and lash the heavens with the eternal question: why? When you look at this week’s 50-over international series between Australia and England, with the first match in Adelaide coming four days after England sealed a 20-over World Cup title in Melbourne, it is puzzling to see the supposed pinnacle of one format followed by the pedestrian in a slightly different variation. Australia did need to play a series against England for Super League points, to qualify for the next 50-over World Cup – but that series happened back...
Run rate shapes as kingmaker with the World Cup hosts, along with New Zealand and England, expected to bank final-round winsAnd now, the end is near. And so we face the final curtain. A bit dramatic for the end of the group stages of a Twenty20 World Cup, but soon eight teams out of a dozen will be heading home or to their next assignments, thinking about what might have been and the disappointment of what wasn’t. And in Group 1, at least, the matter of which two teams get to stay a little longer will come down to pure and beautiful arithmetic. Arriving at this tournament, England and Australia would have been worldly enough to know that they couldn’t...
A clash of the two old foes in their current state shapes as a struggle between teams looking to emerge from difficultyAs Friday evening approaches, bringing on the middle of the T20 World Cup group stage, the sense increases that this is the contest that both the English and Australian teams have been waiting for. India and Pakistan may have surpassed this rivalry for freneticism, ferocity, and sheer population, as shown by the crowd of more than 90,000 that sold out the Melbourne Cricket Ground for their own group stage bout. England and Australia won’t get quite that many through the gates, but their rivalry will always be cricket’s original. The game is now even spicier, though, by effectively becoming...
The reigning champions are not expected to stray too far from the template that delivered success last year For decade upon decade, Australian selectors have leant to the conventional. Three quicks and a spinner, your best bat is captain, wicketkeeper at seven in Test cricket or pushed up to throw the bat as an opener in the shorter forms. Occasionally circumstances or an unusual player might shift this around, but it tends to quickly revert to the mean. Having George Bailey in charge has led to an occasional willingness to be different. His days as a player and captain showed that, and those days are recent enough that he personally knows the strengths of most current players. It was Bailey’s...
From the moment protesters began marching past the ground on the second day, the hosts took control and never let goSo in the small city of Galle ended a momentous few days on the field and beyond. For Sri Lanka the nation, a popular revolt removed a tarnished president from power. For Sri Lanka the cricket team, a stunning turnaround swept away the visiting Australians to level a Test series. It would be naff to equate the two, but it would equally be naive to discount the broad as an influence on the narrow. Players are people too. For months, Sri Lankans en masse have sweltered through nightly power cuts, daily shortages of essentials and weekly price spikes. Transport paralysis...