For all his ups and downs across the series, the captain has given his teammates fresh bravery and beliefThey say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. It took Ben Stokes so many more than that to get here, to the fifth day at the Oval, England captain, 2-1 down in the Ashes, 50 or so overs left to go, Steve Smith in, and his team still needing seven wickets to level the series.All those matches he has played, for schools, clubs, county and country, through the age groups in Christchurch and Wellington and Cockermouth, for Cumbria, for Northern Schools, for Durham’s academy, their firsts and seconds, for England’s Under-18s, Under-19s and Lions, T20, Test, and ODI...
The least Bazballish player ultimately saved this summer of high-stakes jeopardy for the Stokes-McCullum experimentAnd so as England’s cricketers looked back across their trek through the endless Bazball summer, as they peered more closely at their moments of most profound struggle, adversity, and almost chucking it away like a bunch of Jägerbomb-sodden teenagers, they noticed that where there were previously 22 footprints in the sand, in those moments of greatest tension there was only one. Yes, England cricketers, the Spirit Of Cricket answered. That was when Chris Woakes carried you.Well, that was unexpected. Of all the turns and twists, the throbbing narratives available to this epic Ashes series, to England’s moreish, thrilling, occasionally infuriating attempts to reinvent how this austere...
Tony Gustavsson was keen to focus on the numbers but it is hard to explain how Australia were so improved against CanadaThe Matildas coach, Tony Gustavsson, is a maths teacher by training. It shows. Even on the biggest night yet in the history of Australian women’s football, when his team had just demolished the Olympic champions, Canada to progress to the round of 16 at a home World Cup, Gustavsson finds comfort in numbers. Which is how he found himself in the bowels of the stadium after the match, reciting statistics.“Since we played Canada last time, we have won 11 out of 13 games, including five against top-ranked opposition,” Gustavsson said. “We scored 33 goals and conceded eight.” He proceeded...
A paragon of preternatural talent and preparation, the Hawthorn and Sydney great was pure theatre on a fieldLance Franklin quietly announced his retirement on Monday, a few weeks shy of the end of his 19th year in the league. His retirement one of the few things in football he seemed unable to control.Nevertheless, he handled it with class and in good grace. Franklin is not a passive-aggressive nurser of hurts, nor is he one to seek outside affirmation. He is a footballer with nothing to prove, having achieved nearly every football accolade that matters. And more than that, on the field he was theatre. Continue reading...
After spending the third day sleepwalking round the Oval, Australia grew more decisive before the rain stopped playIt should have been too much. Five Ashes contests, six Test matches, just over seven weeks, right at the tail end of all, a visiting team that was done. The Australians had spent the third day groping around the field like sleepwalkers headed to the fridge who ended up in the laundry closet, and early the next were set 384 to win. England had enjoyed the emotional burnish of Stuart Broad’s retirement announcement, having been given the entire third evening and fourth morning to polish the idol.Australia played ball, lining up in a guard of honour as he came down the steps to...