In two decades playing against England, the opening batsman has rarely faced a bowler as quick as Jofra ArcherAccording to the official statistics Chris Gayle is 188cm tall. These days, when he bends down to touch his toes he seems to feel every last one of them. Gayle made a dip in their direction right before he stepped over the boundary rope at the Hampshire Bowl on Friday, the idle stretch of a man only lately out of bed and getting ready for the day ahead. It was his last half-hearted gesture towards a warm-up before beginning this, his 521st international innings for West Indies, and his last against England unless the two teams play again in the knockout rounds...
In two decades playing against England, the opening batsman has rarely faced a bowler as quick as Jofra ArcherAccording to the official statistics Chris Gayle is 188cm tall. These days, when he bends down to touch his toes he seems to feel every last one of them. Gayle made a dip in their direction right before he stepped over the boundary rope at the Hampshire Bowl on Friday, the idle stretch of a man only lately out of bed and getting ready for the day ahead. It was his last half-hearted gesture towards a warm-up before beginning this, his 521st international innings for West Indies, and his last against England unless the two teams play again in the knockout rounds...
The weather has made its point and in the battle for cricket’s soul rain stands on one side saying this is not a product to be sold by the yardAt one point in his novel Rabbit Is Rich John Updike has his goofy antihero Harry Angstrom staring at the rain through his car windscreen during yet another interminable family crisis, watching the colours wash together on the asphalt, and finding a strange kind of comfort. Updike writes: “Rabbit has always liked rain. It puts a roof on the world.” Related: England chasing 213 to beat West Indies: Cricket World Cup 2019 – live! Related: India and Pakistan in social media dogfight before cricket clash Continue reading...
India against New Zealand became the fourth no-result of the tournament as rain at Trent Bridge prevented any play“What keeps you up at night is the weather or terror attacks,” a senior member of the Cricket World Cup staff told me a few weeks before the tournament. “Everything has been so well planned. If there are no security issues and the weather is right it should be brilliant.”When the World Cup has flourished, it has been brilliant. Take the game at Taunton on Wednesday, which was nearly a classic of the 50-over genre; pound for pound the most entertaining of the tournament so far. The problem is, it fell between two days when not a ball was sent down in...
David Warner and Aaron Finch laid a platform for a huge score but middle order’s failure to capitalise left Starc with work to doFor the second time in two World Cup wins, Mitchell Starc was the saviour for Australia. At Taunton on Wednesday, Pakistan had looked to have no chance to chase 308 when they slipped to 160 for six but from there the lower-order resistance from the captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed, and his big-hitting bowlers Hasan Ali and Wahab Riaz had built momentum. By the time Pakistan needed 54 from 48 balls, with Wahab well set on 39, it felt irresistible.Enter Starc, first tying things up with a tight over conceding three runs, then bursting past Wahab with pace to...