The 2013-14 series left genuine scars in the England team, but there is still a chapter to play out against AustraliaIt seemed too easy at the time. Three weeks ago, Australia’s cricketers lost a Test for the first time in 33 years at the Gabba – deepest, dankest dungeon of the Australian sporting soul, and a kind of mental disintegration portal for meeker, less thrillingly chosen races. So yeah, they got beaten there by India’s B team. But at the end Justin Langer was out in the celebrations looking humble and magnanimous and weirdly invulnerable – all the while wearing that familiar alpha dog, kungfu, zen master smile, the look of a man who, to quote John Updike, has just...
Channel 4’s broadcast was reminiscent of the way the BBC used to do it but that didn’t matter – the cricket spoke for itself‘Ladies and Gentlemen, this is …” Test cricket, finally back on free-to-air TV at the godawful hour of one, two, 3.35 in the morning. For 15 years, four months, and 22 days now the game has been going back-and-forth about whether or not people ought to be able to watch it live on terrestrial television, and here it was at last – for the first time since the end of the 2005 Ashes. Sky, which has held the rights for most of that time, has done so much for the sport, but those opening notes of Lou...
England’s holistic approach towards form and fitness during lockdowns and a hectic schedule is attracting attention from the rest of the cricketing worldTo Melbourne then and the final rounds of the Big Bash. If you’ve been wrapped up in following Test cricket, you might have missed that the Renegades finished last this year, four wins out of 14, a losing streak that has run in parallel with a dismal run of form from their captain, Aaron Finch.His season started with a bang, back-to-back innings of 114, 60, and 75 in the one-day series against India and finished in one long whimper – 18, eight, none, 14, 13, none, 10, four, six for the Renegades, (caught mid-on, strangled down the leg...
Dom Bess and Jack Leach delivered under pressure to bowl out Sri Lanka, but will India’s batsmen be so accommodating?The Test was in the balance early on the fourth morning. Sri Lanka’s openers had rattled off 15 quick runs from the opening overs of their second innings, and their team’s lead was just up above 50. And all the time, in the back of the mind, there was the nagging flashback to all the ham-fisted collapses England have endured over the years, and their early struggles having been set 74 to win the first Test on this same ground in the fourth innings last week. The way Lasith Embuldeniya has been bowling so far this series, you wondered how many...
The spinner received limited appreciation at this stripped-back show but his performance handed the hosts the edgeEven when full, the ground at Galle has rarely been a raucous venue. There’s something about its openness, not to mention the scenery and the sea breeze surrounding it, that gives off a laidback air. Without an obscuring crowd, without an embassy of England fans tooting and swaying through Sweet Caroline, the fort is a particularly steadying sight, its grass-covered ramparts freshly green, its crenellations crisply outlined and overlooked by a benevolent watch tower.Welcome to the austerity games, the stripped-back show that is as far from the crazed excitement of pre-Covid IPL as Quavers are from baked camembert. Related: Majestic Joe Root run out...