England No 3’s hour-long 18 in Chennai must have been about the hardest little stretch of batting he has had to doIt was a hot, humid afternoon in Chennai, the grandstands at Chepauk were empty, but the atmosphere in the middle looked close and claustrophobic. England were 241 runs ahead, but you would never have guessed it from the way the Indian fielders were buzzing. Ravi Ashwin had just had Rory Burns caught at slip off the very first ball of the innings, a devilish delivery that drifted in towards his pads, bit, broke back, flicked off the shoulder of his bat, and triggered a first little flush of panic. The wicket begged the question of how many England could...
Pant came to the crease with India in a hole but saw no reason to change his style, and instead briefly bent the game to his willAt the start of the 30th over of India’s first innings Jofra Archer went round the wicket to Rishabh Pant, mixing things up for his first go at India’s left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman. But he got his line wrong, sending his first delivery across the 23-year-old – who got the slightest of contacts to send it down the leg-side for four – and then overcorrecting, sending his next wide and straight, and Pant stretched to club that one away for four more. A spell was broken, and suddenly runs gushed off the bat like steam from...
The story of England’s first two days in Chennai is the story of one man, and how the score, the bowler, the day, and possibly even the year, faded into irrelevanceIt’s 2016. Joe Root is batting against Pakistan at Lord’s. The score is 114 for one. The runs are flowing. Everything works. Yasir Shah strays on to his pads and Root lap‑sweeps for four. The crowd purrs appreciatively. For Root, at this moment, Test cricket feels like the easiest game in the world. The next ball is tossed up invitingly outside off stump. “That’s 50,” Root thinks to himself, a split second before launching into a slog-sweep that flies off the top edge and is caught at midwicket.It’s 2021. Root...
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...
A meeting of the two best sides in the world is a rare treat in these straitened times and should be enjoyed while it lastsThere has been a lot of talk about what to do about the inaugural World Test Championship, which was originally established as a way of attracting casual fans to the five-day game by repackaging it in a simple, easy-to-follow format. So, let’s see how that’s going.As a result of the pandemic, standings are now being calculated on points percentage rather than points total. Australia top the table on 82.2%. New Zealand are on 62.5%, but will hit 70% if they beat Pakistan 2-0 in the series that starts on 26 December. Which means that in order...