Own up, which fool cornered these tigers?
(Lovely to see from Pakistan, this is the good stuff)
Thanks for reminding me. I was busy watching the Solheim Cup. Forgot the cricket had started.
Its alright, not much happened in the first over.
England did manage to win, but it highlights something I’m worried about with Root’s captaincy - i’m not sure he’s very good at it.
I’m patently “old-school” and retentive to boot but calling on part-time spinner Dan Lawrence and otherwise bowling short at the tailenders would seem to lack a strategy to getting a lower order wicket rather than hoping they would sky one and hole out?
And not simply Joe. Didn’t any of the bowling front liners wander over and say “Give me the ball, skip, I’ll knock off peg over right smartly.”?
In preparation for the 2027 Ashes, my cricket club will be undertaking a UK tour.
Tour includes tickets to Day3 at the Oval into the hospitality area which is pretty swank.
Now I appreciate that demand for a Ashes seat would be high for the occasion and theatre. And there are a lot of Panglossian English supporters wanting in on the action. And that UK cricket grounds are set up as postage stamps for spectators (e.g. The Oval holds 27,000. Most Australian Test venues are double or more capacity.) However, the price for the day is 
620. And yet it’s Aussies who get marked down as being the progeny of burglars, pirates and other malfeasants. 
There’s been a lot of muttering in the press over the prices of Ashes tickets next year, actually. Even the cheapest tickets at Edgbaston are £120.
South Africa vs Australia started this morning; Australia won the toss and chose to bat, and are now 95-4. Debutant Maddinson made a 33-ball duck as opener, his partner Head going out for 9. Smith and Labuschagne got starts but now back in the hutch.
In contrast to the eye-wtaering prices and the implied demand for Ashes tickets, the crowd is apparently pretty sparse.
Absolutely massive win for South Africa in the second test, beating Australia by am innings and 31 runs.
Best part if two days lost to rain, amd with SA registering 12 for 2, 40 for amd 126 for 6 the only question seemed to be whether they cluld somehow save the draw. One of the all time great turn arounds.
Truly incredible day of cricket generally.
A great story at PE as you describe.
And two fantastic run chases. A T20 score of 225 by New Zealand was chased down by India, and then an ODI score of 429 by England was overhauled by Sri Lanka.
As much as I love New Zealand and don’t love India, this was just fantastic to watch. The belief that you can chase down such a huge total just blows my mind.
Bad day to be a white ball bowler though.
I found it interesting that no Indian bowler allowed fewer than 40 runs. I’d say this is only possible if a side only uses the minimum 5 bowlers, unless it’s an unfair mismatch of some kind. In my many years of reviewing cricket scorecards, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that. And I assume even rarer is a team winning a T20 with not a single bowler with an economy of less than 10. It’s actually pretty amazing that NZ only scored 225.
I have to admit, when I saw that score my first thought was “that’s really good” and my second was “but India will chase it”.
Totally. And that probably becomes apparent pretty early in the day, so keeping going is an exercise in self-belief/professionalism/bloody-mindedness