Very underrated player over his career. Very good record in all formats and stylish batsman.
And a guy who clearly enjoyed his cricket.
I think it was the2015 New Zealand tour to England which led to a series of slightly shocked sounding interviews of England players saying “They really enjoy playing cricket! It’s definitely changed our attitude”.
Which spoke very well of NZ and raised some rather melancholy questions about the England set up.
A low scoring thriller in Cape Town - India 223 to SA’s 210 in the first innings; India now 43/2. The sort of match in which 60 from 200 can win the game. SA really can’t be fancying batting last though.
This one quite the catch-fest, as 19 of the 22 outs so far have been on catches.
And all 20 India outs were by catch.
We’re away in the 5th Test, rescheduled from Perth and played in Hobart for it’s first Ashes Test, with a pink ball and a very, very green pitch.
Root wins toss, decides this is the best Headingley pitch he’s seen in yonks and bowls. After 9 overs of mainly play and misses AUS are 2-7 with Warner neatly caught by Crawley at 2nd slip for a duck. Then Crawley grasses Labuschagne with a chance that Root would probably snared at 1st. Then Khawaja nicks off Robinson to Root.
Can see AUS being bowled out for under 120.
Sam Billing’s is the new ENG keeper.
Was originally to leave the BBL and fly back home to prepare for WI but with a call-up due to injuries found that he needed to drive for even longer by himself down the east coast to join the squad. Cap #700
I should probably go into the office today, I can watch the match from the balcony, it gives a lovely view of the pitch.
Aw, dude
I am generally done with offices after the last two years, but I would definitely make an exception for a situation like that.
The only problem is I’m not a huge watching-tests-live fan, too slow-moving.
From a wonky 3-12 AUS through Labuschagne, Head and Green launch an effective counterattack that sees them at 5-215 after 52 overs at tea.
Head gave no chances, wasn’t technically correct but fortune favours and his attitude and application was precisely what was required in the circumstances.
From being the last picked he now has delivered two hundreds and a fifty at times his team needed runs quickly to press home advantage. He’s done good.
FAir enough - it looks like a stately progression towards the win is underway just now?
Yes, they’ve turned the match back round. Seeing a lot of angry comments about teh “rain” that stopped play - if this was the one day in 10 years or however long that you got to watch a Test in Hobart, you’d be pretty miffed to see it stopped for a few raindrops.
You know who else took a wicket on his last ball in Test cricket?
Sir Richard Hadlee
Its a great day out at a ground though. Food, friends, and sometimes you can even glance at the game.
Well, looks like I’ve left it too late anyway 
Labuschagne getting out was almost comical. Green looks a different batsman to the first few Tests and Head looks a different batsman to the last few years.
More random questions and musings about cricket
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If the stumps are down after a failed run out or stumping attempt, and the batters keep running, what would the fielders aim to for a direct hit? Would they have to aim for the other wicket with the stumps intact? I assume it’s rare, but both sets of stumps could be down after 2 failed attempts. Also, what if 1 or 2 stumps are still standing, but the bails are off? Could the fielder still try for a direct hit on the standing stump(s)?
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I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Kapil Dev, and noticed that almost 2/3 of the tests that he played ended in a draw, including 7 of the 8 he played against Pakistan. Was something up with the weather in those days?
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I was watching the Under-19 World Cup opening match, and Australia has an ambidextrous bowler. Does he have to let the batter know, in advance, which arm he will bowl from? They probably explained it on the broadcast, but I missed it.
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Can someone explain why a batting side would choose a light roller over a heavy roller before batting? Wouldn’t the latter always produce a better batting surface?
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Why is there no DRS in the BBL? Makes no sense since the tv broadcast technology already seems to be able to do it.
Kapil played 29 tests against Pakistan. I see you are looking at the 8 tests he captained in. I was a wee lad at the time (okay tween and teen) but without checking the scoreboards, my recollection i
- India were good at batting
- India were not very good at fast bowling. Apart from Kapil himself they were terrible. After the spin quartet retired, they weren’t particularly good at spin bowling either
- Pakistan were very good at batting against spin
- Over rates were slow and there were no penalties for that, nor minimum overs to be bowled
- Matches were played in the winter and bad light often ended play early, so even if there were minimum 90 overs they’d never get them in
- Pakistan vs India in those days was war by other means and both teams adopted safety first measures almost all the time. Batsmen left EVERYTHING outside off and down leg.
- Both teams had some all-time great blockers who took great pride in grinding down the bowlers with hours of defense.
Ah, yes. Thank you.