I see James Hildreth is retiring at the end of the season. Described by Justin Langer as "an extraordinary talent" and given our lack of batsmen in recent years, it really is a bit of a headscratcher that a player of his calibre, with a First Class average of 41, was never given the opportunity to show what he could do at the highest level. A credit to Somerset and a credit to the game.
According to reports there will be no Ashes Test in August next year for the first time in 139 years. Surely the ECB aren't doing this because they want all the England players to be available to play in their precious comp can it?
That might or might not be the case but I doubt that those England players will be playing in the Royal London and the other by product of doing this is that it will be almost certainly set in stone from then onwards that no Test cricket will be played in August. It is too good an opportunity for the ECB not to set it as a precedent.
Weeks and weeks of hot dry weather come to an end just in time for the Lord's Test starting tomorrow, when yours truly is going. Back in 2019 I experienced a complete washout day at Lord's, I'm not overoptimistic that tomorrow will be much better...
The rest of the Test has better weather for a few days, but train strikes on Thursday and Saturday and a Tube strike on Friday...
In the new lower Edrich. Far nicer than the old one of course, but the cover would have been handy! Very humid, don't fancy Crawley to survive very long...
In the new lower Edrich. Far nicer than the old one of course, but the cover would have been handy! Very humid, don't fancy Crawley to survive very long...
Enjoy! I'm in the Grandstand this Friday for a change up
Ngidi is playing a game of "who blinks first" with Crawley - hanging the ball out there. Eventually, he will give Crawley one to drive that probably won't be quite there to do so. Will Crwley take the bait though?
Ngidi is playing a game of "who blinks first" with Crawley - hanging the ball out there. Eventually, he will give Crawley one to drive that probably won't be quite there to do so. Will Crwley take the bait though?
Of all our batsmen, Crawley needs to work on his red ball game the most - he's been poor all season and averages 24 in the CC. For that reason, England could have selected him for the Lions game against South Africa and that might have given him a bit of much needed confidence. Instead they allowed him to warm up for the Test series with a bit of "see white ball, hit white ball".
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Interesting that the part time spinner Markram was the pick of the Saffer bowlers
The rest of the Test has better weather for a few days, but train strikes on Thursday and Saturday and a Tube strike on Friday...