3rd Test, Day 2: Steven Finn gains reward from clicking back into sync
Steve Finn has always been a hot and cold bowler. He has spells where he is irresistible and spells where he is unusable. Brad Haddin took to him in his last test – at...
Steve Finn has always been a hot and cold bowler. He has spells where he is irresistible and spells where he is unusable. Brad Haddin took to him in his last test – at...
Chris Rogers is a throwback. A craggy, no-frills batsman who makes runs unobtrusively but incessantly using all his 37 years experience to eke out an existence. He shuffles about the crease and steers the...
They say readers need characters with whom they can identify. Simon Hughes had me at “I wasn’t a good batsman”. These things are relative; he is a former professional cricketer. But even for natural...
Lots of questions. Very few answers. That is the predicament England are in. Three of England’s top four look like sitting targets. Adam Lyth is tense and jumpy, Gary Ballance camped on the back...
Mitchell Johnson’s early destructiveness with the ball yesterday was a classic example of the psychology of sport. The way the mind works to elevate or inhibit performance. Sportsmen perpetually seek the ‘five percenters’, those...
When Steve Smith was brought into an ailing Australian team in 2011 he described his role as ‘to make sure I’m having fun and that everyone else is having fun.’ The fun was all...
(Extract) ‘Watch the ball.’ It’s the first thing they tell you. ‘Why do you think you missed that one?’ the coach says. ‘Because you took your eye off the ball! Watch it all the...
(Extract) I was driving back down the M1 from Trent Bridge in the summer of 2011. It was 11pm. My mobile rang. It was not a number I recognised. ‘Is that Simon Hughes?’ It...
Fielding. A very general word for a very specific set of skills. Through their new coach Trevor Bayliss, England are beginning to really interpret those various skills and significantly improve them. His input was...
Polishing off the tail has frequently been England’s Achilles heel. Seasoned England watchers are perennially exasperated by the inability of England’s bowlers to finish innings off. A four-man attack regularly work their way through...