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Category: Features
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 22:11 |
Pakistan's swing bowlers were the highlight of the first day of the first Test against Australia at Lord's today, dismantling the Aussie order to the tune of 229/9.
The two Mohammads - Asif and Aamer - each bagged three wickets in cloudy conditions that gave them protracted swing all day.
Asif, however, bowled perhaps the finest over of swing bowling I've ever seen. It was the 44th of the innings and it netted him two key wickets to tear the heart out of the Australian batting...
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Category: Features
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Thursday, 01 July 2010 23:38 |
I initially compiled this article yesterday and was about to save it when an earth leak tripped the power. I lost everything. I couldn't face rewriting it and in a rage stormed off to watch a rerun of Gran Torino.
Clint Eastwood is the Sulieman Benn of cinema. Grumpy as all hell. Just wants okes to piss off and leave him alone. Y'know?
Anyways - this article would have been 24 hours more relevant had I not lost it yesterday, but the theme remains as contemporary as the moment it occurred to...
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Category: Features
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Wednesday, 30 June 2010 00:10 |
South Africa completed their thorough dismantling of West Indian cricket early on the morning of Day 4 of the third and final Test in Barbados, winning the third Test by seven wickets and the three-Test series 2-0.
When added to their wins in two T20s and five ODIs it represents a rich haul on this tour of the Caribbean, yet it's all a little hollow.
I'm happy about it - don't get me wrong - but I feel like the big kid who's pleased with himself for taking the candy away from the little one...
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Category: Features
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Tuesday, 29 June 2010 00:01 |
Has Paul Harris become superfluous to South Africa's needs over the course of one Test? The evidence seems to suggest so.
He has been comprehensively out-bowled by Johan Botha in the Test series against the West Indies - Botha has only played one Test to his three, yet already has two more series wickets.
Writing this at the end of play on Day 3, with South Africa pushing for victory in the morning session of Day 4, Botha so far has match figures of 7/90. Harris, by contrast, has taken 1/77...
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Category: Shorts
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Sunday, 27 June 2010 23:22 |
England beating Australia in any form of cricketing competition is usually enough call the OBE engraver into premature action, whilst a series win gets the Buckingham butler busy.
That should have been the case for England on Sunday when they won the third ODI against Australia at Old Trafford to seal the series with two games to go.
Their dominance over the Aussies in the World Cup format has been absolute in all areas. There should have been heralds, town criers and unabated man-joy.
Were...
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Category: Shorts
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 23:39 |
Far be it from me to bring up The Pollock Era, stirring faded nightmares and running goosepimples of horror up your arms, but a reflection on bad things past often provides illumination on matters present.
I do not recall Shaun Pollock's reign as captain of South Africa with any amount of fondness, as two images dominate any related memories: a ginger head in pale hands as the rain poured like tears from the eyes of Duckworth and Lewis in that ill-fated 2003 World Cup campaign; and any given...
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Category: Shorts
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 00:58 |
The West Indies did their level best to hasten the death of Test cricket in St Kitts today with one of the most fantastically turgid batting displays I've ever had the misery to endure.
On a dead pitch, voluptuous with runs and pregnant with possibility, Shivnarine Chanderpaul managed to score just 16 in the morning session of Day 4, which itself yielded only 39 runs. Dwayne Bravo scored 53 runs but took 215 balls to do so, despite it being practically impossible to get out.
The Day 4 run...
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Category: Shorts
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Sunday, 20 June 2010 23:21 |
South Africa would have been satisfied to have scored three centuries in a declared first innings of 543/6 in the second Test against the West Indies in St Kitts - until the Windies proved it wasn't exactly a rare, monumental feat.
I started penning this piece roughly two minutes after the dismissal of Brendan Nash for 114 off 148 balls, courtesy of an AB de Villiers moment of magic in the field, with the score on 372/3 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul still at the crease on 121*.
In case you were...
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Category: Previews
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Written by Luke Tagg
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Thursday, 17 June 2010 17:43 |
Having lost their last eight games against the touring South Africans (two T20Is, five ODIs and the first Test) the West Indies have one last chance to salvage their miserable summer in the second Test, which begins in St Kitts on Friday.
Unless they can seriously up their game - or catch the Proteas fat on football - they will lose the Test series as well and be facing the rare prospect of losing every single game of a home tour.
Pakistan recently got whitewashed in Australia, but they were...
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