Cricket Comment: Reaching Ashes without loss is England target August 12, 2014 A THIRD successive Test victory this week to round off the series and beat India 3-1 at the Oval would be a terrific way for England to cap a transformative few weeks, but it’s not vital. Defeat would puncture a fragile feel-good factor that has developed, but a draw would still be enough to take [...]
Cricket Comment: England still facing uphill task to win series July 31, 2014 IMPRESSIVE though it was, yesterday marked England’s first victory for almost a year and talk of them now steamrolling India and winning the series is premature. Positives weren’t hard to come by, though, so let’s enjoy those first. Alastair Cook got big scores and won the match, and nobody is questioning his captaincy skills. He [...]
Spread betting on cricket July 24, 2014 IT’S NOT a great time for England captains at the moment. Steven Gerrard retired from international football duty earlier this week and now a large number of cricket fans wish Alastair Cook would do the same. Cook has been in woeful batting form of late, a 45 against Sir Lanka back in early June the [...]
Cricket Comment: Fear of failure crippling England means selectors must break cycle July 22, 2014 I DON’T want to hammer England’s selectors. They generally get it right. There is a huge gap between county and Test level and not everyone is able to bridge it, yet they tend to choose well. But they really must grasp the nettle right now and remove captain Alastair Cook. England cannot get any worse. [...]
Spread betting on cricket July 16, 2014 ENGLAND’S five-Test series against India is finely poised after a draw in the opener at Trent Bridge last week. Ahead of the second Test at Lord’s, Sporting Index have priced up a huge range of cricket markets. Cricket and spread betting have always been a match made in heaven and it really is the most [...]
Cricket Comment: Confident Stokes can relight England’s fire July 8, 2014 ENGLAND may go into today’s first Test against India reeling from a first home series defeat to Sri Lanka but I strongly fancy them to come out on top in the next five matches. The climate could dictate whether we get a result at Trent Bridge, but if either team wins then it’ll be England, [...]
Cricket Comment: Anderson ideal man to step in while Cook given a break June 25, 2014 HE MIGHT insist that he wants to carry on and fight for his place, but repeated failures with the bat and his inability as a captain to avoid a home Test series defeat to Sri Lanka mean that scrutiny of Alastair Cook’s place in the England team just won’t go away. If he won’t step [...]
Cricket Comment: Defeat a very big reverse for coach Moores June 24, 2014 IT WAS a shame England got so close to a draw in the end, but when you are 57-5 against that Sri Lankan bowling attack then defeat can come as no great surprise. Sri Lanka aren’t a bad side, but in home conditions England’s recent track record is top class – they’ve taken apart Australia [...]
Cricket Comment: Cook faces axe if skipper can’t make big score June 17, 2014 IT MIGHT have been an agonising margin that separated England from victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test this week, but now the dust has settled it’s time to look at what went wrong. The biggest disappointment for the hosts was the performance of the opening batsmen, on what was a batter’s pitch at [...]
Cricket Comment: Plunkett and Robson primed to shine in England auditions June 10, 2014 ENGLAND’S first Test against Sri Lanka tomorrow at Lord’s may be their debut five-day outing under new head coach Peter Moores, but it is two other men who will be in the spotlight. Middlesex batsman Sam Robson is set to win his first cap and open the batting with captain Alastair Cook, and you have [...]