England Scrape Home

England beat Ireland by a mere 2 runs in a rain-shortened thrller in Belfast, having posted a mere 203/9 from their 50 overs. Oddly enough, Owais Shah saved the day by taking a best-ever 3 for 16 after Trent Johnson had embarrassed England’s batsmen, claiming four wickets (including Trott and Bopara for ducks). Australia will [...]

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The Bell is Back

Ian Bell will definitely start the Third Ashes Test at Edgbaston, after England opted not to call up a replacement for the injured Kevin Pietersen. Bell hasn’t played for England since February, when he was part of the touring side that collapsed to 51 all out against the West Indies in Jamaica, and the lack [...]

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England vs Australia: Test Series Preview

Unless you’ve been hiding away in a University tower for the last couple of months, it can hardly have escaped your notice that the Ashes starts tomorrow with the First Test in Cardiff. England’s fans (and some sections of the media) seem to have suffered a bout of collective amnesia (or perhaps repression), with the [...]

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England’s Squad for the First Ashes Test

England’s selectors have announced their 13-man squad for the First Ashes Test at Cardiff, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is mainly for Graham Onions – his performance against the West Indies (as well as a strong start to the season for Durham) has seen him included, and also for Monty [...]

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Mr Pot – have you met Mr Kettle?

Shane Warne, hair-loss expert (“The decision for me to do something about my hair loss was simple… I didn’t want to go bald“) and sometime soap star, thinks Ravi Bopara is “too worried about how he looks” to make an impact on the Ashes. The Ashes phoney war, it seems, is well and truly underway.

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England vs West Indies: One Day Series Preview

England fans who have handed over £45 to watch England versus the West Indies at Headingley (or up to a whopping £66 to watch the Second ODI at Bristol) may be, how shall I put it, a little disappointed that they will see neither Andrew Flintoff nor Kevin Pietersen. They may also be less than [...]

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England vs West Indies: Second Test Preview

Given that the West Indies, and Chris Gayle in particular (although it’s not entirely clear whether he was misinterpreted or not), have more or less said that they don’t want to be in England, the home side’s convincing win in the First Test is looking a little less impressive. The Second Test is England’s last [...]

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Bopara does well, others not so much

Ravi Bopara grasped his chance at number three with both hands whilst all others fell about him. Strauss (who was crowned England’s best player of last year before the start of the match) made just 16; Cook did his usual of getting in and getting out; Pietersen was out first ball as his disappointing IPL [...]

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England vs West Indies: Test Series Preview

After a brief interlude which many of the players involed spent playing (or bench-warming) in the IPL, England and the West Indies go toe-to-toe for the second time this year with the Test series starting tomorrow. The Windies, of course, were hastily lined up as replacements for first Zimbabwe (who were banned from touring the [...]

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England’s World Twenty20 Squad

England have announced their squad for the summer’s World Twenty20, having trimmed their initial 30 down to a more manageable 15: Paul Collingwood captains the side, somewhat suprisingly given his previous reluctance to do so, and the fact that he stood down as One-Day captain a mere nine months ago. Cynics may also suggest that [...]

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England’s squad selection

After all the speculation about whether Bell, Key, Shah or Vaughan would be England’s number 3 batsmen against the West Indies, the collective gasp from the nation’s cricket writers was almost audible even outside of London as none of the aforementioned candidates even made it into the squad for the First Test. Ravi Bopara is [...]

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England’s IPL ‘stars’

There was much excitment in some quarters when it was announced that English players would be available for the second season of the IPL, and Chennai and Bangalore alone spent $3m between them on Flintoff and Pietersen respectively, but how have England’s IPL stars got on so far? Andrew Flintoff showed his quality against Bangalore, [...]

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