If Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse can repeat their MCG displays, this may be more than a marriage of convenienceWhat does it mean? How should we feel? What are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? For most of its combined 142 overs, watching England’s fourth Test victory in Melbourne felt like drifting in and out of a drunken sleep while trying and failing to follow the plot of a particularly gruelling action movie.Why is this car chase happening? Why is The Rock defusing a torpedo inside a collapsing Maya temple? Why are they running to the top of the nearest generic tall building for this final, final, final showdown? Wait. Will Jacks is playing? Continue reading...
[Cricket | The Guardian : Sun, 28 Dec 2025 18:00:13 GMT]
While the Melbourne curator had to face the media and say sorry, some of the players owe him an apology in returnYou know that something has gone wrong when the man in charge of the cricket pitch is giving a post-match press conference. Australian pitches are celebrities in their own right, each with a distinct perceived personality. Perth – gasoline, bounce. Sydney – intrigue, spin. Adelaide – graft, a late finale. Like any possessor of fame who has been around long enough, some trade on past glories that no longer apply, but what those ideas mean to the people repeating them is worth more than the truth itself.Aptly, these celebrities have agents, representatives, fluffers, heading to media appearances before each Test to prognosticate. Where the English grass gaffers are still called groundsmen, clomping around in gumboots yelling at interlopers to get off their giant lawn, the Australians are curators, artfully synthesising the elements of sun and rain and dew and morning mist into something tangible. Their pre-match appearances are oracular, reading the grass clippings like Babylonians did the heavens to say what might happen, to give the mood of the soil, to press one ear to the ground and tell you whether she be restless or still. Continue reading...
[Cricket | The Guardian : Sun, 28 Dec 2025 15:55:17 GMT]
Chasing down a mammoth score unshackles the batsmen.
If the stroke makers keep their nerve to the end, it is a spectacular occasion that is enjoyed by the cricket crowd as boundaries are intermingled with the "will they/wont they" nervous tension of a record run chase.
[Last updated: Sun, 23 Nov 2025 20:06:35 AEDT]
Chris Gayle hit the fastest century in World Twenty20 history as West Indies crushed England by six wickets in Mumbai in 2016. Where does Gayle sit on the list of all time fastest centuries?
In Test cricket, Brendon McCullum broke the joint record of Viv Richards and Misbah with a 54 ball century against Australia in the 2nd Test in 2016.
AB de Villiers took 31 balls to smash the fastest century in one-day internationals.
In T20s, Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton set a new world record with the fastest ever century, taking just 33 balls to reach triple figures and fire his nation to victory over Nepal in 2024.
[Last updated: Sun, 23 Nov 2025 20:04:26 AEDT]
Ricky Ponting and James Sutherland, take note. This story is representative of a growing phenomenon in Australian cricket. It was penned by a typical Australian fan who hits out hard at its current team’s lack of sportsmanship and the resulting drop in interest to follow cricket.
[Last updated: Tue, 07 Oct 2025 03:40:38 AEDT]
The term ‘Match Fixing’ is used as a catch-all for a whole range of things and is usually an inaccurate term as the result of a match certainly isn’t always involved. It is likely to be a particular event, or series of events, within a match which are manipulated rather than an entire match. Are we doing enough to stamp out this menace in cricket?
[Last updated: Tue, 07 Oct 2025 03:39:39 AEDT]