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The Big If For The West Indies

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:21:41 +0000

From Andrew McGlashan, reporting on a strong day for the Windies against the Lions:

If Kemar Roach, Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul can be given decent totals to bowl at West Indies could provide stern opposition…

Much of the series, then, will depend on Darren Bravo and Shiv Chanderpaul. Two good reasons to watch.

Relive The 2005 Ashes

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:15:24 +0000

I saw this documentary on television once and then spent years on the Internet trying to find a copy (mostly for the Stephen Fry commentary). There are great cameos from Mike Atherton (who explains why Shane Warne was so difficult to face), as well as Simon Hughes, whom I adore. There’s also a great dissection of the Warne-Ponting relationship. If you feel any need to indulge Flintoff/Simon Jones nostalgia, or “the swing works the oracle again,” spend the hour-plus watching this:

P.S.: Now that I think about it, the 2005 Ashes aren’t as significant as they were at the time, mainly because of the 5-0 drubbing that followed, but also because England went on to win in 2009 and 2010. Winning against Australia in Australia was monumental, and the hectic, manic Tests of 2005 seem almost amateurish compared to the clinical nature of their expedition down under. Still, watching these Tests is watching something real — the closeness of the games overshadows the guile, strategy and effort; only sheer desperation and human emotion are left.

Paskitan v/s England Test match 2012 Photos

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Paskitan v/s England Test match 2012 Photos

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Ajmal threatens to take Swann’s place as the No 1 spinner in the world

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:48:00 +0000

This may seem a strange thing for an England supporter to write the day after a bowler has just taken seven for 55 against our country, but it just confirmed that we're big fans of Saeed Ajmal here at The Reverse Sweep.

Ajmal adds a splash of colour to an otherwise obdurate and unusually attritional Pakistan side led by the calm and composed Misbah-ul-Haq.

Off the pitch, the ebullient Ajmal understands theatre - one only needs to view his post-match interviews to see that.

He also knows that he has got into the heads of the England batsmen, who simply cannot pick him. As such his pre-series assertion that he had developed a new delivery - the ‘Teesra’ - in part led to the confusion that unfolded in the middle in the England first innings. Shane Warne, who has invented more deliveries than the Royal Mail, would be proud.

Ajmal is a late-developer - he only made his Test debut at the age of 31. But he has proved a quick learner on the biggest stage - perhaps that understanding of theatre - and already has 90 wickets in seventeen and a half Tests at a decent average of 28.

Those figures are impressive enough, but since Misbah took over the captaincy in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in October 2010 and he finally became a first-choice pick, Ajmal has got even better with 60 wickets in nine and a half Tests at 24, with an economy rate of 2.5 and strike rate of a wicket every 57 balls.

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He was the leading wicket-taker both in Tests and international cricket in 2010, and if he continues to bamboozle the No 1 side is likely to usurp Graeme Swann as the best spinner on the planet come the end of the series.

Suggestions that his action is suspect seem like sour grapes to us and thankfully have not been backed up - in public at least - from the England camp. Ajmal is just a damn good bowler who for the England batsmen at least seems impossible to read - an anomaly in this digital ageLet's hope that Ajmal continues to add an unpredictable splash of colour in the spectacle of Test cricket. With Misbah, Younis Khan and now Ajmal all having been bestowed with hero status here at The Reverse Sweep, Pakistan are rapidly infiltrating our minds. That's mastery of vulcan mind tricks that we can also add to Ajmal's arsenal.