Richard Dickinson - ARTICLES

This week we look at several assorted ODI records, such as the highest all-out score, the shortest victorious first-innings and the early high-scorers.

This week we look at the Test-playing dynasty, Australia’s ODI wicketkeeper-non-openers, and the ups-and-downs of Australia’s Test team.

Sri Lanka all-rounder Chaminda Vaas announced his retirement from Test cricket late last month bringing an end to his 15-year test career.

OK, so we’ve come down to a nice’n’simple equation: there’s one Test remaining; if England win it, they win The Ashes; if they don’t win it, they lose them. So now’s the time to pick the best team, and hang the future.

This week we look at the duckless sequences, the rain rules, the long runs of toss victories and losses, Mahendra Dhoni and his strokeplay, and more.

This week we look at the instant half-centurions and their fates, the long sequence of failing to convert, and some handled-the-ball questions.

This week we look at the wicketkeeper who never got anything, the twin seven-fors, and a lot about hit-wickets.

It didn’t take long, did it? The teams were relatively evenly-matched for the first couple of days, and some England fans continued to allow themselves to be kidded that there wasn’t a lot between them this time around, or even that England had the better combination. Well, after four (or, minus the time lost to rain, more like three-and-a-half) days, Australia have asserted their familiar superiority and England their familiar inability to produce their best so long as the opposition comes from Australia, regardless of how good the actual players are or aren’t.

When looking back on Michael Vaughan’s career, there are some of the most remarkable high points one could wish to savour. And perhaps a good job there are as well, because it puts to the back of the mind the fact that Vaughan spent a great deal of his career disappointing his many admirers and failing to reach understandably lofty expectations.

One of the relatively few questions – and certainly the most brightly burning – over the team line-ups for the Swalec Stadium Test has been the composition of Australia’s bowling attack. The top seven, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle have had precious few questions asked of their places – their performances have been convincing enough in recent times. Brett Lee’s has emphatically not, though it remained the case that he had plenty of fierce advocates. But on the second day of the game against England Lions, Lee’s high-class bowling essentially assured himself of a berth at Cardiff.