Ed Hawkins is on hand with betting angles and all the action from the second Test 18.54 England 152-4 CLOSE A late flurry of wickets for the Kiwis - nightwatchman Sidebottom was last out - enlivened a rather quiet day. It was pretty dull stuff from England and all we would have needed to drift into a fully comatose state was for Paul Collingwood to sleepwalk out to the middle. He may be a decent one-day cricketer but recently Colly hasn't been able to muster a shot in anger. I don't know whether he has kids, but if he does he won't have trouble getting them off to sleep. All he would have to do is get padded up in his whites and go into his stance. They'd zonk out in no time. I'm off for a lie down now with images of Colly batting in my head.  read more »

Just before Day One: England vs New Zealand 2008 : Second Test Match

The Pitch is all green and England have picked two of their fastest - Broad and Anderson in place of Harmison and Hoggard. I am in complete agreement with this move. To use a greentop, you need enthusiastic young players who are green enough to get fired up by a challenge. If I have any reservations at all, then it is Hoggard. But how would you fit him in as the fourth seamer? England will need all the batting they can muster here for the Kiwis are pecking and have brought in Gillespie for the greentop.  read more »

The in-form man of Indian cricket Sourav Ganguly leads his Kolkata team out against Dravid's Bangalore in the opener of the IPL but who should your money be on?

So the jamboree is upon us. Six weeks of giddy hitting, pumping music and throbbing hype. Any ad breaks will be entirely superfluous as the entire event is one long commercial opportunity, a parade of India's political and sporting wealth and power. Rather like a trip on a new and dangerous roller coaster, many who saw the brochures and thought it would be exciting are now having second thoughts. As we get closer to the thing itself, the sheer scale of the enterprise and the long, long shadow it is starting to cast over cricket is becoming clearer. It could all end in disaster. Then again, it could change cricket forever.  read more »

We expected England to lose. They’re an insipid outfit at the minute. We didn’t expect them to get thrashed though.
And they were thrashed. Getting bowled out for 110 is never too smart, but on this pitch it was jaw-dropping. Don’t let New Zealand’s 177-9 fool you. Runs were the only commodity they were interested in [...]

Andrew Hughes puts a a fair few of England's recent problems down to the absence through injury of Andrew Flintoff but just how fit is he and what role will he play for England should he return?

Two issues will define this English summer. There is of course, the long shadow cast by the IPL and its implications. But just now, something even more significant is exercising the minds of everyone in English cricket: when's Freddie coming back?

The man whose warrior-like performances defined the summer of 2005 has been missing for months and England are a different team without him. His was the pivotal role; an aggressive and accurate strike bowler and a punishing lower order batsman whose personality was central to the ethos of the team. So often his big-hearted performances determined the tempo of the game and hauled England to victory. In his absence, they have lacked punch (and I don't just mean of the rum variety). His return would bring instant balance to a misfiring outfit.  read more »

Brendon McCullum recently found his feet. Now he’s putting them to good use.
If you’ve read the page we just linked to, this might sound kind of familiar. This is the Test version of that post.
Brendon McCullum’s had 52 Test innings. In his first 45, he managed two hundreds and six fifties. In his last seven, [...]

With the help of Brendon McCullum’s 158* and some excellent bowling, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Bangalore Royal Challengers by 140 runs in the inaugural Indian Premier League match.
Rahul Dravid’s decision to bowl first backfired as Bangalore Royal Challengers lost wickets at regular interval against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Earlier, Brendon McCullum hit a blazing 73-ball unbeaten knock [...]

IPL 2008: Match One: Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders Demolish Bangalore Royal Challengers by 140 runs

Is this the biggest margin in T20?  read more »

Well we’d probably only have a go if England’s batsmen had got themselves out playing aggressively - let’s say that. We’d have bemoaned their lack of application and their inability to read a pitch and react accordingly. We’d have wondered where the old-fashioned virtue of patience had gone.
We are wondering where that most modern of [...]

Some thoughts on today's first day at Lord's: Well the rain came but it went away by lunchtime, so those of us at Lord's got to see just over 50 overs as New Zealand reached 208 for six. At 104...Patrick Kidd