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Category Archives: Test Cricket
Baseball and Pythagoras; or, Finger Painting the Word Picture by Numbers
The Right off the Bat (ROTB) project was angled toward the hallowed halls of Cooperstown this week. Since we have rescheduled for 2019 or probably into the 2020s, permit me (Evander), in this our 601st blog and with little else … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Website, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged analytics, BABIP, Baseball Prospectus, Beadle's Dime Base-ball Player, Bill James, Bob Feller, Boston Red Sox, CBA, Chicago Black Sox scandal, contact rate, DraftKing, Driveline Baseball, DRS, ERA+, EVA, exit velocity, FB%, FIELDf/x, gambling, Henry Chadwick, Hot Stove League, ICC, ISO, JAWS, Joe Nuxhall, launch angle, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Players Association, National Baseball Hall of Fame, PECOTA projections, pitch tunneling, Reaction Analysis, Sabermetrics, Scoring Efficiency (SE), Scoring Load (SC%), secondary average, spin rate (SR), Statcast, Steve Pearce, UZR, wins above replacement, World Series
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Ripeness Is All
Relentlessly, the English medium-fast bowler James Anderson is climbing the list of all-time wicket takers (in Test cricket). At the time of this writing, he’s placed fifth (with 544), a mere 19 wickets below the great Australian quick Glenn McGrath, … Continue reading
The Thousandth Test
On March 15 1877, Charles Bannerman and Nat Thomson strode out to open the batting for Australia at Melbourne against an England team, in what is generally acknowledged to be the first “Test” match—a cricket game of two innings each … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, India, One-Day Cricket, Stadiums, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged Alastair Cook, Charles Bannerman, Joe Root, Keaton Jennings, Ned Thomson, Virat Kohli
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A Singed Phoenix
To England fans of many years (such as Martin), the team’s 3–2 victory over the Australians in the 2015 Ashes bears all the hallmarks of a very English success story—partial, inconsistent, worryingly incomplete: the eggiest of curate’s eggs. All the narratives proclaiming a resurgence … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Test Cricket, West Indies
Tagged Alastair Cook, Brendon McCullum, Ian Bell, Johnny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Kevin Pietersen, The Ashes, World Cup
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A Rise from the Ashes
One of the reasons why sport engrosses large panoply of the society is that it mirrors life. People can pick an image of themselves, a person who they think represents them and what they stand for in life and then … Continue reading
The Inside Scoop
Now that I (Martin) have turned fifty, my doctor has advised me to get a colonoscopy, and dutifully I have scheduled one for later in August. At a pre-operation, getting-to-know-you meeting, my surgeon, a dapper gentleman by the name of … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, Pakistan, Test Cricket
Tagged Kevin Pietersen, Shahid Afridi, The Ashes
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England Subside Again . . . and Again
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when England win a Test match against opposition against whom they are “meant” to have lost, there will be much talk of “new beginnings” and “resurgence.” What is less universally acknowledged is that, a few … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, New Zealand, Test Cricket, West Indies
Tagged Literature, The Ashes
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Test Match Special—Voices of Summer
In the last ten years of my life, I (Parth) have been introduced to BBC Test Match Special. The month of May is the dawn of every English summer season. That means the voices of summer will describe the moments … Continue reading
Posted in Cricket, England, Test Cricket
Tagged Cricket, England, Henry Blofeld, Test Match Special
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Move Along, Nothing to See Here. . . .
In 1882, following the England cricket team’s ignominious defeat to a group of plucky upstarts from Australia, an English newspaper, The Sporting Times, published an “obituary” in which it lamented the death of English cricket, and reported that its body … Continue reading
Posted in Bangladesh, Cricket, England, One-Day Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, The Ashes, World Cup
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In the Beginning
To affirm that hope springs eternal, as the thermometer dips to 2 degrees F, a New York City/Right off the Bat HQ record for any February 20, teams are assembling to begin Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues training. Yesterday and today! … Continue reading
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