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Tag Archives: Kevin Pietersen
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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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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Bully for Brendon
I (Martin) write this blog a day after England have beaten Australia in the first game of the 2015 Ashes competition. A few months ago, the sentence “England have beaten Australia in the first game of the 2015 Ashes competition,” although (almost) … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, New Zealand
Tagged Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum, Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Kevin Pietersen, The Ashes, Theodore Roosevelt
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Heee’s Baaack!
Kevin Pietersen—the perennial thorn in the flesh in English cricket, the man whom everyone thought we’d moved on from, the busted flush, the bloke from a bygone era, the no-longer-under-consideration-under-any-circumstances chap—refuses, like Freddy Krueger, to go away. He’s just scored … Continue reading
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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Let’s Talk about Kevin
One of the many consequences of England’s collapse to the Australians this winter has been the enforced retirement for playing for England of Kevin Pietersen, one of the most successful England batsmen ever. He’s only 33, has three, perhaps four, … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, IPL, One-Day Cricket, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged Andrew Flintoff, Ian Botham, Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Johnson, The Ashes
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Farewell King Kallis
First there was Rahul Dravid (in 2012); then there was Ricky Ponting (2012); and then Sachin Tendulkar (2013). Now Jacques Kallis—the greatest all-rounder of his generation—has retired from Test cricket. Tendulkar (15921), Ponting (13378), Kallis (13289), and Dravid (13288)—giants of … Continue reading
Jonathan Trott
OK, cricket fans: We need to talk again about Jonathan Trott—and perhaps you baseball fans will have an equivalent player you can talk about who raises the same issues. Jonathan Trott plays cricket for England—both the longest form of the game … Continue reading
Matt Prior—Unsung Hero
Like his teammate Jonathan Trott, England’s Matt Prior is not a sexy cricketer—not least because their stocky, balding frames makes them character-actors rather than leading-man material on the cricketing stage. True, Prior’s not as dour and workmanlike as Trott; but … Continue reading
Posted in Cricket, England, India, Sri Lanka
Tagged Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Matt Prior
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England Trounce India in Mumbai
Having been pummeled in the first Test match in Ahmedabad, England’s cricketers can’t have been too hopeful coming into the second Test match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Not only was Kevin Pietersen, England’s most destructive batsman, utterly at sea against … Continue reading
Right Off the Bat 