Monday, October 31, 2005

Not Dead, Just Bowling

England's Gerraint Jones reacts to being bowled by...
Arafat, who further taunts the England wickie with merciless sledging.


England's cricket team narrowly avoided embarrasment in Pakistan on the first game of their winter tour- the full match report can be found here. Just how poorly the England batsmen performed can be seen from the following:

"None of the host team's bowlers have been named in the squad for the first Test, but Yasir Arafat and Najaf Shah took seven wickets between them."

It appears that after the brief flourishing of skill, passion, and quality during this past summer's Ashes campaign England are back to their old ways, and can be stopped in their tracks by a spirited performance with the new ball from a dead Palestinian leader.

7 comments:

Joe said...

This tells the tale as well

"Collingwood went for a duck when he under-edged a pull onto his middle-stump."

You know, to an ignorant American who knows nothing about Cricket, the report would have made as much sense if it were written in Sanskrit.

Wisdom Weasel said...

I see what you mean; the exact equivalent in baseball would be the batter striking out after fouling a pitch that hit home plate, causing home plate to fly out of the ground. It doesn't translate, does it?

Mondale said...

It's business as usual then.

Joe said...

No, it doesn't really translate. I've never read an account of a cricket match before. I don't know what it says about me that I found it an enjoyable read despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Wisdom Weasel said...

Mondale- as we both know, they don't travel well, especially to the subcontinent. Gooch once blamed the food.

Joe- I think somewhere in the depths of your vestigial pre-national boundaries part of your brain you indentified the core of cricket for all men, regardless of nationality, traditions, or understanding of the rules; its a great sport for being a layabout (either following it or playing it).

Mondale said...

Whilst the BBC website doesn't often produce classic literature (in any field) it should be said that cricket is one of those sports (like baseball to name another) that tends to breed good writing.
It may be the pace or the nature of the competition or perhaps the brainy swots who watch it. Whatever it is it's the main reason I buy the Daily Telegraph when i'm in the UK.

mj said...

That head-scarf flopping around on his run-up would have been pretty distracting for the English batsmen ;-)

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