Two out of Five not bad

December 31, 2022, 10:17 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

There is an interesting end of year piece in today’s Guardian, their five “Moments” of the cricketing year:

Bairstow goes wild at Trent Bridge, which is actually extended to cover the impact of the new England regime
The conclusion of India v Pakistan in the World T20, notably Kohli’s innings
Charlie Dean’s (Mankad) run-out at Lord’s
Nathan Ellis winning the T20 for Hampshire (twice)
Trent Boult declining a new Central Contract to concentrate on family & franchise cricket

Number 5 is seen as a sign of the times and we all remember number 4 I’m sure. Since Charlie Dean is essentially a Pompey girl who went to my old school (a few years later!) I might be inclined to sympathise but I don’t much, although I loathe the whole business. There are two interesting observations in the Guardian piece: Michael Atherton suggested that if the non-striker stays where they should, “this thing can never happen” while subsequently someone checked the whole innings and worked out that Dean actually encroached on about 85% of deliveries as a non-striker. I bet she won’t do it again.

Happy New Year!