Ben and Baz break things
PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be (including your World Cup mailbag)
If Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum aren’t careful, they might just break test cricket.
The temptation was to lead this newsletter with some observations of New Zealand’s one-day series against India, but it ended up being so waterlogged it was tough to draw anything more than the few pithy conclusions below. At any rate, what England did in Rawalpindi last night superseded it.
To quickly recap, England ended day one of the first test against Pakistan on 506-4. That’s astonishing in itself, but when I say “England ended” I really mean “bad light ended…” Played stopped 15 overs short of the scheduled close. If England had continued to score at the rate they had for the last 10 overs of the day (and they were a chance because Harry Brook and Ben Stokes were in the mood), they would have finished the day with 650!
England was faced with a flat wicket - in a test here earlier this year Australia and Pakistan compiled 1187 runs across the five days for the combined loss of just 14 wickets - a lightning fast outfield and a Pakistan attack shorn of its three best bowlers. But even so, this was pure insanity.
Four batters, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Brook, scored centuries, and Stokes finished the day on 34 off 15 balls. The only player to “miss out” was Joe Root (23), who is quite good apparently.
They left 13 balls alone all day. Thirteen. Even accounting for the fact the wicket made it difficult to leave on height, 13 is an incomprehensibly low number for test cricket.
Towards the end of the day, when it became obvious that the light meters would soon intervene, Pakistan captain Babar Azam brought on part-time left-arm spinner Saud Shakeel, who was on debut. This was running the white flag up the pole to an extent, but it was also the opportunity for Brook to “milk” the bowling, ensure a not out overnight and come back today to complete a maiden century. Instead he hit him for six fours in the over and raced to his century in the gloom. Madness.
There has been a lot of talk recently about international cricket’s future as franchise T20 cricket has firmly established itself as the easiest format to attract rich broadcasting deals, sponsorship and private equity.
Test cricket is beloved by purists but seldom draws new fans to the game. Often it gets in its own way with frequent weather interruptions, slow over rates, great players retiring from the format early to cash in and draws.
England under the ebullient Stokes and McCullum have flipped the paradigm, making it clear they see themselves as entertainers first and foremost. They have said they are prepared to lose in order to go for the win. They have shredded years of conventional wisdom by picking players - Liam Livingston and Duckett, for example - based on their white-ball skills.
Nobody knows how long the good times will last, or how many other sides will attempt to copy the blueprint, but for the moment they haven’t just broken Pakistan, they’ve broken cricket.
Meanwhile, in Perth… this is nicely done.
India’s brief white-ball tour ended, suitably, with beanie-wearing tourists looking desperately towards the sky, no doubt trying to find the incoming Singapore Airlines flight that would later spirit them out of a New Zealand “spring”.
Some quick thoughts:
I’m no Jim Hickey, but that felt like the worst November weather I’ve ever lived through. Where I live at least, there have been downpours most days. It’s been monsoonal.
Long periods of poor weather that intrude on the cricket season often bring out the same chestnuts: 1) we need to play under covered stadiums; 2) the umpires and match officials need to do more to keep the players on the field.
1) Covered rectangular stadia are expensive, so I can only imagine covering an oval at a height where the roof wouldn’t keep coming into play would be prohibitive, especially given that the crowds at cricket are typically much smaller than at winter codes. Plus, mastering the changing conditions - light, humidity, wind et cetera - is an inherent part of cricket’s charm. A roof would ruin this.
2) They generally have gotten better at this. There are still head-scratching decisions - the “we’ll stay out in light drizzle, but we won’t return to the field when rain turns to light drizzle” contradiction always gives me the shits - but fast draining and drying grounds have made cricket more playable than ever. There are times, however, when playing in poor conditions doesn’t just compromise player safety, but also just makes for bad cricket.
Sometimes you just have to throw your hands up and acknowledge that cricket might be a summer game, but it can’t guarantee you good weather.
When they did get on the field, New Zealand played some good cricket against what we have to admit was largely an Indian 2nd XI, winning the first ODI and being on target to win the third comfortably.
The Adam Milne-Lockie Ferguson combo might not be sustainable in terms of economy rate, but having raw pace through those middle overs makes ODI cricket so much more watchable, with the prospects of a wicket or a boundary ever-present.
I suspect Finn Allen is going to be a polarising cricketer for fans for many years to come.
Tom Latham’s 104-ball 145 not out at Eden Park was brilliant. Every now and then he’ll pull these super-fluent, perception-altering innings out of the bag. With 19 international centuries he has now equalled McCullum in seventh-equal on the New Zealand list. He's almost-great. As I’ve written before, for such a technically sound, well-adjusted player, Latham’s career is in many ways baffling.
He’s also a good bugger and appeared as a guest on a rare Friday edition of The BYC, though I’m sad to say he is no craft beer fan.
Kane Williamson (94 not out in the first ODI) now has eight scores in the 90s in ODI cricket. Only four players, including Nathan Astle (9), have more.
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THE WEEK THAT WAS
New Zealand lost a sporting legend this week with the passing of Sir Murray Halberg.
Stuff’s obit was nice and thorough, with this quote Bill Baillie standing out.
“With some runners, you get them on a bad day and know you’ve got them beaten. You never had that feeling with Murray.”
Here’s footage of Halberg on a very good day.
Having lamented the quality of the group matches I had seen at the World Cup, as if on cue that very night Cameroon and Serbia played out a thrilling 3-3 draw that had me hooked until the final whistle. That was followed quickly by Ghana beating South Korea 3-2 in another match of high drama.
So my timing was poor. This morning, too, as I write this, there was incredible drama in Pool E, as Japan beat Spain to top the group, leaving Germany - who were down 1-2 to Costa Rica before winning 4-2 - short of the knockouts for the second tournament running. As Joshua Kimmich says above: “I’m afraid I have fallen in a hole.”
Drama is probably what you want at a World Cup, rather than quality. These are not teams that play together enough to develop the sort of synergy you get in club football. If your normal football fix is a diet of Premier League, you’re watching teams grooved by hours and hours of training, with the best players hand-selected from all over the world for specific roles. In many ways, they’re not comparable.
Along with always getting caught out by how many poor matches there are at the World Cup, I’m also surprised on a four-yearly basis by how many of the players reside in leagues nobody from this part of the world pays any attention to. Even Argentina, one of the sport’s pre-eminent breeding grounds for talent, brought on a midfielder, Thiago Almada1, who plays for Atlanta United - not Italian Serie A side Atalanta, but US side Atlanta.
If I’m still doing this newsletter in four years time and you’re still subscribing, please remind me of the above if I’m still writing about how surprised I am by the poor quality early group matches, and by how obscure some of the players are. Nothing worse than a slow learner.
I asked for feedback as to how you were feeling about the group stages… and I received. There’s a couple of comments on the post itself (linked above - thanks Edward and Third and Five Podcast), and several more direct to email. Here’s a couple of clips from the best.
Here’s Mike Burgess:
You missed some beauties: France vs Australia, Brazil vs Serbia, Germany v Japan, Spain vs Costa Rica, Portugal vs Ghana, Netherlands vs Senegal… France vs Denmark wasn't bad either. And Argentina vs Mexico… for the drama, more than anything.
Defences are more and more dominant and the forensic offside policing using AI feels like it makes it harder and harder to score (though VAR has increased the amount of penalties and handball decisions).
The football hasn’t been as open as Russia, for sure. Coaches might be being a bit more cautious, with players coming in tired, and a compressed schedule.
Overall though, I can remember a lot of World Cups that were worse - 1990 was the nadir, but a few others weren't that great either, including 2002 and 2010.
And from Logan Mudge (abridged):
I’m a football fan and I religiously watch the World Cup and the Euros every cycle but this one has been odd.
I had my doubts about this tournament given the dodgy (let’s use that euphemism) way in which the tournament was awarded and then the subsequent reports about the deaths of migrant workers, not to mention all the other issues associated with Qatar and its “government”, but I have been watching in spite of the misgivings (as I knew I would).
I pick and choose the best match ups and set the alarm but I’ve definitely watched less games this WC. It feels like there are far fewer interesting group matches this time around than tournaments gone by. England always have at least one horror show game and that USA one was unbelievably terrible - it felt like a punishment having to watch it.
I’ve found some of the games really good viewing though - Brazil v Serbia was great, Portugal v Ghana was really good - particularly the bizarre way it ended and the second half of Argentina v Mexico was good after a horror show first half and it speaks to a Messi tragic/romantic like myself. I watched Spain v Germany this morning too and it was a good game of football for a neutral. The upsets have been interesting, too - Saudi Arabia (again we have to separate the football from the regime), Japan and Morocco have done some amazing things and credit where it’s due a bunch of (practically) no name Aussies have given themselves a shot at the next round. I love rugby but an upset is always highly unlikely outside of Japan tipping someone over once in a while, or one of the Pacific Island teams clicking on their day.
To answer your question, I'm enjoying the football, but not loving it like I have in years gone by. The worrying thing is in 2026 there are going to be 16 more teams - despite this gifting the All Whites a golden opportunity to qualify again it’s going to create more crap football and mismatches to endure before the round of 16...
Thanks to all who wrote in.
The drama of the last few days as teams jostle to get into the knockouts has quickly made me forget what was, to my eyes at least, a fairly underwhelming first week of football.
This news from Iran, however, was bloody grim.
Deshaun Watson is about to return to the NFL after an 11-game suspension for a violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy, following a bulging portfolio of sexual harassment accusations. On Andscape, William C. Rhoden askes what, if anything, we’ve learned from the case.
The Black Sox couldn’t get it done on home turf and I’d be lying if I said I paid the softball world champs any more than passing attention. A tip of the cap nevertheless to Mark Sorenson who will ride into retirement having been involved in 10 world championships as a player or coach, and one other as a bat boy to his father’s team at the 1976 tournament.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
It’s just football and cricket this weekend, with a splash of petrol. No rugby!
A lot of noise about the rematch between Ghana and Luis Suarez, whose deliberate handball led to the Uruguayan maestro’s red card and Ghana’s elimination in 2010. He’s refusing to apologise, and I’m not sure why he should either. The match should be a beauty though, with Uruguay needing to beat the Africans to have a chance of making the round of 16.
I’m both a sucker for a Lionel Messi storyline and (whispers it very quietly) this Socceroos team, so that game is also a must-see, and at a much friendlier time.
Ghana v Uruguay, Group H, tomorrow 4am, Sky Sport 2
Argentina v Australia, R16, Sunday 8am, Sky Sport 1
Test cricket, but not as you remember it from your childhood, and the first chance to see the White Ferns on home soil under Ben Sawyer’s tutelage.
Australia v West Indies, 1st test, Perth, today-Sunday 2.30, Sky Sport
Pakistan v England, 1st test, Rawalpindi, today-Monday 6pm, Sky Sport
White Ferns v Bangladesh, 2nd T20I, Dunedin, Sunday 2pm, Spark Sport
Yeah, I realise that Shane van Gisbergen has already wrapped up the Supercars, but this is the last event of the year and the last event involving a Holden.
Having spent a number of hours of my childhood summers driving around the North Island in a Kingswood station wagon, it behoves me to watch the marque’s final laps on a racetrack.
Supercars, races 33 & 34, Adelaide, tomorrow 5.45pm, Sunday 5.15pm, Sky Sport 5
Almada is a cool story actually, having grown up in a high-crime area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and he went door-to-door as a kid trying to sell fruit and vegetables to supplement the family’s meagre income.