It’s been a rather dismal week for England. There aren’t many worse ways to start a series than a three day defeat and England will have to play much, much better in the next two Tests to get anything out of this series. The match was also notable for controversies about Saeed Ajmal’s delivery action and the DRS. For once though the cricket actually overshadowed everything else, which is good. Other things happened elsewhere in cricket, but to be honest I was not paying that much attention. I gather that the BBL overcame it’s uncertain start and sold a shedload of tickets at the Waca though. Good for it. In better news, Andy Murray eased into the round of 16 at the Australian open with three pretty convincing wins. He’s still set to face Djokovic in the semis though, so no doubt he’ll be Scottish before the end of next week.
All of the good articles this week were about the England’s defeat, as indeed were most of the bad articles. (Someone somewhere may have written about Australia v India, but surely no one still cares about that?) My favourites were:
The Teesra and other variations – Alan Tyers, The Cricketer
(As amusing as one would expect from the author.)
Andrew Strauss must lead inquiry into England’s batting failings – Vic Marks, the Guardian
Test Match Special suffers along with England in Dubai – Adam Mountford, BBC
All in a Spin – David Lloyd, Sky Sports
Defensive Indifference 