Australia’s captain believes his team had Pietersen’s measure during the first two Tests, but wonders how England will cope without its batting star now he has been ruled out of the series following achilles tendon surgery. “If you look at the way we’ve bowled to him and the way he’s played, he’s been one [...]

What a topsy-turvy game cricket is. At Cardiff in the first Test England just about scraped home with a draw after its time wasting tactics brought a howl of protest from the Australians. At Lord’s, where England have a poor record against the old enemy, they went on to win by a handsome margin of [...]

After outbatting the faltering Phillip Hughes here yesterday, the all-rounder Shane Watson insisted he would be happy to face Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison with the new ball should England’s most potent pace bowlers be reunited at Edgbaston for the third Ashes Test this week. Watson’s 84 doubly underlined his credentials to open for [...]

The England and Wales Cricket Board has denied that Kevin Pietersen aggravated the achilles injury that ruled him out of the rest of the Ashes series by flouting a prescribed training programme while playing in the Indian Premier League in South Africa in April.  Evan Speechly, Bangalore’s assistant coach and physiotherapist, claimed yesterday that [...]

Like any good Test match, Lord’s was great theatre. It was also passable pantomime, with Andrew Flintoff in fee-fi-fo-fum form, smelling the blood of an Aus-tray-ly-un. Of course, every panto needs a villain, and one arrived ready-made in Ricky Ponting. When his praise for England in a gracious post-match concession speech was applauded, Ponting [...]

Andrew Flintoff took a fiver at lords test grinding Australia to a 115 run defeat . Flintoff belongs to a category of very very rare species named All-rounder . He is a genuine Allrounder , not a utility player . He can easily find a place in the England team as a batter or [...]

Speaking after Australia’s 115-run loss to England in the second Test at Lord’s, Ponting said the tourists were optimistic about their chances of turning around a 1-0 deficit in the five-match series. Johnson, despite a battling 63 on the final day, and Hughes (4, 17) have struggled for form in the first two Tests, [...]

Tony Lewis, Steve Waugh, Geoff Boycott and Rahul Dravid made a presentation at Lord’s last week. Alongside Majid Khan, Courtney Walsh, Anil Kumble and other notables, they are members of an ad hoc MCC committee that had been meeting to discuss the future of the game, and especially Test cricket. Although they have no [...]

Cricket does not get any more dramatic than this. What tension. What unbeatable theatre. Could it be that we are to have an Ashes series every bit as memorable as 2005? There could not have been a better start than these five extraordinary days in Cardiff that ended on Sunday evening, at 6.41pm, with [...]

Paul Collingwood is standing firm and frustrating Australia, but England remain on the brink of losing the first Ashes Test at tea on the final day. The obdurate all-rounder is unbeaten on 55 heading into the last session of the match, but England are clinging on to their hopes of salvaging a draw on [...]