It hurts

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Thoughts on this evening’s defeat to England:
– Following a Black Caps top order collapse on CricInfo is much less fun than watching on the box (if you find that sort of thing fun, that is)
– Styris got 80 odd in a domestic match today – let’s get him on a plane, quick smart
– What were England DOING when they batted? They dwardled along like 11 Geoff Boycotts, it was more boring than ten man rugby from the 80s. If we’d had a little luck and got Flintoff out any earlier we’d have probably nicked it
– Flintoff is obsessed with punching gloves with his batting partner – one of England’s tailenders wasn’t expecting it when he came to the crease, and just about got a cock-punch
– Without Bond, our go-to tactic is still the slow-medium dobbers – twelve years ago it was Latham and Harris, now it’s Astle and specialist bowler Craig McMillian (who in fairness did a great job tying England down at the death)
– Tony Greig’s shameless cheering for the Poms is beyond a joke – if Sky Digital had an option to mute individual commentators, and have them replaced them with nails scraping a blackboard, I’d cheerfully pay double my subscription (Stu Wilson, you’d be next on my list, Bucko)
– Cricinfo’s headline right now is ‘Flintoff edges England in thriller’ – is that in a kind of Michael Jackson sense of ‘Thriller’?
– Scary thing is, England aren’t all that flash a side, and we stil lost. Did you spot anything to worry the Aussies?
– More depressing than the actual game was tuning into Radio Sport on the way to the video shop post-match, with one caller asking if Shane Bond actually had a migraine (back strain?), or just didn’t feel like playing. The horror…