Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

21, different, shades, of, green, 24, 22, 14, 18, 12, 11, 20, thoughts, archive, selected, writings, blogs, jimmy, anderson, and, time, on, derek, underwood, when, autumn, comes, first, world, thinking, returning, to, cheltenham, not, cool, what, cricket, does,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (324), and (191), that (85), for (65), you (58), his (55), was (51), but (51), #cricket (48), with (48), are (41), what (41), have (41), they (39), time (38), this (37), will (37), who (37), there (36), not (34), which (34), when (31), has (30), one (27), more (25), can (25), like (24), years (23), england (22), people (22), all (22), him (22), from (21), world (20), about (20), july (19), were (18), their (18), never (18), game (17), been (17), many (17), had (17), ever (16), days (16), always (16), than (16), just (15), times (15), long (15), may (15), first (15), hildreth (15), underwood (15), august (14), 2008 (14), 2011 (14), 2013 (14), old (13), player (13), batting (13), september (13), october (13), 2007 (13), march (13), 2009 (13), 2010 (13), 2012 (13), even (13), would (13), these (13), james (13), warne (13), where (12), does (12), november (12), april (12), life (12), them (12), way (12), could (12), how (11), test (11), day (11), january (11), february (11), june (11), 2014 (11), 2016 (11), 2019 (11), anderson (11), different (11), see (11), because (11), now (11), innings (11), those (11), didn (11), players (10), out (10), december (10), 2015 (10), then (10), play (10), memories (10), some (10), early (10), much (10), team (10), end (10), know (10), did (10), shane (10), over (9), county (9), runs (9), jimmy (9), brian (9), carpenter (9), back (9), something (9), through (9), your (9), side (9), derek (9), ago (8), off (8), year (8), played (8), 2006 (8), come (8), era (8), ian (8), around (8), nobody (8), covid (8), sense (8), good (7), last (7), man (7), think (7), home (7), cricketer (7), sport (7), other (7), comments (7), posted (7), capel (7), english (7), bell (7), although (7), feeling (7), pujara (7), into (7), thought (7), things (7), before (7), two (6), west (6), thinking (6), another (6), death (6), only (6), match (6), great (6), bowling (6), against (6), career (6), class (6), since (6), also (6), course (6), cool (6), second (6), too (6), cheltenham (6), any (6), others (6), anything (5), again (5), overs (5), remember (5), future (5), made (5), 2024 (5), afternoon (5), doing (5), comes (5), seen (5), little (5), though (5), level (5), both (5), younger (5), went (5), especially (5), being (5), short (5), batsmen (5), past (5), few (5), own (5), sure (5), watching (5), most (5), need (5), score (5), quickly (5), start (5), far (5), crease (5), very (5), once (5), lived (5), fortunate (5), middlesex (5), anyone (5), fact (5), marsh (5), saw (5), talk (5), bat (4), week (4), hair (4), young (4), must (4), feel (4), looking (4), coming (4), 2017 (4), 2018 (4), 2021 (4), watch (4), work (4), thoughts (4), david (4), someone (4), seems (4), matches (4), late (4), came (4), later (4), still (4), terms (4), best (4), lives (4), away (4), hundreds (4), matter (4), ball (4), such (4), probably (4), say (4), died (4), sort (4), half (4), used (4), modern (4), mind (4), become (4), gives (4), supporters (4), balls (4), place (4), often (4), going (4), soon (4), same (4), ground (4), sun (4), maybe (4), born (4), love (4), down (4), bracey (4), gloucestershire (4), skill (4), certainties (4), whose (4), speak (4), living (4), age (4), greats (4), deaths (4), next (4), taking (4), rodney (4), wasn (4), bowled (4), bowler (4), certain (4), reflect (4), somerset (4), get (4), mid (3), catch (3), batsman (3), almost (3), gone (3), enough (3), less (3), indian (3), standing (3), light (3), language (3), selected (3), 2022 (3), main (3), shades (3), green (3), want (3), innovation (3), every (3), smith (3), morning (3), spend (3), nothing (3), john (3), older (3), television (3), worst (3), left (3), hours (3), found (3), viv (3), mark (3), wickets (3), responses (3), former (3), between (3), lay (3), truism (3), element (3), take (3), part (3), doesn (3), cover (3), easy (3), vaughan (3), easily (3), talking (3), its (3), labels (3), purpose (3), drives (3), pant (3), form (3), possible (3), better (3), impression (3), increasingly (3), forgotten (3), nature (3), look (3), believe (3), return (3), winning (3), idea (3), dead (3), physical (3), surroundings (3), cliché (3), either (3), let (3), bamber (3), bowl (3), point (3), after (3), pre (3), months (3), our (3), called (3), done (3), rain (3), war (3), happened (3), greatest (3), cricketers (3), knew (3), close (3), season (3), else (3), oval (3), lot (3), reach (3), clichés (3), air (3), slip (3), himself (3), loss (3), richards (3), well (3), maiden (3), taunton (3), yet (3), leslie (3), rare (3), follow (2), subscribe (2), chris (2), became (2), stop (2), happening (2), straight (2), cross (2), limited (2), today (2), white (2), appeal (2), heart (2), wondering (2), changing (2), playing (2), faded (2), circumstance (2), glorious (2), uncertainty (2), confronting (2), mortality (2), moment (2), nostalgia (2), indies (2), head (2), wisden (2), experience (2), makes (2), dying (2), leaves (2), 2020 (2), feels (2), disappointment (2), lasted (2), success (2), resonates (2), india (2), posts (2), hit (2), hard (2), division (2), three (2), radio (2), memory (2), real (2), third (2), tour (2), 1987 (2), finished (2), getting (2), began (2), humanity (2), mates (2), exemplified (2), spent (2), cricketing (2), top (2), games (2), amount (2), emotion (2), unique (2), including (2), prodigy (2), quite (2), capable (2), call (2), common (2), ultimately (2), matters (2), extra (2), self (2), men (2), alive (2), recollections (2), strauss (2), choice (2), happen (2), cannot (2), weeks (2), rahane (2), assurance (2), clarity (2), gill (2), cuts (2), siraj (2), raised (2), desire (2), attack (2), helped (2), win (2), signature (2), technical (2), number (2), important (2), having (2), defined (2), kohli (2), faced (2), inadequate (2), yorkshire (2), technique (2), chanderpaul (2), seemed (2), rapidly (2), during (2), emotional (2), pandemic (2), everything (2), yes (2), cup (2), apart (2), supposed (2), planning (2), pandemics (2), country (2), heard (2), word (2), worn (2), possibly (2), result (2), simple (2), returning (2), euphoria (2), simply (2), reached (2), underlying (2), illusory (2), begins (2), friends (2), alien (2), school (2), perhaps (2), likes (2), sunday (2), murtagh (2), figures (2), able (2), lead (2), crumble (2), recall (2), here (2), pleasure (2), somewhere (2), tests (2), attention (2), body (2), speaks (2), unease (2), clouds (2), south (2), town (2), slowly (2), privilege (2), lapse (2), parents (2), full (2), stone (2), pun (2), intended (2), seem (2), notice (2), ukraine (2), international (2), said (2), thing (2), strong (2), famous (2), rich (2), interested (2), lots (2), 12th (2), 2005 (2), london (2), weren (2), trescothick (2), ashes (2), remembered (2), autumn (2), met (2), reflection (2), lost (2), chance (2), true (2), looks (2), twelfth (2), room (2), lord (2), make (2), drunk (2), partly (2), sweat (2), rew (2), debut (2), careers (2), name (2), accuracy (2), myth (2), barely (2), peter (2), graham (2), usually (2), sometimes (2), championship (2), vignettes (2), slower (2), yorkers (2), road (2), monochrome (2), appear (2), move (2), cheated (2), seam (2), phenomenon (2), colleagues (2), brook (2), atkinson (2), thoughtful (2), skip (2), feedspot, reader, gayle, silly, wsc, transition, idle, summers, fraser, anning, senator, declaration, faf, plessis, implacable, cruelty, promotion, final, 2026, blogs, hick, train, guildford, shepherd, disorientation, coat, fallout, nocturnal, activities, purity, method, darkness, lara, kidding, bizarre, eating, wrong, kumble, bleak, shirt, encounters, stars, ennui, shep, footwork, mortals, grandeur, unrefined, talent, seve, pausing, trust, serious, timing, prior, engagement, stranger, failure, unlikely, lad, kallis, winter, local, boy, richie, benaud, writings, 183, 145, 109, archive, view, complete, profile, text, nihar, suthar, photograph, gerry, hunt, newton, poppleford, devon, united, kingdom, angry, fan, finds, tribal, belonging, pessimist, sees, steady, decline, fall, optimist, hails, progress, each, sympathetic, soul, blow, rationalist, wonders, haze, illogical, endures, reflects, nuances, crap, evening, four, dash, terrific, snow, suresh, menon, almanack, philosophy, tells, atom, unexpectedly, northants, distant, opaque, single, plentiful, outgrounds, distilled, medium, written, media, forever, associated, substance, karachi, notorious, pakistan, tormented, combination, spin, chiefly, abdul, qadir, umpiring, quiet, epic, type, knock, live, coverage, shopping, car, astonishment, hadn, twice, bridgetown, 1990, pushback, superiority, gesticulating, gloom, port, spain, shuddering, halt, truth, circuit, grew, maturity, heartfelt, whom, coached, befriended, testified, popularity, unshakeable, bond, exists, treading, boards, provinces, unlike, tasted, table, source, reputation, closer, goes, reveals, character, parcel, together, arenas, ply, trade, leads, depth, knowledge, respect, rob, bailey, shared, moments, collaboration, triumph, intense, several, caribbean, wonder, tears, umpire, edgbaston, following, high, fulfilment, argue, achieved, judgment, exact, science, anywhere, everywhere, realise, shimmering, easing, elegance, tiny, slightly, conscious, flourish, golden, unrecognised, behind, paywall, keeping, outstanding, jonathan, trott, paul, collingwood, focused, swann, personality, seniority, recalled, complimenting, comparing, should, announced, retirement, seriousness, finality, compared, mourns, cheteshwar, heroes, shapes, sizes, thick, fast, assuming, reins, strokeplay, odd, defensive, shot, doubt, mohammed, lines, nipping, testing, consistent, rarely, seamers, bar, bumrah, expect, instinctive, power, supplemented, blithe, hitherto, unshaken, confidence, secure, series, ages, outlier, term, anti, hero, description, overtones, effects, evolving, hegemony, circumstances, merit, optional, fear, dismissal, attitude, trickles, mindset, resemble, lemmings, plunging, cliff, comical, sri, lankan, galle, subscribed, approach, gets, wants, consciously, reject, rigidly, circumscribed, finite, helpful, lose, wicket, ponderousness, lack, style, frustrate, worse, effect, opposing, charisma, pile, ocean, bravery, barrage, brisbane, revealed, chink, armour, bowlers, seek, exploit, ability, withstand, danger, pain, preserve, echoes, wore, rose, reflexive, stubbornness, rejection, staccato, masks, tendency, remind, shivnarine, extreme, moods, fundamental, latter, question, issue, check, grip, resume, stance, zeitgeist, raison, etre, sporting, hiatus, followed, fracturing, reassuring, invest, belief, normal, blighted, physically, psychologically, venerated, college, 15th, bathed, afterglow, shone, azure, sky, ahead, scientists, spoken, talked, social, distancing, mask, shops, unspoken, palpable, collective, beginning, fragility, escape, messy, collage, fades, background, hum, conversation, enforced, separation, reunited, proximity, kept, dark, locked, settles, lovely, example, hint, resonance, applause, recognise, proud, bristolian, role, renaissance, sympathise, recent, appearances, struggled, largely, roles, repays, loyalty, authoritative, neatness, judgement, timelessness, victorian, public, institution, suffused, muscular, christianity, embodied, daryl, mitchell, matt, taylor, mornings, appropriate, partner, miles, hammond, student, architecture, designs, couple, knocks, punctuated, powerful, provide, counterpoint, restrained, accumulation, elsewhere, gravely, tim, ethan, energetic, accruing, identical, glimpse, bothered, fresh, enthusiasm, promise, hunches, dangerous, build, subside, turn, empires, t20, bestrode, domestic, colossus, gallows, humour, lundy, island, indicates, depths, fallen, sixteen, taught, permanent, torn, asunder, disease, lies, reclaim, small, elements, enjoyed, signify, crashing, news, spreads, outbreak, positive, payne, simpson, previously, engaged, selectors, normality, welcome, unexpected, journey, unknown, permeate, michael, atherton, son, joshua, caires, ends, finger, greeting, lbw, departs, guilt, gradual, resumption, mundanities, overheard, conversations, altered, arrangements, cancelled, holidays, tone, rumination, bitterness, ones, escaped, vaccinated, believed, sweatshirt, proclaims, cycling, cork, kerry, among, under, metaphorical, watery, dips, intrude, rarefied, zones, immune, drift, elderly, relative, until, arbitrary, passing, shock, felt, diminishes, kills, wars, remote, possibility, africa, middle, east, europe, calculated, invasion, ageless, sectarian, tensions, overlook, accept, generations, northern, ireland, balkans, vulnerable, fragile, precious, guarantees, minute, risen, pressing, minds, spring, earliest, pavilion, steps, chelmsford, led, australian, throwing, fag, telling, friend, impolitely, asked, autograph, recently, suffered, shocking, sad, sportspeople, shining, trying, struggle, concentrate, crowded, draining, excuse, really, twitter, bore, similarity, expletive, rod, essex, assume, millennium, aspects, everyone, random, fragments, coalesce, monday, surprising, along, olympics, inclined, atmosphere, pregnant, hopes, dreams, suppressed, watched, battle, held, without, fight, dropped, sealed, fate, earlier, hat, trick, mcg, birthday, falling, headlong, depressing, defeat, cavernous, resonances, turbulent, towards, present, difficult, bear, uncertain, epitaphs, engraved, walked, victoria, coach, station, twilight, glory, optimism, ingenuous, joviality, settled, literally, metaphorically, autumns, skies, darkening, covers, revolve, acute, cast, winds, stronger, tempered, confusion, anxiety, relinquish, grounds, tangible, least, fame, generally, understood, consequence, loved, narratives, carelessness, untimely, misfortune, whether, design, luck, nearly, descriptions, fits, glove, history, failures, occasional, added, lustre, aura, guaranteed, moved, adult, nineties, missed, experiencing, person, transient, overseas, birds, outfield, containing, botham, joel, garner, fantasy, teams, mainly, founded, prosaic, virtues, dedication, devotion, honesty, occupied, space, above, tended, modesty, untutored, eye, mistake, mere, mortal, scratched, art, observation, nevertheless, essential, signifiers, greatness, performers, decide, execute, kaleidoscope, supplies, images, century, durham, 2004, compact, unpretentious, stylish, elegant, manner, gower, vince, certainty, force, immediately, belongs, highest, kid, acting, toil, field, running, drinks, towels, offering, reserved, words, encouragement, waits, matthew, hoggard, dismiss, ricky, ponting, mobbed, temporary, pietersen, flintoff, human, lions, chest, pass, creaming, rapid, 187, why, group, don, overlooking, lights, cape, listen, elder, statesman, designation, suit, marcus, dates, ten, plays, badges, honour, cap, dyed, bound, greying, beard, tens, thousands, centuries, book, consent, means, finest, format, poor, fixture, scheduling, conspiring, royal, reduced, per, pivotal, period, confluence, embryonic, fading, pleases, grandparents, knowing, offspring, making, natural, case, surprise, find, unborn, meantime, aren, anymore, anticipatory, ultimate, names, association, mythologises, actually, significant, spoke, reverence, admiration, 101, 500, thousand, eyes, numbers, imbued, unreality, mythologised, generation, fell, hits, rocks, struggles, nice, 1968, symbiotically, linked, hooked, 1970s, league, summer, presented, walker, kent, scoreboard, tree, inside, canterbury, boundary, bob, woolmer, johnson, peerless, alan, ealham, norman, asif, knott, splay, footed, tugging, sleeve, plods, considers, options, jogging, hitting, spot, rhythm, regularity, metronome, evolutionary, ramps, drive, scoops, serve, ice, cream, passed, mashed, potato, dinners, defended, vainly, attacked, cut, swing, swerve, change, pace, assistance, weather, turf, schooldays, shrewdness, competitiveness, 1976, brown, 150, 170, 230, toiling, heat, dirt, renowned, variation, experiment, guile, knows, holds, fooled, balderstone, nightmare, drops, daggers, returns, humility, momentary, flash, dissatisfaction, steel, layers, demands, worth, seamer, judged, meet, originality, difference, dropping, length, letting, affected, pitch, addicted, mystery, image, conservatism, post, shackleton, upon, northlands, ken, barrington, blocking, ill, nowadays, bowls, vocabulary, relation, virtue, superior, eyesight, coordination, confrères, staying, fitter, slimmer, supple, mobile, committed, distinct, preceded, conceivable, completely, shadows, lengthening, truths, regard, complex, amalgam, repetitive, effort, honed, mental, application, retire, hunger, directed, reconciled, smiles, joy, familial, displayed, showed, chosen, travel, given, friday, yards, family, accolades, flowed, drawn, members, harry, gus, jamie, toddlers, fooling, carefree, insouciance, considering, managed, 188, intensity, imagine, alec, stewart, lends, perspective, prompts, magnifies, fulfilled, mined, sidebar,

Text of the page (random words):
if we didn t before we know we are all vulnerable all the time life is just as fragile just as precious as it has always been living in the first world even as one of the greatest cricketers there ever was guarantees you nothing one minute it is morning in england in early march you notice how early the sun has risen and the clarity of the light the next you are thinking about what is happening in ukraine where people have more pressing things on their minds than the coming of spring the next you are taking in the fact that rodney marsh has died rodney marsh who you saw from the very earliest time you knew what cricket was rodney marsh who was just about the first international cricketer you ever came close to you were standing next to the pavilion steps at chelmsford when he led the australian team out throwing his fag away and telling your 11 year old cricket friend where to go impolitely it must be said when he asked for an autograph but rodney marsh was 74 and you knew that had recently suffered a heart attack so it wasn t especially shocking just sad in the way that deaths of great sportspeople always are to those of us who believe soon it is early afternoon the sun is still shining and you are at home trying to work you struggle to concentrate it has been a crowded and draining week although that is just an excuse really so you look at twitter and the first thing you see is that shane warne has died looking back you re not sure what you said but it probably bore a strong similarity to the expletive used by rod marsh that time in essex 45 years ago this is different for one thing shane warne is was younger than you shane warne was one of the best people ever to do what he did shane warne was famous shane warne was you assume rich shane warne wasn t living in ukraine shane warne didn t have covid 19 but shane warne was dead in a few weeks it will be the cricket season in england he will not see it like anyone who was interested in cricket and you were much more than simply interested in the years either side of the millennium you had your memories of warne in lots of aspects they are the same as everyone else s but the random fragments coalesce rapidly into thoughts about the oval on monday 12th september 2005 this is far from surprising since you think about that day a lot it is one of the times in your life along with the week you spent at the london olympics about which you are inclined to think that people who weren t there can never know what it was like you can only reach for clichés about there being something in the air and they are inadequate you had to be there shane warne was there he bowled from the start that day in an atmosphere pregnant with hopes dreams and suppressed euphoria as you watched vaughan and trescothick battle away against him you saw a great bowler who wasn t going to let the ashes held by his country since long before he became a test cricketer slip without a fight of course ultimately slip they did and a dropped catch by warne himself sealed their fate it was the best of times for some of us and it was the worst of times for others only later do you remember that years earlier you saw warne take a hat trick at the mcg on your birthday but that was a different time england were falling headlong to depressing defeat in a cavernous ground there were no resonances in these turbulent days when our first world thinking can lapse in a different way towards a feeling that all the old certainties are gone for good and they are because of course they were never certain at all we need sport and we need cricket and we need our recollections more than anything else once more it is cliché but if the present is too difficult to bear and the future is as uncertain as it ever was you can always think about a better time in the past things are different there old players epitaphs are not engraved in stone they are made of memories memories of days when the ashes came home and you walked back to victoria coach station in the september twilight memories of remembered glory memories of times when life and the world was better shane warne with all his skill and optimism and ingenuous joviality would have settled for that posted by brian carpenter at 9 51 pm 0 comments 8 7 21 returning to cheltenham there were times during the long sporting hiatus which followed the fracturing of the world when it was easy to believe that one s return to watching county cricket would be emotional this was because at the start of the pandemic it was reassuring to invest in the belief that there would be a time when it would all be over when everything would return to normal that may still come although nobody who has lived through the blighted era of early covid will ever be the same as they were in 2019 physically if you are fortunate yes psychologically no we know too much when i last went to the old venerated cheltenham college ground to watch cricket on 15th july 2019 we bathed in the afterglow of england winning the world cup the sun shone out of an azure sky and nobody had any idea of what lay ahead you never do of course but no one apart from scientists and those supposed to be planning for them ever thought about pandemics and those supposed to be planning for them in this country didn t think hard enough nobody had ever heard or spoken the word covid or talked about social distancing or worn a mask to go the shops many people possibly including some who were at cheltenham that day were alive who are now dead as a result of the unspoken word life was simple then returning to cheltenham two years on there was no sense of euphoria or palpable emotion simply a collective feeling that maybe just maybe the beginning of some sort of end had been reached although for some there may have been an underlying sense of illusory fragility which they cannot escape for most this messy collage of responses fades into the background as play begins to the hum of conversation born of the end of enforced separation friends are reunited as much in thought as in physical proximity the thought being how much they love cricket and how much they love watching it played in these surroundings this is what kept them going in the dark days of a locked down january as play settles there is a lovely example of the simple humanity of county cricket when james bracey gloucestershire s number three comes to the crease there is a hint of extra resonance to the applause the home supporters recognise his proud bristolian s role in gloucestershire s renaissance and sympathise with him over his recent test appearances during which he struggled with two largely alien roles for bracey s part he repays this loyalty by batting in both innings with an authoritative neatness and judgement which has an element of timelessness about it to match his surroundings for his surroundings are those of a victorian english public school an institution suffused in the cliché of muscular christianity perhaps embodied by middlesex s daryl mitchell or matt taylor of gloucestershire although i have no idea how either of them likes to spend their sunday mornings it is also appropriate that bracey s main partner in both innings is miles hammond he is a student of architecture and he designs a couple of important knocks punctuated by powerful cuts and drives which provide a counterpoint to bracey s more restrained accumulation elsewhere although gravely let down by their batsmen tim murtagh 39 and ethan bamber 22 both bowl with energetic purpose and skill accruing figures which at one point are almost identical murtagh is a man who may be able to glimpse the dying of the light but gives no impression of being bothered by it bamber resonates fresh faced enthusiasm and promise in the covid world hunches feel dangerous but there is a feeling that bamber could go far he is the sort of cricketer middlesex need on the second afternoon as gloucestershire build a lead after middlesex subside thoughts turn to the way in which empires can crumble anyone who has been around english cricket since the pre t20 era will recall the days when middlesex bestrode english domestic cricket like a colossus here at late covid cheltenham the gallows humour of their supporters do lundy island have a team we can be the first side to win the third division indicates the depths to which they have fallen but then if there s anything that the last sixteen months have taught us it is that nothing is permanent and anything can crumble the old certainties of the world have been torn asunder by disease and much of the pleasure of coming to somewhere like cheltenham lies in a desire to reclaim some small elements of our former lives which can be enjoyed for what they are but also for what they signify on the game s second morning more old certainties come crashing down news spreads that the england team has been hit by an outbreak of positive covid tests and one player from either side has been called into the team david payne and john simpson are two players who have never previously engaged the attention of the england selectors so for them this is far from a return to normality it is a welcome and unexpected journey into the unknown something of the same feeling must permeate the thoughts of michael atherton s son joshua de caires whose first innings in first class cricket ends early with a raised finger greeting an lbw appeal his body language as he departs the crease speaks of guilt and unease but unease is the way of the world these days he will come again for most other people at the ground a gradual resumption of former lives and their mundanities is all that they want overheard conversations speak of altered living arrangements and cancelled holidays but the tone is one of rumination not bitterness most people know that they are the fortunate ones fortunate to have escaped death or long covid fortunate to have been vaccinated fortunate to be here they have done things over the past year that they never thought they would have to do or possibly even believed that they could they now want to do things that they always did and never thought they would have to stop doing it can as one sweatshirt proclaims be cycling from cork to kerry or it can be watching a cricket match among friends we have lived under metaphorical clouds for months on end but as we head south west out of town at the end of the second day the watery sun dips and real clouds intrude rain will soon follow but we have a sense that something in the world is slowly changing that for now is enough posted by brian carpenter at 9 55 pm 2 comments 21 1 21 not cool heroes come in all shapes and sizes for india these past few weeks they have come thick and fast rahane for assuming the reins with such assurance and clarity of purpose gill for the sort of strokeplay those half cuts half drives through cover sure but also the odd defensive shot which leaves you with little doubt you will be watching him for years on end mohammed siraj bowling lines nipping it around testing the batsmen in the consistent way you rarely used to see from indian seamers but which now with the bar raised by bumrah you expect pant of course pant his instinctive power and desire to attack supplemented by his blithe hitherto unshaken confidence these are just some of the people who helped secure a series win for the ages and then some then there is pujara modern cricket s great outlier a man you could term an anti hero if such a description didn t have overtones of cool because cool is something pujara has never been and will never be but this is of no matter because being cool is something which will never cross his mind one of the signature effects of the evolving hegemony of short form cricket is the way in which in most circumstances the raison d etre of batting has become the need to score as many runs as possible as quickly as possible technical merit is optional as is fear of dismissal if you can t score quickly you re better off getting out when this attitude trickles into the mindset of a team in long form cricket they can quickly start to resemble lemmings plunging off a cliff the comical sri lankan first innings at galle exemplified this pujara has never subscribed to this approach and as he gets older he gives the impression of someone who increasingly wants almost self consciously to reject it and it is easily forgotten that where the nature of a game is not rigidly circumscribed by a finite number of overs it is always helpful not to lose your wicket it is more important that you are still out there even if your ponderousness and lack of style can start to frustrate your own supporters if it is doing that to them you can be sure that it is having a far worse effect on the opposing side pujara can easily be defined by what he is not he is not cool he does not score quickly he does not have the charisma of kohli or the hair of siraj what he does have is a pile of runs and an ocean of bravery for all that many of his responses to the barrage of short balls he faced in the second innings in brisbane were inadequate and revealed a chink in his armour which other bowlers will seek to exploit his ability to withstand danger and pain to preserve his place at the crease had echoes of another batsman who wore the white rose of yorkshire in a very different place and time in his reflexive stubbornness his rejection of the batting zeitgeist and the way in which the staccato nature of his technique often masks his class there is a tendency for pujara to remind me of shivnarine chanderpaul there were times in his more extreme moods when chanderpaul seemed to have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of batting is to score runs and in his latter days in the west indies side there was the question of who if not him was going to do so this is less of an issue for pujara not because he doesn t start to look like that at times he very much does but that these days he always has someone kohli or gill or rahane or pant who will score rapidly at the other end soon against england he will check his grip and resume his stance if he does it once he will probably do so hundreds and hundreds of times he will not be cool but for as long as he is batting it will not matter posted by brian carpenter at 5 01 pm 0 comments labels cheteshwar pujara 6 9 20 what cricket does in the past few days one old cricketer has died and another has announced his retirement in terms of seriousness or finality they cannot be compared but in its own way cricket mourns them both the death of david capel hit me hard unexpectedly so he was someone i d seen play a little for northants back in what now seems like a distant and opaque era of single division county cricket of plentiful outgrounds even of matches that only lasted three days but as with so many players memories are distilled through the medium of television of radio of the written media for me capel will forever be associated in the memory with...