10 Things # 33

GH on the CT, CG, NC and some brilliant images

1/ The Champions Trophy is on.

2/ Babar Azam and Khushdil Shah scored ‘gritty half-centuries’ against New Zealand, and there’s your problem right there - too much grit in Pakistan’s powerplay gears in a chase for 321. Whither Babar Azam? The idea of promoting him to open was to maximise the balls he faced; instead it’s maximising the number of balls that Pakistan are wasting. Discounted for his boundaries, Babar ground out 34 from 83 deliveries, perhaps trying to stick it until the dew made batting easier but if so indulging in high-order overthinking. Even Fakhar Zaman, injured, stunk the joint out. No team plays bad cricket worse than Pakistan.

3/ Kartikeya Date, to whom you should really be subscribing, has a typically acute analysis on Cricinfo about the respective ‘middle overs’ records of the Champions Trophy contenders, pointing out the excellence of India’s. What happened next? Against Bangladesh, India went from the ninth to the forty-third over without taking a wicket - the calculator’s curse. India aced the chase anyway and, enjoying their cosy Dubai nook, remain strong favourites. Their next opponent…Pakistan on Sunday. In the meantime, I’ll be staying up tomorrow night for England v Australia, so I can pretend I care on Offsiders….