Cricket’s going soft; it’s something do with the balls

Soft balls are ruining red ball cricket, IND’s bowlers outplay ENG, & Carey’s quiet growth.

Good morning!

Sidharth Monga wrote a great piece about how modern red balls are going soft within 30-40 overs, creating a “midlife crisis” for Tests. I don’t think I’ve had a headline idea spring up quicker before. Oh, uh, awkward. Sorry, didn’t mean to rub it in. Ooh. Yeah, I’m just going to walk away now.

[I need to address one specific reader. To my mom - who occasionally reads this - I’m sorry and I hope you decided to give the newsletter a miss today!]

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Stokes lost a fan or thousand from constantly checking the ball - but it might not have been his fault. Or, well, not entirely his fault. He’s still quite annoying.

England dig themselves a Deep hole

🏏 Match Updates: IND’s bowlers outplay ENG, Carey’s quiet growth, & Mulder’s astonishing 264* against ZIM.

• England vs India:

  India beat England by 336 runs to level the series 1-1.
  👉 ESPNcricinfo’s Sidharth Monga on India winning the bowling contest.
  👉 Cricbuzz’s Kaushik Rangarajan on Akash Deep’s match-winning 10fer.
  👉 The Times’ Simon Wilde on Ben Stokes’ batting and captaincy errors.
  👉 The Telegraph’s Michael Vaughan on the frustrating Zak Crawley.

• West Indies vs Australia:
  Australia beat West Indies by 133 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
  👉 ESPNcricinfo’s Andrew McGlashan on Alex Carey’s quiet growth.
  👉 Sydney Morning Herald’s Tom Decent grades the Aussie performances.

• South Africa vs Zimbabwe:
  South Africa are on 465/4 after day one.
  👉 Cricbuzz’s Shashikant Singh has the stats on Wiaan Mulder’s 264*.

Cricket’s going soft; it’s something do with the balls

📚 Must Read Essays: Soft balls are ruining red ball cricket, the Tamilian-Kiwi spinner, & why Archer is so exciting.

• “Soft balls and hard times - Test cricket is facing a midlife crisis”
  ✍️ ESPNcricinfo’s Sidharth Monga writes about the quicker deterioration of balls that is affecting the Test and first class game.

• “Ashok turns to Tamil roots while spinning a future with New Zealand”
  ✍️ ESPNcricinfo’s Deivarayan Muthu talks to 22-year old Kiwi spinner Adithya Ashok about his Tamil roots, & rehabbing at CSK.

• “Our dreams of Jofra”
  ✍️ Arrangements of White on Green’s Jon Hotten describes the excitement of seeing Jofra Archer again, by remembering the Jeff Thomson effect in the 1970s.

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🗞️ Quick News: Suryavanshi is blowing away the ENG U19s, NSB will miss the T20s, & IND’s tour of BAN is postponed.

• Beyond Cow Corner is in awe of the ridiculous scores 14-year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi is putting up in the India U19-England U19 series.

• England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss the rest of the T20s against India.

• India Men’s tour of Bangladesh has been postponed to September 2026.

Pakistan’s quicks held their own against West Indies

📺 A/V: Carl Hooper on WI’s decline, & the best sub-40 average Test batters.

• “Pakistan was always a hard tour”
  📽️ Pak Passion’s Saj Sadiq talks to former West Indies player Carl Hooper about his memories of touring Pakistan, and about why West Indies cricket has fallen off their perch. [YouTube]

• “Best Test Batters to Average Below 40”
  📽️ Good Areas’ Jarrod Kimber, Behram Qazi & Varun Alvakonda draft the best sub-40 average batters in Test history. [YouTube]

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That’s it for today!

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