Remember the Name

A brief look at Ashwani Kumar’s extraordinary IPL debut and a photo gallery.

Today’s IPL match features Mumbai Indians in action against Kolkata Knight Riders. To say that things are going MI’s way would be a major understatement of the case. This post however looks at one particular player involved in the debacle (from their point of view) that was the KKR innings.

“WE HAVE A DEBUTANT PLAYING FOR US TODAY”

The title of this section refers to the way in which Hardik Pandya, skipper of Mumbai Indians, introduced Ashwani Kumar, a left arm medium pace bowler. After today I do not think either Pandya or anyone else will be in any further danger of struggling to recall the young man’s name. Before he had been called on to bowl he had pouched a catch to make his first mark as an IPL player. It was with the ball, partly because KKR tried to target him and failed miserably, that he made what looks like being the decisive contribution to this match. He started by having KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane caught by Tilak Varma. He added the wickets of Rinku Singh (caught by Raman Dhir), “impact sub” Manish Pandey (a desperation move brought on by the KKR collapse – it would be more normal for a side batting first to use this to bring in an extra bowler) and West Indian legend Andre Russell (both bowled). His final figures were 3-0-24-4. KKR were not only all out for a beggarly 116, they only lasted 16.2 overs – in other words 22 deliveries were not utilised at all. MI are cruising towards a massive win as I type.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before I present my full photo gallery I am showcasing a couple of unlucky candidates for the feature image. First up, and the closest contender othe rthan the chosen one is this…

“Four in One” Four bees in a single frame – three flying around and one on a flower head.

The other candidate was this one…

“Egret photobombed by flying gull” An Egret at the edge of the Nar outfall with a flying gull with wings at full stretch in the foreground.

Now for the full gallery…

The chosen feature image “In Formation” – two bees flying exactly parallel to one another, seemingly with a cluster of white flowers as the target.

Cardiff Caper

A look at yesterday’s Women’s Six nations clash between Wales and England and a photo gallery.

Yesterday in the women’s Six Nations rugby England travelled to Cardiff to take on Wales at the Principality Stadium. England has won comfortably in their opener against Italy, but the Italians had given a good account of themselves in the second half, albeit one not reflected by them scoring many points of their own. Thus they went to Cardiff looking for a complete performance, not just another win.

THE FIRST HALF

Wales started fast, with Jenni Scoble scoring the first try of the match, which was duly converted. England hit back hard with three tries in the next ten minutes, the first from Meg Jones, not merely possessed of a Welsh surname but an actual Welsh speaker. The second try was scored by Sarah Bern, by dint of sheer power. With 27 minutes on the clock Feaunati scored her second try of the match and England’s fourth to secure the bonus point. That was it for first half scoring, but it was clear that holding England at bay was the limit of Welsh capabilities.

THE SECOND HALF

If the first half had been impressive the second half was downright frightening from England, as they absolutely steamrollered the home side. First Ellie Kildunne showed why she is rated by many as the best female rugby player on the planet right now by scoring a hat trick of tries in the space of about ten minutes. Abby Dow was the next to make her presence felt, scoring England’s eighth try. Try number nine came from Abi Burton, who has been through health problems of sufficient magnitude that at one point she was in an induced coma. Dow scored her second, which took England to 60 points. Then in the dying embers of the match Burton, only on the field for seven minutes, scored the second try of an astonishing international debut, with the conversion ending the match. The final score was Wales 12 England 67, and England were not especially flattered by that score line. This tournament, at least for England, is really a warm-up for the upcoming world cup, of which England are hosts. On the evidence of this performance few would dare to bet against the home side lifting that trophy.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

RCB Setting Early IPL Pace

A look back at yesterday’s IPL match between RCB and CSK, and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday saw Chennai Super Kings entertaining Royal Challengers Bangalore. The winner of this match would be the first team to start the season with two straight wins.

THE RCB INNINGS

This innings was not unblemished by either side. For RCB Rajat Patidar made a fine 50, and openers Salt and Kohli scored utterly dissimilar low 30s – Salt’s 32 came off 16 balls and thus represented a job well done, while Kohli’s 31 came off 30 balls, which is unacceptably slow in IPL cricket. Each side perpetrated (IMO) a blunder – RCB held their Singapore/ Australia star batter Tim David back for so long that he only got to face eight balls in the entire innings, off which he scored an unbeaten 22 and CSK ended up giving the 20th over to Sam Curran, and irrespective of bowling resources available having the left arm medium pacer bowl the last over of a T20 innings represents a mishandling of those resources. The over in question was plundered for 20 runs, boosting RCB to 196-7 from their 20 overs.

THE CSK REPLY

CSK started poorly losing three wickets almost before they had got going. Curran, fresh from his less than impressive efforts with the ball came in at number five. He never got going at all, and had scored 8 off 12 balls when he attempted to give the 13th ball of his innings, an absolute pie from another English all rounder, Liam Livingstone, the treatment it deserved but succeeded only in picking out Krunal Pandya in the deep to make it 52-4. At this point ‘Impact Player’ Shivam Dube came in. He reached 19 fairly impressively before being bowled by a very good ball from Yash Dayal. It was at this stage that CSK mucked up their batting line up. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a legend of the game but now 43 years old and well past his best should have been in at this point, but determined to hold him back for the very final stages of the innings no matter what, CSK sent Ravindra Jadeja in at seven, and then even more bizarrely R Ashwin at eight, before finally having the keeper/ batter come in at nine. Dhoni actually did bat impressively once sent in, but while his 30* (16) would have been ample had his team mates matched his scoring rate CSK had fallen so far behind that all it did was reduce the margin of defeat somewhat, to a still fairly hefty 50 runs. Josh Hazlewood for RCB, in a match in which not many bowlers would have been overly eager to find out their exact figures had 4-0-21-3 to show for his own efforts, and he bowled every bit as well as those figures suggest, though Patidar was named Player of the Match.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Insects Active

A (largely photographic) look at the newly emerging insect life of spring 2025.

As we move deeper into spring in the northern hemisphere the insects are starting to appear in numbers (other than the butterflies, where my sightings count remains stuck at two so far for 2025). The photo gallery at the end of this post thus features a preponderance of insects.

HOW TO FIND INSECTS

A lot of this can be explained by reproducing an old line which works well in this context: “seek and ye shall find”.

I do lots of walking, and where I go my camera goes. I have also learned through experience to recognize likely places to spot insect life.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The woods near Kettlewell Lane, where this picture among others in this gallery was taken can be relied on for insect lift.

A One Day Clash Between Past and Present

Two XIs – ‘Blasts from the Past’ – an XI who would have been excellent in limited overs cricket given the chance – and an XI picked from the best English white ball players of modern times. Also a photo gallery.

During the bit of commentary on yesterday’s third ODI between England and Australia that I was able to catch (between work and a weather induced early finish not nearly enough for me to write about) there was some discussion about greats of the past who might have fared well in limited overs cricket had it been a thing in their eras. I therefore offer a clash of two England XIs – an XI exclusively from before the era of limited overs cricket and an XI from the era of limited overs cricket. Usual one day rules apply.

BLAST FROM THE PAST XI

Charlie Barnett (Gloucestershire) – right handed opening batter. He once had 98* to his name going into lunch on day one of an Ashes match, having told his opening partner Leonard Hutton not to worry about trying to give him the strike in the final over before the interval because “we’ve given them enough cause for indigestion”.
Lionel Palairet (Somerset) – right handed opening batter. He scored pre-lunch hundreds off scratch no fewer than five times in his first class career. He may also have had the most stories per match of anyone with more than one international cap – his two England appearances were Old Trafford and The Oval tests of 1902, the first a pulsating encounter that the Aussies won by three runs and the second “Jessop’s Match”.
Frank Woolley (Kent) – left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner. A fast scoring batter, a genuinely front line spinner (he achieved the “batting all rounder’s double” of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets in first class matches in the same season no fewer than four times.
Denis Compton (Middlesex) – right handed batter, occasional left arm wrist spin bowler. He was capable of scoring at a breath taking rate and his penchant for unorthodoxy would have stood him in good stead in a limited overs setting.
+Les Ames (Kent) – right handed batter, wicket keeper. His aggressive batting (winner of the Lawrence trophy for the fastest first class hundred of the season twice in the first three years of its existence) he was the only candidate for the gauntlets in this side.
Gilbert Jessop (Gloucestershire) – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler. If ever there was a guaranteed selection for a side of this nature it was he. The most consistently rapid run scorer the game has ever known, a useful fast bowler and an outstanding fielder, he had all the attributes to have been a key member of any limited overs side.
*Percy Fender (Surrey) – right handed batter, right arm leg spinner, captain. Still holds the record for the fastest first class century against legitimate as opposed to declaration bowling, 35 minutes against Northamptonshire. A fine leg spinner and an astute captain as well.
Frank Foster (Warwickshire) – left handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler. A good enough batter (and attacking by instinct) to have a first class triple century to his name, and a good enough bowler to have been one half of one of the great new ball pairings in test cricket alongside the guy at number 10 in this side.
Billy Bates (Yorkshire) – off spinner, right handed batter. A fine all rounder in his day, and a notably economical bowler.
Syd Barnes (Warwickshire, Lancashire, various league sides) – right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter. He would doubtless grumble about only being allowed 10 overs in the innings, but he would undoubtedly be a challenge for anyone to play, and in this XI he would be sharing the new ball with one of his favourite partners, and would be well handled by skipper Fender.
Alfred Shaw (Nottinghamshire, Sussex) – right arm medium/ right arm slow bowler, right handed batter. The man who bowled more first class overs than he conceded runs at that level – to me almost as much of a cast iron pick for this XI as was Jessop.

This XI features great batting depth, with everyone down to Bates capable of major contributions there, a stellar collection of bowling talents – Compton would be eighth choice bowler in this side, a crafty and astute captain and a great wicket keeper.

THE MODERNS

Alastair Brown (Surrey) – right handed opening batter. He was unlucky in terms of England caps because his prime was before England had really grasped the concept of separate squads for test and one day cricket. However he produced some devastating performances for Surrey, including 268 v Glamorgan, which remains the highest by an English batter in a limited overs match.
David Gower (Leicestershire, Hampshire) – left handed batter. He did quite frequently open in limited overs matches, and was one of the first English batters to have great success in the format.
Kevin Pietersen (Nottinghamshire, Hampshire, Surrey)- right handed batter, occasional off spinner. One of the most explosive talents ever possessed by anyone.
*Joe Root (Yorkshire) – right handed batter, occasional off/leg spinner. The best England batter to appear in my lifetime, and certainly among the top half-dozen the country have ever had. I have reservations about his captaincy.
+Jos Buttler (Somerset, Lancashire) right handed batter, wicket keeper. Excellent as an ODI finisher, the role he has here, and also as a T20I opener.
*Ben Stokes (Durham) left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler. A great match winner (cf his heroics in the 2019 world cup final), and as he has shown in test cricket a fine captain as well, which role I have given him in this side.
Liam Dawson (Hampshire) – left arm spinner, left handed batter. A high quality all rounder who has been poorly treated by England – the fact that he will not be on the plane to Pakistan for England’s next tour is frankly scandalous.
Moeen Ali (Worcestershire, Warwickshire) – off spinner, left handed batter. An excellent white ball cricketer.
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) – leg spinner, right handed batter. Without question the best white ball spinner of any kind England have ever had, and as such a shoo-in for this XI.
Darren Gough (Yorkshire) – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter.
Jofra Archer (Sussex) – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter. When fully fit he is absolutely devastating.

This side is strong in batting, and has a well varied bowling attack. There are only three pace options – Gough, Archer and Stokes, but there are three genuine spinners plus Root and Pietersen as back up options.

COMPARISONS

First to clear up a small point for regular readers, I have decided to omit the usual honourable mentions section from this post as if I did such a section any kind of justice it would be longer than the rest of the post put together. Please feel free to volunteer your own suggestions, though please remember to consider who you would replace from my selections and how that would affect the balance of the side(s).

The ‘Blasts from the Past’ are better equipped in all departments, and I would not rate Fender an inferior leader to Stokes. If a time machine enables these sides, with all 22 players at their peak and uninjured, to contest a five match series I would expect the ‘Blasts from the Past’ combo to win 4-1.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Monday Miscellany

A mixed bag of an offering this Monday afternoon!

INTRODUCTION

This post will be every bit as varied as its title suggests, featuring a mix of politics, mathematics, music, nature and photography (and possibly more).

SOME MATHS RELATED STUFF

I start with one of more recent followers, RobertLovesPi, and I have several pieces of his to share:

I start with the first piece of his that I read, which is titled “The 15-75-90 Triangle” – a graphic is reproduced below:
Next comes “The 43rd Stellation of the Snub Dodecahedron, and Related Polyhedra, Part One“, the first part of a series the whole of which I heartily recommend. It features some very impressive graphics, one of which I reproduce below:
My third offering from this excellent blog is a short story “The T-Shirt from the Future” – here is the picture of the T-shirt:

My next piece, courtesy of whyevolutionistrue is titled “The Coffer Illusion“, which concerns the picture below:

If the illusion defeats you, you can find out where the circles are by going to the original post.

I finish this little section with a nod to the mathematical website Brilliant, which I am a regular visitor to (I am currently on a 64 day problem solving streak). As a sample here is a problem I solved today, rated at maximum difficulty by the site, pretty close to minimum by me:

You can look at solutions to this problem on the website, and I will reveal the answer on this blog tomorrow.

A FEW POLITICAL PIECES

There has been a lot of coverage from various people of events in Charlottesville. I choose to draw your attention to Richard Murphy’s excellent piece on Tax Research UK, titled “Charlottesville is a cradle of extremism: we should take note“. Below is a screenshot of the first few paragraphs:

My second link is to the petitionsite, regarding a young women in El Salvador who having been raped and then had a miscarriage has then been jailed for 30 years due to the Catholic church influence anti-abortion laws of that country. The screenshot below is formatted as a link to take you to this petition to sign and if possible share it:

I finish this section on a lighter note, courtesy of whyevolutionistrue. This little piece titled “Where is North Korea? Some Americans have no idea” reminds us how unacquainted USians are with that area known as the rest of the world! Here is a screenshot of the opening paragraph:
Screenshot 2017-08-14 at 3.39.40 PM

PHOTOGRAPHS

I usually end my blog posts with some of my own photographs, but this photograph section has an additional feature – as a nod to the principal subjects of many of the photos that follow I offer you a musica prelude – Ottorino Respighi’s “The Birds”:

Cormorant — I did not notice the white bird on the far side of the river until I was editing this one – I think from the shape and colour that is a Little Egret but the image is not clear enough to be sure.

Squirrel does Meerkat impression — This squirrel is clearly an impressionist – and his meerkat is very good!

Giving a Radio Interview

A post focussing on me giving a radio interview. Some mention of a roller-skating session and of the current test-match. And of course some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

The title part of this post refers to one of the things I did yesterday. I also have some pictures to share.

AN AUTISM CENTRED MORNING

Of course, as branch secretary of the National Autistic Society’s West Norfolk branch and an #actuallyautistic person there is a way in which autism is always at the heart of what I do. After three days carrying out my concatenation of roles at a James and Sons auction (operator of the system that enables us to take online bids, database administrator, query fielder, in-house ‘Gordianus’, occasional customer service person – see here for a full account) I had a day on which my only preset commitment was to supervise a roller-skating session at Lynnsport between 11 and 12. In the absence of direct confirmation of a time that would be convenient to speak to Ashleigh at KLFM 96.7 (our local radio station) about our upcoming 10th anniversary I decided that I would set off early for Lynnsport and see if I could speak to her on the way or as a fall-back arrange to call in on my way back.

Ashleigh was able to fit me in straight away, and the interview went well (she will be sending me both a recording and an online article that will accompany the actual broadcast), and I left for Lynnsport with my spirits high – I had helped myself, advertised our upcoming 10th anniversary event and due its connection with the foregoing also made mention of our gardening grant and the allotment on Ferry Lane + plans for a sensory garden in part of the plot. It is because of this gardening stuff that we gained the use of the magnificent garden where our 10th anniversary celebration will be held.

The roller-skating passed without incident and I was able to listen to some of the action from the third test-match (even assuming I had both the ability and the willingness to pay the Biased Bull****ting Conservatives £150 per year I would choose to follow cricket by listening to radio commentaries rather than watching on TV). Yesterday was truncated by rain, but England have had a good day today – first reaching 353 largely thanks to a magnificent innings from Stokes and now bagging a South African wicket before tea – debutant Toby Roland-Jones breaking through.

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