New quicks and new words

I almost feel like there is too much to blog about today, and as a result, I'm feeling slightly incoherent. For one, there is the matter of Pakistan's stunning win against Sri Lanka. Why do I get the feeling that they seem to specialize in these sorts of wins? Even accounting for Jayasuriya's injury, to blow away Sri Lanka for 73 in the second innings took some doing (and as usual, they did it on the back of a new quick!).

Then there is RSA's dispiriting loss to Australia; much as they have scrapped hard at times over the southern summer, its ended with five losses in six tests, and that, any way you look at it, has got to count as a hiding. The 3-0 win is an amazing letdown after the one-day series, but South Africa have only themselves to blame if they imagined that that match was going to have any effect on the tests (other than perhaps the first session of the first test, for once a game starts, it develops a momentum of its own very soon, and carried over momenta (ooh, is that a word?), don't last too long). Nested parentheses? I really am a geek.

And finally, there is the small matter of thinking about what is going to happen in the cauldron called Cochin when India take on England. Over at Cricinfo, Dileep Premchandran can't seem to stop sneering at England, and English journalists all over the place can't shake themselves out of the gloom and doom. So in all this mess, let me just point out that I'm glad to see a new word make its way into cricket reports, as Richard Hobson over at the Times, describes Flintoff as a "locum captain". Gee, I actually had to go look that up. You should too; I plan to use it sometime myself. (yes, its "locum", not "loco", no matter what you might think about Flintoff's captaincy in this series).