Even at his most fluent, Cook cannot avoid being ungainly. But without him on the first day at Lord's, England would have been sunk without trace

A community club hosted a community sport, as Ireland rose above the emotion of their overdue arrival at cricket's highest level

Kevin O'Brien isn't the best player Ireland has ever had, he's just the one who keeps producing their most important innings

Ed Joyce, William Porterfield and Niall O'Brien have waited most of their professional career for a chance at Test cricket: their first innings were done inside eight overs

Ireland's hugely experienced debutants played a canny game, but the limits of their abilities had been revealed by the close

Ireland endured a disappointing first day of Test status, but they've endured greater hardships than this in the past

This might be the first men's Test between the two nations, but their cricketing trajectories have many surprising intersections

But you get the feeling for most of the players, and the coaching staff, they just want the game to start

Better known as a rugby referee and the man who spotted Ed Joyce as a 10-year-old, Alan Lewis was also one of the best cricketers of his generation

He's one of the few players who can make an impact on a match at just about every stage of it

Slow left-arm spinners generally do well in T20s, plus he can also bat a bit. Then why doesn't he stop runs, take many wickets, or bat quicker in the IPL?

Their batsmen aren't exactly explosive off the first ten deliveries they face. It hasn't hurt them yet this season, but can that last?

Everyone knows about the methods used by players to make the ball reverse, but few in power have chosen to take issue with it - until now

The first few overs are vital, and wickets there priceless, but teams haven't quite figured out which bowlers to use in the period

Shahid Afridi was the perfect T20 cricketer even before people began to realise what that looked like, but time is finally catching up with him

Ben Dunk's form lurches from devastating to disastrous but no matter what he does the media can't be bothered to work itself up into a frenzy

Forget about averages and economy - T20 analysts are now measuring 'true strike rates', percentage 'activity rate', and the phenomenon of 'unconsolidating'

In his 47th year, Brad Hogg is leaking runs like he never used to, despite no obvious drop in his accuracy or consistency. He will keep going on forever if he can, but he's in the last year of his BBL contract, and the fairytale might just be winding down

Run rates are up, boundary counts are rising. Sixes are quickly becoming a big deal in women's cricket

With several players misfiring and a few released for national duty, Melbourne Stars have lurched from one defeat to another this season