Strike bowler Matthew Hoggard finds form

Matthew Hoggard nearly took a hat trick against South Australia. We don't know how close he was with the hat trick ball, but he certainly took two wickets in two balls. He finished with 3-40, so maybe he CAN bowl in Australia after all.

Adelaide's historically the best ground for batting in Australia, so England limiting South Australia to 247-7 declared wasn't bad. We're almost 100% certain that England are going to win every single Test by an innings and at least a hundred runs after this.

Matthew Hoggard's ticked off

He's not annoyed, as far as we know. We're the one's doing the ticking on our list of England players who can perform in Australian conditions.

Hoggard was a little bit of a worry. During the last Ashes tour he was pretty inconsequential and while he's clearly a more rounded bowler now, you still want proof. In taking 4-76, he's given us that proof. Matthew, go and stand with Paul Collingwood, Freddie and KP. Wait for everyone else.

A draw's the most likely result, but England won't see it that way. Their plan will be to get a couple of quick wickets early on, dispose of the tail with clinical efficiency, have a bit of a slog and then declare to set up a nailbiting final day.

We believe that they can do it. Cricket's the only place where we believe in unlikely stuff. In real life, we quite often don't believe in reasonably likely things, like 'something nice happening'. We never believe that something nice might happen.

Matthew Hoggard v New Zealand, 7-63 – ten great bowling performances

A swing bowler in our list of great bowling performances? Regular readers will know how unlikely this is. But wait. It’s not pace, per se, that we’re in awe of, it’s destructivity and given the right conditions a medium-pacer can become lethal.

Matthew Hoggard took 7-63 in Christchurch in a magnificent display of swing bowling that was totally and irreversibly overshadowed by the most staggering innings imaginable.

Hoggard also took 7-61 to win a Test against South Africa once. Everyone remembers this one though and anyway, it happened later. The Christchurch match was Hoggard’s arrival.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

Matthew Hoggard, 200 Test wickets

We felt that we should do some sort of tribute to Matthew Hoggard in honour of his taking his 200th Test wicket. If you watched Hoggard bowl today then that's probably tribute enough.

He swung the ball, bowled an immaculate line and threw in the odd slower delivery. He flies in the face of our fast-bowler worshipping policy. He bowls at about 80 miles an hour, but he's as devastating a bowler as England have got. He's no supporting act to Flintoff and Harmison. You can read our slightly dated post about how he's a strike bowler here.

To celebrate Matthew Hoggard's 200th Test wicket, we're going to crack open a beer and watch a bit of telly. It's how he'd want it. We might even have a pizza. What's that you say, Matthew? You think we should definitely have a pizza? Very well. For you, Matthew. Just for you.

Matthew Hoggard cliché article satisfactorily completed

Well that's that done and dusted. It's out there in the mainstream and nobody will have any excuse for laboured 'honest toiler' references again.

So everyone give, er, Paul Coupar of Wisden a pat on the back for this article.

We're not totally sure how we feel about this. We're not amazed, so we guess that we must be angry. Seems harsh considering he agrees with us, but there you go.

Holy Crap: Matthew Hoggard

'Holy Crap' is an occasional feature that we're going to do where we make an unlikely assertion about a player and then back it up with statistics, like the spin doctors do (not the band who had a hit with 'Two Princes', the other kind). As a dismissive caller to a phone-in once said: You can prove anything with facts.

Today's feature is: Holy crap, Matthew Hoggard's a strike bowler.

Matthew Hoggard is inevitably described by proper cricket journalists as 'dogged' and 'willing'. In fact it is part of the British cricket media's code of practice that all writers must refer to him as a 'yeoman'. The image we have is of Hoggard with his 'farm labourers gait' toiling into the wind and waging a war of attrition against opposing batsmen. A quick hand count of cricket journalists who've taken a Test match hat-trick please... Matthew Hoggard has.

A bowler's strike rate is how many balls it takes them to get a wicket on average. I have included several great bowlers from history and their strike rates, starting with Matthew Hoggard. Matthew Hoggard takes a wicket slightly more regularly than once every nine overs.

53.71, Matthew Hoggard
53.75, Imran Khan
54.27, Wes Hall
54.57, Curtly Ambrose
54.65, Wasim Akram

Contemporary bowlers trailing in Hoggard's wake include: Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne.

And so, backed up by facts that are true and words that are about the facts, we say:

Holy crap! Matthew Hoggard's a strike bowler!