Cricket
ESPNcricinfo staff 5y

The Buzz: Happy Birthday, Baz. Here's cake in your... everywhere

Cricket

All the world's cricketers walked into a bar. The LOLs, the chatter, and the occasional mini-brawls, they were endless. And the news cycle was never the same again! Welcome to ESPNcricinfo's Social Buzz, your go-to destination for all the bantz, the jousts, and little bit of eavesdropping from the social media playground and beyond.

September 29

Happy Birthday, Baz. Here's cake in your... everywhere

Don't try this at home. Or do. Just have a second cake somewhere that you can actually eat.

Healy wins the toss for Lanning

Meg Lanning hasn't had the best of luck with winning the toss in recent times. She only managed to win two during the Ashes series in England and one in West Indies (Rachael Haynes won the toss in the match she stood-in for Lanning when she suffered a back spasm). So at the start of the home season against Sri Lanka in Sydney, Lanning handed the duties to Alyssa Healy and...Australia won the toss. Will Lanning be doing it again?

"I've got a pretty bad record with the coin toss and Alyssa has been talking herself up and she's delivered," Lanning said.

September 28

Introducing Jemi Neesh

We all know which cricketer puts out the most rib-tickling posts on social media. But he's got some serious competition. Jimmy Neesh, meet your match. That hashtag tho!

Hampshire's Abbott is Essex's player of the month

Having become the first team to complete a County Championship/T20 double during September, Essex shouldn't have been short of candidates for their Player of the Month award. But at their end-of-season dinner, the winner was announced as… Hampshire seamer Kyle Abbott. Abbott's remarkable match haul of 17 for 86 had knocked Somerset off top spot in the Championship, and meant Essex were the leaders going into the final round. After completing his haul, Abbott had tweeted "@EssexCricket you welcome……" - he might well do so again after compatriot Simon Harmer hands over the congratulatory bottle of champagne.

September 27

Watch: Tendulkar bats on a rain-filled pitch

Sachin Tendulkar has posted a video from his playing days in which he's receiving throwdowns from his friends on a waterlogged pitch on a rainy day. The ball splashes into the surface and rears up at Tendulkar, who whips it behind the wicket, plays it straight and even drives, but it isn't these shots that delight his friends. It's when he's forced to duck or swerve or offer a catch that there are loud cheers and cackles of laughter all round. Tendulkar smiles too, perhaps knowing what it means to them to (sort of) best him. International bowlers may have been largely respectful of Tendulkar at the crease, but that's not what you get from your mates, eh?

Check out Sri Lanka's new Malinga

Lasith Malinga's international career is on its last stretch, and Sri Lanka fans will bid goodbye to him with a heavy heart when the time finally comes, but they might not have to wait too long for another like him.

The animal lover

You may not want to be a bunny, but it's nice to be around them har har.

Oh brother!

Pity the umpires who have to deal with the "he started it!" arguments that are bound to break out when three siblings - like the Curran brothers here - play in a game together.

Friendly games of football need VAR too

A right decision is a right decision regardless of the stakes of the game, right? Somerset take their pre-match warm-up game of football seriously enough to have referees and video replays (Video Assistant Referee, the cousin of DRS) because, well, why ever not?

September 26

John Cleese and Jeffrey Archer spotted in Taunton

It's true what they say: you'll find only old men (and their dogs) at county games. But to cut a long story short, it wouldn't be fawlty to say that we were particularly starstruck by the presence of two 79-year-olds in Taunton for the County Championship game between Somerset and Essex - novelist Jeffrey Archer and actor John Cleese.

Parkinson to Parkinson, GOT HIM LBW!

Matt and Callum Parkinson are twins, bowl (different types of) spin, played club cricket together and always felt it would be "weird" to come up against each other as professionals. Matt plays for Lancashire, while Callum switched to Leicestershire via Derbyshire early in his professional career.

When the 22-year-olds came up against each other in a Division Two game in the County Championship this week, the odds would still have been long for both of them to get each other out in identical fashion. And yet, here we are, three days later, with exactly that coming to pass.

It's been a week for the Parkinson twins!

September 25

MS Dhoni knows the trials of a "trial ball"

MS Dhoni posted a video of his friend getting bowled and then claiming that that was a "trial ball" (Ed: That's a legit claim. The MCC needs to add it to the Laws). What happens when he faces the first "actual" delivery?

No excess baggage for Ravi Shastri

Wow, Ravi, nothing from duty-free for you? Not even a nice box of chocolates or a good bottle of whiskey?

Childhood friends turned Ashes rivals

The kids in the photo are Mitchell Marsh (left) and Sam Curran (right), who spent some of their childhood together when their fathers were coaching in Zimbabwe together.

Curran had posted the same photo on Twitter two years ago when Marsh was set to join him at Surrey.

The song bird

Right, so Glenn McGrath was Pigeon and Brett Lee is Parrot?

Aaron Finch wants to get in on the reality singing competition action too. Maybe he could be Penguin and then also moonlight as a comic-book villain.

The parent trap

Joe Denly echoes the feelings of young parents everywhere.

September 24

Cricket, like many other major sports, contributes to environmental degradation, so it's nice to see players take a stand on climate change. Rohit Sharma tweeted support for Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who spoke at the UN general assembly this week, calling out world leaders for their lack of effort in cutting down carbon emissions.

September 23

Donald Trump, meet the Don of...

When Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt wanted to talk up Australian prime minister Scott Morrison to US president Donald Trump, he took some help from cricket... and then baseball.

2D Adam Zampa enjoys Essex's T20 win

You know how people say, "you just had to be there"? Well, Adam Zampa did the next best thing after his county side Essex won the T20 Blast title while he was away in Australia. He had his victorious team-mates pose with his cardboard cutout so he could be part of the celebrations as well. So what if he wasn't on the scorec….

Give yourself a talking to

If we're being honest, this says more about Rohit Sharma's skills as a conversationalist than about Shikhar Dhawan's supposed eccentricity.

Missed all the chatter last week? Catch up on it here

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