3 minute readIn this World Cup, the fielding team was allowed four men outside the thirty-yard circle. It’s different in Powerplays – it’s two outside in the first one and then three in the second – but let’s not worry about that. For the purposes of this article, we’re focusing on what
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
Otherwise known as Alex Bowden, a lapsed cricket journalist who has written for ESPNCricinfo, wisden.com, Cricket 365, The Cricketer and plenty of other places.
Links to some non-cricket writing and a bit more background here.
Bowlers still exist
< 1 minute readThat’s the surprising conclusion we’ve drawn from the last few weeks of cricket. More on this and a review of Australia’s win yesterday in our final World Cup column for the Mumbai Mirror. We’ll maybe have a few points to make about the tournament as a whole in coming days
Continue readingMitchell Starc never was soft
< 1 minute readHe just had a bad day once upon a time. Seems a long time ago. We just about managed to remember that far back for our Mumbai Mirror World Cup final day piece, in which we also expressed the hope that the team with no spinner should lose. We started
Continue readingHow to bat your way to a World Cup final
< 1 minute readThis World Cup really hasn’t turned out as batsman-centric as people imagined. Batting-centric, maybe, but not batsman-centric. Australia have Steve Smith and a whole bunch of minor contributors. New Zealand have four overs of Brendon McCullum and then everyone’s a little too shell-shocked to really know what’s going on after
Continue readingThe non-meal-defining carbohydrates of Aaron Finch
< 1 minute readThere was a long and rambling food analogy that didn’t make it into our review of the second semi-final. It would have been something about Finch’s innings providing a decent amount of substance without really affecting the quality of the meal/Australia’s performance to any great extent. We also highlighted where
Continue readingWhich of India’s batsmen are ‘due’?
< 1 minute readSteve Smith was due. Famously, he’s barely scored a run these last few months. Definitely due. As you all know, whether or not a batsman’s ‘due’ is a watertight method of predicting who will and won’t perform. This morning we gave the denizens of Mumbai the benefit of our expertise
Continue readingThe joys of mishits, dropped catches, failed run-outs and overthrows
< 1 minute readOr, in other words, the semi-final report we promised you yesterday. It’s also worth noting the contribution made by Dan Vettori. Thanks Dan for being one of the few players to keep his side of the bargain after being named one of our World Cup cricketers to watch. Shame on
Continue readingCrowd-pleasing lesson number 468
< 1 minute readWe know what you guys are like. The last thing you want to hear about after a fantastic semi-final is that fantastic semi-final. You’d rather wait at least 24 hours to hear what we have to say on the subject, until a point at which the emotion’s faded and you’re
Continue readingMS Dhoni’s conviction isn’t swayed by anything so prosaic as evidence
< 1 minute readThat’s what we’ve written about for the Mumbai Mirror. It’s not just about Dhoni though. It’s also about conviction in general and how an epidemic of uncertainty can sweep through a side at a major tournament. In other words, it’s yet another piece about stuff England did wrong masquerading as
Continue readingWe tried to write about Martin Guptill
< 1 minute readBut it seemed to come out as a Dan Vettori piece. Big beardy Dan. Back from retirement. Keeping it tight like one-day cricket hasn’t changed at all in the last decade and leaping about like a man roughly the same age but not quite so decrepit.
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