< 1 minute readIn this new Morganian one-day world, with its unexpectedly stumbling approach to a major tournament, we’d like to ask: when should a team start planning for the World Cup? England have often cobbled together a strategy at the 11th hour, bringing in players with little or no experience of high
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.
Is Alastair Cook a plodder? How long does it take to diagnose ploditis?
3 minute readAlastair Cook says that he’s doing everything he possibly can to try and turn his form around. This begs a rather obvious question. If you’re practising really, really hard and doing everything you possibly can to prepare, but you’re still not scoring runs – what does that actually say about
Continue readingA double-Marsh five and six does not impress
< 1 minute readIt wasn’t so long ago that Australia’s batting was pretty fragile. Since then, David Warner and Steve Smith have joined Michael Clarke as regular run-scorers, providing more than mere gaffer tape solidity. However, while India’s 408 doesn’t look too imposing, nor does Australia’s new-look line-up. Some players seem underrated by
Continue readingAustralia protect some bowlers so that some different ones can get injured
< 1 minute readIf the Gabbattoir is seeing anyone slaughtered, it’s not the Indians but the home team’s bowlers. Ryan Harris was rested because he’s slightly injured and while Peter Siddle was flat-out dropped, he might be back for the next Test because the Aussie bowlers who actually are playing have been attempting
Continue readingMuralimania and English cricket’s monomania
2 minute readToday we’re going to direct you towards two pieces of ours which appeared outside the kingdom. First up, our latest King of Cricket is Murali. Don’t worry, it ain’t all numbers. It’s about the joints, the graft and the batting really. Secondly, last week’s Cricinfo piece, entitled English cricket rocked
Continue readingAlastair Cook attempts to beat wall down with head
2 minute readOne of Alastair Cook’s problems is that he plays every one-day innings as if it might be his last. He positively clings to the crease, grimly trying not to make a mistake. The better approach might be to play as if he doesn’t give a toss, but say what you
Continue readingVirat Kohli applies the icing – but the cake’s a piece of crap and soon collapses
< 1 minute readLet’s leave Alastair Cook until tomorrow and instead take a quick look at how India’s run-chase went in the first Test. The tourists lost and Nathan Lyon alone took as many wickets as they did, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it was that bad a performance. India somehow managed
Continue readingIs MS Dhoni the problem? A fourth innings hypothesis test
2 minute readIf you get the daily email from this site, you’ll already know whether India have made a decent fist of day five of the first Test against Australia. We’re writing this at the end of day four and have conflicting feelings about how things might pan out. On the one
Continue readingAlastair Cook, James Taylor, some other guy and uncooked spaghetti
2 minute readIt’s hard to argue that this wasn’t the perfect England one-day performance. One, England won, which satisfied most of their fans; and two, there was enough evidence to suggest that England will never win one-day games with Alastair Cook at the helm, which will have satisfied his detractors. The ideal
Continue readingMichael Clarke not quite finished and Steve Smith barely started
< 1 minute readIt’s possible that we jumped the gun in saying that we might not see much more of Michael Clarke. We’ve reached this conclusion on the basis that he made a hundred as recently as today. Watching Clarke teeter and gallumph about, it’s clear that the spirit is willing but the
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