< 1 minute readRahul Bhattacharya’s piece about Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the November issue of The Cricket Monthly is full of highlights, not least because a man who is himself one of our favourite cricketers also seems to revere exactly the same players we do. He describes how Brian Lara would sometimes put spin
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.
New Zealand witness a perfect stellar eclipse
< 1 minute readPoor New Zealand. In recent times, they have slowly been putting together a solid side. Since losing to England last year, they have drawn one Test series and won three. They have one of the more promising seam attacks around and have even found a few batsmen. Now they find
Continue readingMop-up of the last few days – learning, ‘restaurants’ and Roach
< 1 minute readSorry, we know content’s been a bit thin on the ground this week. Our nickname in one job was ‘Bare Minimum’ and we seem to have been harking back to those days. Learning Michael Clarke earlier this week: “We were hopeful that we learnt some lessons from our trip to
Continue readingLearning, reacting, chopping, changing and Ponting
3 minute readIt may feel like Australia lost the series against Pakistan 4-0, but actually it was only two. No matter how you play, you can’t lose more than two matches when you only play two. This has allowed Michael Clarke to somewhat disingenuously plead that his captaincy shouldn’t be judged on
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq and the golden robot
< 1 minute readIt’s a difficult gear change from second to 14th, but today Misbah-ul-Haq managed it. Doctor Deadbat transformed into Professor Pulverise and equalled Viv Richards’ record for the fastest-ever Test hundred off 56 balls. For some batsmen, quick scoring is a numbers game. They play aggressively all the time and a
Continue readingSpeaking of Pakistan…
< 1 minute readBecause surely you are. Australia are 136-5 in reply to Pakistan’s 570-6 at the time of writing. Younis Khan is averaging over 200 in the series. Unless this current partnership really goes somewhere, that’s better than Australia’s top six combined. But never mind unheralded Pakistani bowlers ripping through top Test
Continue readingMop-up of the day – Younus Khan’s bat and Murali’s balls
2 minute readYounus Khan’s just made his third Test hundred on the bounce. We mentioned that he was underrated after the first one. Let’s revisit that. We all know Younus averages some way north of 50 and that he’s now made Test hundreds against every nation, but let’s dig a little deeper.
Continue readingEngland coaching news: someone to do something for a bit
< 1 minute readFans of inexplicable additional consonants in first names rejoiced today when it was announced that one of England’s former bowling coaches will be returning to the setup, albeit on a short-term basis. No, it’s not Allan Donald – it’s Ottis Gibson. Gibson may or may not have said: “I was
Continue readingJonathan Trott joins Yorkshire
< 1 minute readAt least we think that’s what’s happened. As far as we can tell, Trott and a handful of others have signed for Yorkshire in time for the county’s tour to South Africa. Weirdly, there doesn’t seem to be any explanation why only seven of last year’s Championship-winning squad will be
Continue readingThe head-wobbling ghosts of Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah
2 minute readIt can be hard to keep up with Pakistan’s playing staff. Mitchell Marsh gets a debut and great tracts of webspace are devoted to him, explaining what this decision means and why it’s such a monumental event. In contrast, Pakistan players ghost into the side and it’s only when they’ve
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