< 1 minute read“I don’t particularly like them,” said James Faulkner before Australia played the West Indies. He must positively detest them now. Here’s another Faulkner quote. “If you can do something to upset somebody and upset their team, it goes a long way towards doing well as a group.” He got that the
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.
Moeen Ali and “planning for the future”
< 1 minute readThe concept of ‘planning for the future’ is often used to explain the inclusion of younger players in favour of perhaps superior older players. This preference is often presented as being ‘an investment’. That, on the face of it, is a perfectly valid modus operandi. It gives the sense that
Continue readingAlex Hales gets England’s first T20 hundred – and a surprise win
< 1 minute read“It’s all over baby, because this one’s headed to the moon!” You can always rely on Danny Morrison to deliver fitting commentary on the denouement of a compelling match. A few minutes earlier, he’d used the word ‘whippage’. He was on form. So was Alex Hales, who hit the first
Continue readingMoeen Ali v Lasith Malinga
2 minute readIn Cricinfo’s preview, it is suggested that England might target Ajantha Mendis. That is the best plan going: England batsmen targeting a weird spin bowler – England’s batsmen being famously good against weird spin bowlers. But it’s that or try and hit Lasith Malinga for six, so attacking Mendis it
Continue readingEngland’s World T20 campaign so far
< 1 minute readThere was lightning and then some of you made a decent fist of defining what a ‘ferret’ is. Wine was drunk, commetators were pilloried, Cricinfo scorecards were badmouthed. Business as usual. We feel we’re now right back up to speed in time for the remainder of the tournament. We’re particularly
Continue readingWhat happened in the England v New Zealand match?
< 1 minute readWe’re going to miss this match, so you’re going to have take up the slack and deliver our usual insightful, in-depth reportage in the comments section yourselves. If you divvy the work up between a few hundred of your pets, we’re sure you can produce something approaching our usual quality.
Continue readingIndia v Pakistan was actually quite, quite rubbish
< 1 minute readWe can officially reveal that India v Pakistan in the World T20 wasn’t quite interesting enough to prevent keen cricket fans from going out to buy eggs and then out again, a second time, to post something. To put this in context, we would rank posting letters right up there
Continue readingThat Tom Cooper thing’s turning out to be a good move
< 1 minute readNefariousness can be a virtue, it seems. Tim Gruijters and his bad-but-by-no-means-debilitating back probably wouldn’t have hit 45 off 15 balls, vaulting the Netherlands from third place in their group into the Super 10 stage of the World T20. However, his replacement, Tom Cooper, managed it – just like that.
Continue readingSix reasons why England will win the World T20
< 1 minute readEveryone likes a list. Unless it’s for the big shop. We never use a list when food shopping and last week, planning on doing a roast followed by cheese, we bought everything bar the chicken and the cheese. So it goes. But away from the fluorescent-illuminated stationary trolleys of dawdling
Continue readingThe unpredictability of Twenty20 plays right into England’s buttery hands
< 1 minute readIf there is to be any drama in England’s T20 World Cup campaign, it seems likely that it will come in the form of a very formulaic, second-rate sitcom. We’re expecting the most noteworthy performance in every match to be one of the batsmen making 40-odd off as many balls.
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