2 minute readSW writes: Here are the animals of the SW household demonstrating considerable indifference to key moments of the T20 World Cup. First up there is Jasper (aka Fatty McFat). He is technically the neighbour’s cat, but they don’t feed him and call him Nike so he has rejected this emasculating
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.
Are there no Australians in London?
< 1 minute readDo you think barbecues should be gas powered, even though they really, really shouldn’t be? Does losing at sport make you want to drink to excess? Does winning at sport make you want to drink to excess? Do you own a vest? If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions, you’re
Continue readingWhy is Michael Vaughan not in England’s Ashes squad?
< 1 minute readBecause he’s busy scoring tens of runs for Yorkshire and pensively rubbing his knee when in the field. Seven first-class innings, 147 runs at 21 with a top score of 43. County cricket can consider itself safe from combustion. It’s common for people to say that Michael Vaughan has ‘class’,
Continue readingShahid Afridi wins T20 World Cup for Pakistan
< 1 minute readOut of form and out of practice, Pakistan were playing like a cutlery drawer full of spoons at the start of the tournament but literally improved with every game. Shahid Afridi played like a grown-up today, which is again missing the point of Shahid Afridi. But being as he won
Continue readingWhy support Pakistan in the World Twenty20 final?
< 1 minute readWe’ve been quietly supporting Sri Lanka all along – as we often do in these tournaments. They always looked a decent bet with their oddball bowling attack and they’re pretty likeable sorts as well. But then Pakistan turned up. When they’ve actually been allowed to play over the last couple
Continue readingTillakaratne Dilshan largely unarsed by bowling or conditions
< 1 minute readInternational Twenty20, or T20I, has a short history, so Tillakaratne Dilshan has been able to launch himself into third place on the list of all-time run-scorers largely as a result of this tournament. Dilshan’s scored over half his career runs in the last fortnight and a good chunk of those
Continue readingUmar Gul bowls at the stumps
< 1 minute readThere are a lot of cute, overcomplicated theories about Twenty20 cricket: Mix it up. You’ve got to bowl something different every ball. South Africa’s hugely impressive left-armer, Wayne Parnell, showed that if you can bowl yorkers on demand, you can make it very hard to score. But Parnell’s got room
Continue readingDid South Africa choke in a semi final again?
< 1 minute readNo, they got beaten by Pakistan, who were ace. It’s good to have the real Pakistan back. At the start of the tournament, we looked at their team and thought: ‘Where’s the fun? Where’s the Pakistani all-or-nothing genius and chaos?’ Turns out it was in there all along.
Continue readingIPL is a lower standard of cricket
< 1 minute readOver the last year or so, the IPL’s marketing/propaganda has been accepted to such an extent that players and journalists the world over have been lauding it as cricket not just called Twenty20, but from the year 2020 – way ahead of its time. You can’t help but learn in
Continue readingTwo Test batsmen in Twenty20
< 1 minute readWhen you’ve already taken five wickets in a nine over match, as England did, you’d hope to have worse batsmen at the crease than Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. England’s six and seven were James Foster and Graeme Swann, for example. Needing 10 an over is no cause for panic
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