< 1 minute readIndia beat Australia in a dead match at the end of an overlong one-day series about as far away from a World Cup as it’s possible to be. Could we have some Test cricket now, please? Murali Kartik took 6-27, which are pretty astonishing one-day figures. He then hit 21
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.
Rikki Clarke joins Derbyshire as captain
< 1 minute readIn the county cricket club fashion stakes, Derbyshire languish somewhere near the bottom. Whenever anyone needs to depict the mundane, life’s-going-on-elsewhere nature of early-season County Championship matches, they always pick on Derbyshire. That’s unfair in much the same way as ‘it rains in Manchester’ jibes are. The whole bloody island’s
Continue readingMatthew Hayden attaches a mirror to the back of his bat
< 1 minute readIt’s to more closely monitor the ageing process. ‘Still a few wisps of hair at the front there. Not time to retire yet’.
Continue readingCaptain fails to learn second fielding position
< 1 minute read“And you: You go and field at, er, slip.”
Continue readingDilhara Fernando’s slower ball
< 1 minute readEvery bowler’s got a slower ball nowadays. Some have got several. Sajid Mahmood bowls about 20, but appears to have absolutely no clue when he should use them or what they’re supposed to achieve. Dilhara Fernando bowls one, as far as we can tell. He spreads his fingers widely so
Continue readingInzy falls four runs short
< 1 minute readInzamam-ul-Haq managed to get himself stumped four runs short of becoming Pakistan’s highest-ever run-scorer. Patrick will be pleased. We’re of a similar mind. Four runs (or rather their absence) here really doesn’t make a blind bit of difference in terms of great a player he was, although we wouldn’t have
Continue readingGraeme Swann fails to conquer his bail addiction
< 1 minute readFor years Graeme Swann has secretly suffered from a rare and debilitating disease. Graeme is addicted to bails. Graeme’s been through a number of treatments – enforced withdrawal, hypnosis, various types of medication – but in the end he just has to accept it. He’s a bail addict and he’ll
Continue readingDon’t drop Jacques Kallis
< 1 minute readBecause paradoxically we end up having to watch even more of him. The South African selectors felt they could do without the world’s most willing batsman and least willing bowler for the Twenty20 World Cup. Jacques Kallis was a little irritated by this and resigned the vice-captaincy. He also claimed
Continue readingMitchell Johnson clouds the future
< 1 minute readWe’ve always had a desire to balance out the names of this world. Some people have two first names, like Brett Lee for example. It’s only right that there’s a yang to Lee’s yin and that’s where Mitchell Johnson comes in. Mitchell Johnson’s got two surnames, so he can swap
Continue readingEngland win a one-day series on the subcontinent
2 minute readIt’s England’s first one-day series win on the subcontinent since ages ago. Except for one they won in Bangladesh, because everyone knows that you don’t include Bangladesh in things like this. They’re not a ‘real’ team. They’re just messing about. It’s definitely England’s first one-day series win in Sri Lanka
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