2 minute readHow do you cope with loss? You take it one step at a time, of course. What does that mean in practical terms? Why not pretend that James Anderson’s got a bit of a niggle this week? And then for the next Test, just do the same again. Jimmy’s not
Continue reading
3 minute readToday it seems fitting to run this magnificent graphical tribute to James Anderson’s batting, which was sent in by longstanding-but-intermittent King Cricket contributor, Bert, who writes…. Days like this don’t come along very often. We are witnessing the end of one of the greatest eras of sport this country has
Continue reading
2 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. Much to admire, but can Gus Atkinson play the reverse sweep? And how grumpy will he be when England’s fielders revert to shelling one chance in three, rather than velcroing-in everything remotely within
Continue reading
3 minute readWe’ve written about James Anderson a lot over the years. He has a lot of qualities, but one of his finest – to our mind – is his irritability. We named James Anderson in an England XI that comprised the players we have invested in the most and we also
Continue reading
4 minute readLoads of people have been picked for England since James Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003. This XI comprises some of the least successful – plus Jimmy himself. Just imagine the exasperated head shaking! 1. Adam Lyth – 265 Test runs at 20.38 Surprisingly few of
Continue reading
3 minute readJames Anderson plays his final Test next week, having made his Test debut in 2003. There was a bit of a fallow ‘bowling at a single stump during the lunch interval’ period early on, but even then he did play at least one Test match every year. It struck us
Continue reading
4 minute readDon’t know if you saw, but India beat South African in the T20 World Cup final at the weekend. Numb Virat Kohli makes ‘enough’ runs T20 strategy is shaped by statistics, but if there’s one thing they don’t measure too well, it’s the likelihood a player’s entire muscle memory will
Continue reading
4 minute readIn a colossal miscarriage of justice, England (one win from four versus Test-playing nations) were knocked out of the T20 World Cup by unbeaten India after not playing anywhere near as well as them in the semi-final. India will meet the similarly-unbeaten South Africa, who triumphed over both Afghanistan and
Continue reading
5 minute readThe Afghanistan v Bangladesh match was a limited overs cricket tournament classic. It had all the staples of the genre: three possible winners despite only two teams being involved; chaotic running enhanced further by hapless fielding; frequent confusion over who was actually “winning”; and a slip fielder getting shot in
Continue reading
4 minute readIt feels somewhat bizarre that South Africa have only just made it through to the semi-finals, unbeaten, when England – with two defeats and a no result to their name – had basically already qualified from the same group. The week’s biggest highlight came elsewhere however. Spectacular deaths Jos Buttler
Continue reading