King Cricket

November 29, 2016 England / India

England get a grip, but India keep a grip

< 1 minute readYet again, it’s one of those win the toss, win the match, if you’re India pitches. The sheer predictability of proceedings only being disrupted when the coin ended the other way up. There’s an illusion of inevitability when India bat first, but the play is coerced down a certain path

November 29, 2016 New Zealand / Pakistan

Neil Wagner sacrifices the opportunity to run in for a small fragment of the final session

< 1 minute readPakistan had already lost six wickets in the final session of the match when Kane Williamson brought forth The Great Neil Wagner. Three ducks later, the series was over. This isn’t going to help Wagner’s reputation one bit. How the hell are you supposed to run in all day when

November 28, 2016 England / India

Today’s Ben Stokes-induced happenings

< 1 minute readAt one point in the afternoon session, Ben Stokes accidentally spat on his own shirt. You’d think this would be a low point, but he plucked off the deposit with no obvious display of emotion. Perhaps he knew that things were about to get significantly worse. Shortly after spraying a

November 27, 2016 England / India

Good evening, Mr Kohli?

< 1 minute readBefore tea, Che Pujara and Virat Kohli, neither of whom had looked too troubled, started to hit a few more fours. It felt predictable and seemed to foreshadow a long evening session for England. After tea, Pujara – perhaps concerned that he might partially obscure Kohli’s halo – needlessly looped

November 26, 2016 England / India

Where would India be given another half-revolution of the coin?

2 minute readWhen trying to assess the state of play after the first day’s play, it’s often tempting to imagine a parallel world where the toss-winning captain has opted for heads instead of tails, tails instead of heads, or just totally gone off on one and gone for arms or thoraxes or

November 25, 2016 Extras

Even if you’re not normally much into this sort of thing…

< 1 minute readIt’s worth pointing out that David Gower makes an appearance in our latest Cricinfo Twitter round-up. Yes, that’s right – Gower. David Gower. On Twitter. His contribution is every bit as wonderful as you would imagine.

November 24, 2016 Australia / South Africa

How to dismiss Faf du Plessis – make friends with him

< 1 minute readFaf du Plessis is a competitor. That’s the kind of thing people say. It’s a shorthand way of saying that he only seems capable of playing to his full potential when there’s a stronger taste of conflict to proceedings. Performing in what is never called the crucible of county cricket,

November 24, 2016 India

Rishabh Pant is not India’s wicketkeeper – what possible reason is there for this?

< 1 minute readWriddhiman Saha is injured. India’s selectors said it was too early to hand a debut to Rishabh Pant who is still only 19 years old. They instead picked Parthiv Patel, a 31-year-old who made his Test debut against England in 2002. In seven innings this season, Pant has made four

November 23, 2016 Match report

Somerset v Glamorgan, Royal London One-Day Cup match report

2 minute readSam writes: It rained on the drive from Cornwall to Somerset. We had left our 18-month old son at home, and brought along our 34-year-old friend instead. He turned out to be slightly lower maintenance. The seating rules were not clear, so we plonked ourselves behind the bowler’s arm underneath

November 22, 2016 England / India / South Africa

Mop-up of the day – guilt, great promise and grey trivialities

2 minute read‘Du Plessis found guilty’ reads the Cricinfo headline. We don’t really feel it necessary to add much to your likely response to reading that. The effect of imposing black and white morality on the sport’s grey trivialities could barely be clearer. Here’s something we wrote last time Du Plessis buggered