King Cricket

July 26, 2016 England / Pakistan

Should England persist with Moeen Ali?

< 1 minute readIt’s not how, it’s how many. That’s what they say of run-scoring. Does the same apply to wicket-taking? Moeen Ali is actually England’s second-highest wicket-taker in this Pakistan series. He has taken seven wickets at 32.28, which is eminently respectable. He has also conceded near enough five runs an over,

July 25, 2016 England / Pakistan

Out with Shan Masood, in with a pair of deep sea diving boots

< 1 minute readAfter an hour of zesty nonsense this morning, the cricket restarted. Shan Masood continued his marvellous record of being dismissed by Jimmy Anderson for pretty much no runs. Pakistan can be fairly confident that Jimmy will play the next Test and they can be fairly confident that he will open

July 24, 2016 England / Pakistan

Batsmen don’t win Test matches

2 minute readA few weeks ago, we spent a good long while discussing what time we should leave the County Ground in Bristol when we already knew the match was over. We stick around at the end of cricket matches. We certainly don’t leave early. Today, England made the decision to bat

July 22, 2016 England / Pakistan

England hit upon innovative new strategy – hundreds from Cook and Root

< 1 minute readSomeone came to Old Trafford dressed as the Cookie Monster today. Perhaps it was a reference to the hundred-scoring monster that is Alastair Cook. Or maybe all his other clothes were in the wash. Earlier today we made a comment about how we generally feel like we’ve seen Cook’s innings

July 22, 2016 Pakistan

Video: Mohammad Amir bowls Alex Hales

< 1 minute readThis delivery is basically what we all expected from Mohammad Amir, no? WATCH: This some delivery from Amir to bowl Hales for 10. ENG 26-1: https://t.co/XbFzNuRrnw #ENGvPAK https://t.co/H9xX5Pc49k — England Cricket (@englandcricket) 22 July 2016 Sometimes – like when watching an Alastair Cook innings for example – we can feel

July 21, 2016 County cricket

A rather hasty July 21 County Championship round-up

< 1 minute readWhat a headline. Okay, let’s hustle through this unsatisfactorily before another Test match starts. In fact it occurs to us that the daily email comprising this particular post will go out at almost exactly the time the match starts. We really should plan ahead. Never mind. The headline’s written. County

July 20, 2016 Extras

Mike Selvey leaving the Guardian

3 minute readThe Guardian’s cricket correspondent, Mike Selvey, is to part ways with the newspaper at the end of September. “Guardian no longer want 50 yrs intimate knowledge of cricket, cricketers and how game is played for future coverage,” he said in a tweet – later adding the hash tag #abitshitreally to

July 19, 2016 England

Jake Ball: first look in Test cricket

< 1 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from debut performances – but we report on them anyway. Google does currently appear to be conflating Jake Ball with the Welsh rugby player of the same name. The cricket one’s tall, but we’re pretty sure he doesn’t weigh 121kg. Our first

July 17, 2016 England / Pakistan

Pakistan celebrate Lord’s Test win with press-ups

< 1 minute readFor all the good cricket Pakistan played to beat England at Lord’s, their greatest attribute was that they visibly enjoyed playing Test cricket. Throughout the match, they were like a group of 11 children revelling in some sort of collective birthday, and when they won, it seemed they’d received the

July 16, 2016 Pakistan

Yasir Shah’s feline five-for

< 1 minute readYasir Shah has the air of a contented cat. We’re not quite sure what gives us this impression. Perhaps it’s the eyes. In the cat world, a slow blink is a way of saying that the person being blinked at is pretty cool. It says that diplomatic relations between you