King Cricket

November 22, 2023 Extras / Features

10 staggeringly indecent highlights and lowlights from the 2023 World Cup – featuring Rohit Sharma, Glenn Maxwell, Ravi Shastri + more

5 minute readThere’s been a World Cup. Some things happened in it. Here are a few that we found ourselves thinking about a fair bit for one reason or another. We’ve labelled this selection ‘indecent’ as a sort of broad, catch-all term that can be interpreted either positively or negatively. It’s essentially

November 20, 2023 Australia / India

When Glenn Maxwell went largely unseen and the Narendra Modi Stadium went anticlimactically unheard – the surprisingly good World Cup final that no-one asked for

4 minute readIf you’d asked anyone, at any point in the last year, how this ever-so-predictable World Cup would climax, they’d have all given exactly the same answer. It was always going to end with Welcome to the Jungle blaring out over the PA as Marnus Labuschagne punched the air with 58

November 16, 2023 Australia

Did you see… Steve Smith’s skyer?

2 minute readCommentators often say that a ball has gone “straight up” but few have gone up quite so straight as the one that resulted in Steve Smith’s dismissal against South Africa in today’s World Cup semi-final. It is astonishingly hard to propel a ball straight up. Hit a ball any serious

November 15, 2023 India

Did you see… Mohammed Shami refusing to cede a wicket to Jasprit Bumrah?

< 1 minute readToday Mohammed Shami’s insatiable thirst for World Cup wickets spilled over into his fielding when he utterly failed to secure an easy wicket from a delivery bowled by someone else. What happened was: Jasprit Bumrah bowled, Kane Williamson hit it straight to Shami, and Shami for some reason went all

November 13, 2023 India

Have Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid got things running too smoothly? India haven’t had to win a game yet

3 minute readOn Wednesday – near enough six weeks after the World Cup began – India play their first game that they actually have to win. The form guide suggests New Zealand will be swept away, but the form guide hasn’t been measuring must-win games. The truism here is that Indian players

November 9, 2023 England

From Moeen Ali to Mark Wood, England are about to have a proper clear-out – will any of this World Cup squad still be around in four years’ time (or even next week)?

3 minute readIt’s the nature of modern cricket that international cricketers don’t so much retire as go part-time. But while a good few members of this England World Cup squad will also be part of the England T20 World Cup next year, when it comes to one-day internationals (ODIs), this is pretty

November 8, 2023 England

David Willey: six and out from a selfless, dutiful player who England always seemed to take for granted

2 minute readDavid Willey had two balls to face today and he tried to make full use of both of them. It was typically selfless stuff from a committed player who rarely seems to have got much love or respect from England, even when he’s been one of their top performers. Willey

November 7, 2023 Afghanistan

Did you see… Ibrahim Zadran’s ramp shot off Pat Cummins?

3 minute readAfghanistan’s batters hit several incredible shots in their 291-5 against Australia today, but Ibrahim Zadran’s ramp shot off Pat Cummins gets the nod from us as the most incredible. Before we get into this, let’s first have a handful of honourable mentions. Firstly, Azmatullah Omarzai’s cover drive off Mitchell Starc

November 6, 2023 Bangladesh / Sri Lanka

Why didn’t Shakib al Hasan withdraw his appeal when Angelo Mathews was timed out?

2 minute readFor the same reason he appealed in the first place: because he’s Shakib al Hasan. Angelo Mathews was timed out during Sri Lanka’s game against Bangladesh in Delhi today. This is, incredibly, the first time a batter’s been out this way in international cricket. It takes a particular type of

November 1, 2023 Extras

Other than one brief flicker from Adrian Holdstock we’ve been massively unimpressed with the standard of umpiring at this World Cup

3 minute readWhen most people talk about the standard of umpiring in a cricket match, they tend to mean the quality of the decision-making. But we don’t mean that… we don’t mean that at all. Other than when there’s a stinker of a decision or a marginal call at a crucial time,

Question too exhausting for human brain today, Sam, so I asked DeepAI to produce a diagram for you: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlharris/54222520834/in/dateposted/ By…

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Are we already watching peak Harry Brook?

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