King Cricket

July 28, 2014 South Africa

JP Duminy has just scored three off 65 balls

< 1 minute read That is… stellar. Particularly when you consider that he made three off 58 balls in the first innings. He wasn’t alone either. You can see the full deadbattery in scorecard format here. South Africa were playing for a draw to secure the series and succeeded in fine complete-absence-of-style. Rangana Herath

July 27, 2014 England / India

Four bowlers, five runs and one Gary Ballance

2 minute read After winning the previous Test with four-and-a-bit bowlers, India could have gone either way for this one. Unsurprisingly, they went with four bowlers, not five. Sometimes you can determine a lot from these fifty-fifty calls and MS Dhoni does seem to be a bit of a ‘pick the extra batsman’

July 27, 2014 England / India

Test match start days and the concept of ‘appointment to view’

< 1 minute read This year they moved the Twenty20 Cup to Friday nights to create an ‘appointment to view’. The premise is if people know when matches are being played, there’s a better chance they’ll watch. This year also sees a five-Test series taking place between England and India which boasts four different

July 25, 2014 Extras / Regulars

Mop-up of the day – two very different retirements

< 1 minute read The first is the unflappable maestro, Mahela Jayawardene, who is giving up the five-day game. Fun fact, stats nerds: his first innings hundred in the ongoing Test against South Africa has tipped his average over 50. He’s actually got another series after this one yet though, so don’t get too

July 24, 2014 Extras / Regulars

Mop-up of the day – an overreaction checklist

< 1 minute read We’ve produced a valuable guide just in case any England fans aren’t overreacting sufficiently. It can be found over at Cricinfo. Tick all the boxes and you too can call yourself a true England supporter. Andy Caddick’s ears Sam was greatly disappointed that they didn’t get a mention in another

July 22, 2014 England

Alastair Cook should stick to the day job

2 minute read Captaincy is an odd thing. It always strikes us that becoming captain is like being a writer promoted to a management position. We’ve had jobs where a senior colleague with a stupid job title has come up to us and basically said: “Your writing and editing is so good that

July 22, 2014 England

Another England cricketer eroded

< 1 minute read After Matt Prior missed one particular catch in the second Test, a Sky commentator – possibly Mike Atherton – suggested that the wicketkeeper might be having trouble moving to his right due to all his accumulated injury problems. In his statement announcing that he was standing down for the rest

July 21, 2014 England / India

Ishant Sharma with the short ball at Lord’s

2 minute read It’s an unlikely Cluedo solution, but it happened. We saw it with our own eyes. Joe Root was the third caught attacking the short ball after lunch and he did a cracking Charlie Brown slope upon being dismissed. It was really, really first class. We were in awe. We don’t

July 20, 2014 England / India

And again England concede runs to the lower order

< 1 minute read It’s okay to start headlines with ‘and’ when you’re emphasising the repetitive nature of something. Ravindra Jadeja isn’t exactly the tail, of course. Even if you play half your domestic matches on the world’s flattest pitch, scoring three triple hundreds shifts you out of the tail-end category never to return.

July 20, 2014 England / India

Alastair Cook failed to ration his runs

< 1 minute read Virat Kohli’s due a score, isn’t he? And how many runs has Alastair Cook got in his bag, just waiting to be plucked out? Or is it more that Cook’s now suffering the inevitable consequences of frittering runs away earlier in his career. There was a complete lack of rationing

His nickname at Northern Districts was "flatline", good to see he's living up to it: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ind-vs-nz-pune-test-mitchell-santner-peaks-with-virat-kohli-wicket-1457007

Kohli career was destroyed by his wife.

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Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills

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Five Graham Thorpe innings that were equal parts silly, brilliant and vital

Show me the money. Inattention and monetisation in Major League Cricket, The Hundred and Test cricket