King Cricket

December 18, 2014 Australia

A double-Marsh five and six does not impress

< 1 minute readIt wasn’t so long ago that Australia’s batting was pretty fragile. Since then, David Warner and Steve Smith have joined Michael Clarke as regular run-scorers, providing more than mere gaffer tape solidity. However, while India’s 408 doesn’t look too imposing, nor does Australia’s new-look line-up. Some players seem underrated by

December 17, 2014 Australia / India

Australia protect some bowlers so that some different ones can get injured

< 1 minute readIf the Gabbattoir is seeing anyone slaughtered, it’s not the Indians but the home team’s bowlers. Ryan Harris was rested because he’s slightly injured and while Peter Siddle was flat-out dropped, he might be back for the next Test because the Aussie bowlers who actually are playing have been attempting

December 16, 2014 England / Extras / Sri Lanka

Muralimania and English cricket’s monomania

2 minute readToday we’re going to direct you towards two pieces of ours which appeared outside the kingdom. First up, our latest King of Cricket is Murali. Don’t worry, it ain’t all numbers. It’s about the joints, the graft and the batting really. Secondly, last week’s Cricinfo piece, entitled English cricket rocked

December 14, 2014 England

Alastair Cook attempts to beat wall down with head

2 minute readOne of Alastair Cook’s problems is that he plays every one-day innings as if it might be his last. He positively clings to the crease, grimly trying not to make a mistake. The better approach might be to play as if he doesn’t give a toss, but say what you

December 13, 2014 India

Virat Kohli applies the icing – but the cake’s a piece of crap and soon collapses

< 1 minute readLet’s leave Alastair Cook until tomorrow and instead take a quick look at how India’s run-chase went in the first Test. The tourists lost and Nathan Lyon alone took as many wickets as they did, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it was that bad a performance. India somehow managed

December 12, 2014 India

Is MS Dhoni the problem? A fourth innings hypothesis test

2 minute readIf you get the daily email from this site, you’ll already know whether India have made a decent fist of day five of the first Test against Australia. We’re writing this at the end of day four and have conflicting feelings about how things might pan out. On the one

December 11, 2014 England

Alastair Cook, James Taylor, some other guy and uncooked spaghetti

2 minute readIt’s hard to argue that this wasn’t the perfect England one-day performance. One, England won, which satisfied most of their fans; and two, there was enough evidence to suggest that England will never win one-day games with Alastair Cook at the helm, which will have satisfied his detractors. The ideal

December 10, 2014 Australia

Michael Clarke not quite finished and Steve Smith barely started

< 1 minute readIt’s possible that we jumped the gun in saying that we might not see much more of Michael Clarke. We’ve reached this conclusion on the basis that he made a hundred as recently as today. Watching Clarke teeter and gallumph about, it’s clear that the spirit is willing but the

December 9, 2014 Australia

David Warner flays several through the off side

2 minute readDavid Warner paid his own tribute to Phil Hughes by flaying a whole series of fours in the air through the off side. Chris Rogers then provided the context by demonstrating just how hard it is to middle the wide ball angling across a left-hander. Edged to slip? Where was

December 8, 2014 England

James Taylor, irritation and entitlement

2 minute readThe optimum moment to select a batsman is not when he thinks he deserves a place in the side; it’s when he’s completely irritated because he can’t quite believe he isn’t getting a game. This is probably the main difference between James Taylor now and a few years ago. Taylor