King Cricket

January 2, 2014 Australia / England

Shuffling bread

2 minute readHave we all made realistic New Year’s resolutions? No more drinking on Wednesdays? One takeaway a week, but you won’t deliberately order enough for breakfast the next morning as well? Or maybe you’ve resolved to stop playing Australia quite so frequently. Vivisection’s tempting, but let’s not reach for the scalpel

December 31, 2013 South Africa

The case for Kallis to be considered the best of the lot

3 minute readBefore we begin, let us just say that we don’t believe in comparing players or ranking them. We’re now going to do precisely that as a kind of academic exercise, primarily to piss off a load of people who will always hold Jacques Kallis in somewhat lower regard than many

December 30, 2013 Australia / England

Being overtaken in a 10-Test series

2 minute readYou’ve got to pace yourself. Australia started this 10-Test series so woefully that they could only ever improve. In hindsight, that was a masterstroke. It’s tempting to talk about momentum, but we’ll stick to a different M-word – motivation. Nothing keeps you going like knowing that you’re gaining on someone.

December 28, 2013 Australia / England

Reverse swing?

< 1 minute readYeah? Maybe? 20-odd overs onwards? Bit of something? Yeah? It’s been a low scoring match; it’s been hard to score; so a bit of movement might make the run chase a bit tense? Yeah? It’s hard to appear entirely positive when you’re using so many question marks.

December 27, 2013 Australia / England

“They started it”

< 1 minute readAre England and Australia ever going to comprehend the concept of hubris? Australia finished day one shushing the Barmy Army. Have they not been paying attention to the way things have worked this year? They finished day two on 164-9. Sportsmen aren’t exactly shot-through with dignity, but the Ashes seems

December 26, 2013 Australia / England

Finding food in an Astramax van

< 1 minute readFor a team whose coach mocks England for having a boring approach to the game, Australia are hypocritically wedded to maidens. As the series wears on, it’s clear that Mitchell Johnson is just a go-faster stripe on an Astramax van. He distracts us, gains our attention, but this bowling attack

December 23, 2013 India / South Africa

South Africa are bloody annoying to play against

2 minute readWe’re a day late with this and have little to add, but since when has turning up late and contributing little stopped us? Just over a year ago, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers combined to play out an unlikely draw against Australia. Du Plessis made 110 not out

December 22, 2013 England

Graeme Swann was more than a quarter of an attack

3 minute readGraeme Swann’s retirement seems somehow emblematic of England’s current state. It sounds like he’s been aware of reduced efficacy for a while now, but could put it to the back of his mind so long as England were winning. Now they’re losing and the ensuing clarity has shunted a memorable

December 21, 2013 New Zealand

Ross Taylor is having a fine old time

< 1 minute readThe story of the New Zealand v West Indies series seems to be West Indies’ batting collapses. This is odd, because they’re hardly a new phenomenon. It’s also harsh on Trent Boult, who’s a darn tidy bowler. It’s perhaps even more unfair on Ross Taylor, who has countered everything thrown

December 20, 2013 India

Ishant Sharma is the mole in the living room

< 1 minute readSometimes we really feel for Ishant Sharma. Whenever we see him, he appears to be bowling on a flat pitch in a one-day international with the batsmen going hell-for-leather and fielding restricitions in place. In reality, that isn’t the only time we see him bowl. It just feels like it