King Cricket

August 16, 2021 England / India

It didn’t rain, it was just Cheteshwar Pujara

2 minute read Much is said about Cheteshwar Pujara – we’ve written a lot ourself – but we’re not sure anyone’s ever talked about his ability to persuade you that it rained when it didn’t. The way it went down was like this. Late afternoon we got a message from King Cricket reader

August 14, 2021 England / India

Bairstow and Moeen remind us how hard it is to resist a yo-yo trick

< 1 minute read Last week we suggested that the adaptability of Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali was a key reason why they had become yo-yos for England. There are two sides to this. Firstly, the fact that the two men can each perform so many ‘roles’ means that Test openings materialise more frequently

August 13, 2021 India

KL Rahul: “Hello Lord’s!”

2 minute read KL Rahul successfully made it to the middle at Lord’s, batted a bit and then just about successfully made it back to the changing rooms again. As Tom Evans points out, it’s a long way. Here’s Rahul’s epic journey. “Well, we’ve kept them waiting long enough. Let’s do it to

August 10, 2021 England

Moeen Ali and England’s yo-yos

3 minute read If there’s one thing we know about yo-yos, it’s that if you send one out, it tends to come back. If we know another thing about yo-yos, it’s that sometimes they get all tangled when they’re fully extended and don’t actually come back and then you have to spend ages

August 9, 2021 England / India

If England’s top three sets the tone, exactly what tone is it setting?

3 minute read Starts are important. Starts set everyone’s mood and so shape everything that’s to come. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Abattoir Blues album starts with two bars that sound like the climax of an encore. Nick then forcefully instructs us to, ‘get ready for love,’ and by 12 seconds, there’s

August 5, 2021 England / India

Jimmy Anderson wicket celebration analysis: Pujara 4 v Kohli 0

3 minute read James Anderson took two wickets in his 11th over of the first Test: Cheteshwar Pujara for 4 and Virat Kohli for 0. Both are great and significant batsmen and if our maths is correct – and no guarantees on this one, people – there is only a four-run difference between

August 5, 2021 England / India

Pick of the ducks with Rory Burns, Dan Lawrence, Jos Buttler and Ollie Robinson

3 minute read Well India are great and England seem massively out of their depth. So what are we left with? Let’s compare ducks. Four ducks in an innings. That’s a thing now, apparently. Cricinfo’s George Dobell says it’s the third time it’s happened to England in their last five Tests. That’s… a

August 3, 2021 England / India

Why England v India is exactly what you need right now

3 minute read England are about to play Test matches against India. Maybe we’ll just concentrate on that for a bit. We don’t know about you, but these last few weeks have sapped our enthusiasm a bit. It’s not the Hundred itself, which is flawed and a bit silly, but still fundamentally cricket.

August 2, 2021 Features / India

R Ashwin went to Devon

5 minute read R Ashwin is a man who very much ploughs his own furrow. We like this. We like R Ashwin. Recently R Ashwin went to Devon. The world of cricket has changed a lot in quite a short period. It’s hard to put the change into words, but basically the top

July 30, 2021 Match report

Whalley Range U10s v Stretford U10s. Forget about The Hundred – how’s this for a format? (a match report)

2 minute read Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only interested in what it was like to be at the game, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. Equally, if it’s an amateur match, please go into excruciating detail. King Cricket reader Stuart writes… If The

@Lev the imposter (maybe). What we do in private stays private ;-) ...and apologies for taking credit for being the…

@KC. Ahh, bu**er. Yes, confused by the birding reference.

It was a classic of the genre. Not sure we've ever seen one go further.

bat, obviously, not bar. They already tried the latter in the bad old days

Sides are often said to 'throw the bar' in an effort to score quickly, but it seems today Ben Stokes…

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

Let’s pick the All-Time Greatest Middle-Aged XI

Less than the sum of their parts: Six Test batting partnerships that invariably disappointed

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