< 1 minute read Graeme Smith’s second innings declaration had a whiff of safe aggression about it. It was like swearing at a pedestrian from the top deck of a moving bus. England could have run and climbed aboard at the next stop, but it was never likely. They settled for doing a half-jog
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
Otherwise known as Alex Bowden, a lapsed cricket journalist who has written for ESPNCricinfo, wisden.com, Cricket 365, The Cricketer and plenty of other places.
Links to some non-cricket writing and a bit more background here.
Kevin Pietersen abuses South Africa and buys England some time
2 minute read Up until today, South Africa have been appropriating England’s Test template. They’ve batted for bloody ages and wearied the opposition batsmen in the process, sapping their concentration and vitality. Their first innings 419 wasn’t a monstrous score, but 139 overs was plenty to put into England’s legs and minds. It
Continue readingMorkel, Trott and digger wasps
2 minute read Jonathan Trott’s guard-marking routine is infamous. He has a series of things he NEEDS to do before he’s happy to face a delivery. Morne Morkel’s turn at the start of his run-up is less well-known, but is seemingly just as deeply ingrained. It seems he can’t run into bowl without
Continue readingToo few ales at the England bar
< 1 minute read South Africa looked so vulnerable against right-arm fast-medium bowlers during the first Test that England have added a fourth. Our feelings on this are well-known. You should always play a spinner. It’s not just about having a specialist should the pitch offer significant turn later in the match (although that’s
Continue readingJames Taylor’s height again
< 1 minute read You wait and wait for a drawing of the diminutive James Taylor batting with gangletastic Will Jefferson and then you get two in two days. Angy was responsible for this one: Hope everyone’s starting to get a decent sense of just how small James Taylor is. Sorry if it’s still
Continue readingHow tall is James Taylor?
< 1 minute read He’s about three-foot-one, three-foot-two maybe. There’s a very striking photo of James Taylor when he was batting with the grossly oversized Will Jefferson once. Sam sent it to us asking us to publish it. We said we couldn’t because of all that copyright stuff that no-one pays attention to when
Continue readingHow will England beat South Africa in the second Test?
< 1 minute read Let’s ask England coach, Andy Flower: “In international sport you’ll have huge ups and downs and our make-up has to deal with those ups and downs.” So there you go. No plans for success. Just waterproof mascara to deal with the effects of defeat.
Continue readingGood luck to James Taylor but we really don’t get it
< 1 minute read Ravi Bopara’s found another way of missing out on a Test match. We don’t know what it is, but it’s led to England selecting James Taylor in his place. We really don’t understand this. Taylor plays the kind of innings where everyone coos about his ‘class’ and says how it
Continue readingEngland v Australia day-night match report from Birmingham
3 minute read Ne writes: We had arranged to meet at Marylebone station, in order to get the Chilterns Railways line up to Birmingham. This route had many advantages: firstly, on the day tickets are significantly cheaper than those offered by Virgin at Euston; secondly, the train nerd in APB (my travelling companion)
Continue readingEnduring South African flawlessness with the bat
< 1 minute read We’re not a fan of batting. Fours and sixes elicit an approving nod of the head, but they don’t move us in the same way as wickets. This has perhaps been compounded by a period of Test cricket that lasted until recently in which huge scores became the norm. That
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