2 minute read It was a glorious and gleefully shambolic finish to the third Test between India and West Indies. West Indies were one wicket away from a tie, India one run away from a win. R Ashwin was run out going for what would have been the winning run and the match
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.
R Ashwin learns from Harbhajan Singh
< 1 minute read We like R Ashwin. He seems… keen. He’s talented too, but talented players are ten-a-penny. Who cares about them? No, what we like is a stony face when someone runs in to bowl; a face that says: ‘Shut up, I’m working. No, seriously, stop it. I’m trying to concentrate. I’ve
Continue readingIs Tendulkar’s milestone a higher priority than winning a Test match?
< 1 minute read Home ground. Series won. You could be forgiven for wondering whether the Wankhede pitch has been tailored for one man’s benefit – one man and his legion of fans, that is. We could say that placing so much emphasis on one man’s achievement is disrespectful towards the 21 marionettes who
Continue readingWest Indies have some batsmen
< 1 minute read There’s a danger of being too bloody sneering about high scores these days. We know we’re as guilty of this as anyone. It’s all too easy to blame the pitch, as if the humans standing on top of it play no part. The Windies have batted like spanners for years,
Continue readingBack to what’s important
< 1 minute read We’ve got behind Australia to a quite sickening degree in recent days. We’ve intimated that South African defeats can be enjoyable and we’ve sympathised – SYMPATHISED – with Australians when they weren’t able to win a Test series after one little catastrophe. Well enough of that. Let’s get back to
Continue readingA two match Test series that was a success on every level
< 1 minute read Australian defeats, South African defeats, brilliant fast bowling, feisty batting, 47 all out and everyone feeling profoundly irritated at being massively short-changed by there only being two matches – this was the perfect Test series. It was better than anything. It was better than turning up at a restaurant and
Continue readingWhen the fifth day of a Test match has the right ingredients
< 1 minute read The fifth day of a Test can be dreadful. It can also be the best thing ever. When you get the right ingredients, it’s rich and intoxicating, like a creamy mustard sauce laced with smack. The second (and final) Test between South Africa and Australia is set up perfectly. South
Continue readingOne down in a two Test series
< 1 minute read It’s a generalisation to say that long-term cricket fans gravitate towards the longest format, but it’s not an outrageous generalisation, like saying that all left-handed people are agents of Lucifer. We’ve twice this year had perfectly civil interaction with someone who has later revealed themselves to be sickeningly wrong-handed, but
Continue readingJacques Kallis’s odd days
< 1 minute read Every now and again, Jacques Kallis has an odd day where he suddenly starts thrashing the ball around like he’s been possessed by one of Shahid Afrid’s many personalities. He holds the record for the fastest Test fifty off 24 balls. Yes, it was against Zimbabwe, but plenty of other
Continue readingDuncan Fletcher’s India team
< 1 minute read Having extracted our face from the dent in our desk, we did manage to catch much of today’s play, our view unobscured by tears of frustration. What we saw was India’s bowling attack and it looks a damn sight better than it had in England. Bizarrely, the man who emerged
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