He’s been playing in division two, which of course doesn’t count. That’s what Steven Davies has been doing.

He has had a good time recently though. Worcestershire are in the first division of the Pro40 league and played two matches last week.

Against Somerset, Davies hit a quarter of the balls he faced for four and finished with 92 off 60 balls. The match was tied. Against Gloucestershire he did even better, hitting 119 off 87 balls. Unfortunately, his keeping’s not getting rave reviews. We say ‘unfortunately’ but it isn’t really fortune, is it? It’s to do with concentration, co-ordination, athleticism and stamina.

At least Worcestershire should find themselves in the top division next year, so Davies, along with team mates Kabir Ali and Simon Jones, can give a truer indication of how good they are.

Tags: Steven Davies, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
5 Comments »

It’s okay - it’s a good line. It’s the line you have to cross to get written about on King Cricket.

Tim Bresnan has been having one of those quietly productive seasons in which our Ones To Watch seem to specialise. Despite having taken more wickets than anyone else in division one so far this season - 29 at an average of 23.34 - his 5-94 against Durham yesterday was remarkably his first five-wicket haul.

Complementing his quietly productive bowling has been some quietly productive batting: 295 runs at an average of 49.16 with two fifties and no hundreds.

Liam Plunkett is making his first County Championship appearance of the season in the same match after playing a few Twenty20 games over the last few weeks. Plunkett is having a Bresnanian match himself. He took 3-70 and hit 68 not out, batting at nine.

Tags: Liam Plunkett, Tim Bresnan, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
3 Comments »

Three problems with the Twenty20 Cup.

(1) While the matches are at a great time for supporters, they’re at a rubbish time for people writing about them because they finish during the beer hours.
(2) There are about ten matches a day and we quite simply don’t have ten pieces of concentration to utilise. We have half a concentration, which we spread thinly.
(3) There are about ten matches EVERY day, so when you write about one match, it’s already midway through the next one and when that writing appears on the site, the second match has finished and everyone’s looking forward to a third match.

Hopefully the county restructuring will address some of this, but we’re not counting on it. There have been any number of brilliant ideas about what to do, yet the only plans that are being bandied about by Giles Clarke and the ECB are demented ones involving picking names out of a hat to decide what division teams will appear in, because they want to abolish promotion and relegation.

Joe Denly hit 91 off 57 balls on Sunday. No-one cares now though.

Tags: Joe Denly, ones to watch by King Cricket
8 Comments »

While largely overshadowed by Rob Key’s silky 26, Joe Denly’s 149 was still a weighty contribution towards a Kent total of 250.

Kent lost, but you can’t really blame No Pants for that. Has anyone got any information on that nickname’s origins yet? If you do know and it’s a bit boring, don’t tell us.

Tags: Joe Denly, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
8 Comments »

Steven Finn bowled Rob Key for one yesterday. We said that Steven Finn was one to watch this season. How much more right could we be?

The answer, of course, is none. None more right.

Rob’s been recovering from a virus. This is the only time he is at all vulnerable.

Tags: Rob Key, Steven Finn, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
6 Comments »

Rob Key’s Special Powers are already being passed onto Joe Denly. Kent’s opening pair started the season with a hundred apiece and an opening stand of 225. POWER UP!

Whatever Leeds-Bradford UCCE threw at them, Key and Denly countered it with disdain.

Harry Gurney: Countered with disdain!

Richard Browning: Countered with disdain!

James Lord: Countered with disdain!

Duncan Snell: Countered with disdain!

Tom Pringle: Disdainfully countered!

Having thoroughly and comprehensively POWERED UP during this warm-up fixture, Rob Key and Joe Denly should now remain FULLY POWERED for the remainder of the season.

In fact, it would be no surprise if, later in the season, Rob Key has been SO FULL OF POWER for SO LONG that he starts to glow white hot and consequently discovers A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF POWER.

It would be no surprise at all if that happened. No surprise whatsoever. It probably will happen. In fact, it’s such a cast-iron certainty let’s start taking bets as to when it’s going to occur.

Tags: Joe Denly, Rob Key, ones to watch by King Cricket
11 Comments »

A lot of our better updates have been about Will Jefferson. This is partly why we’re watching him for the third season in a row.

We’re mainly watching him like a child with no concept of what’s socially acceptable though; with our mouth agape, pointing and saying ‘why has that piece of scaffolding got a face?’

In ancient history Jefferson’s ancestors smote humans or enslaved them for the construction of gargantuan underground tunnels linking the continents of the world. Maybe this season Will Jefferson will smite county bowling attacks and enslave cricket supporters for thoughtful ‘maybe Will Jefferson’s ready for England’ letters to the local paper.

County cricketers to watch in 2008

Tags: Will Jefferson, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
6 Comments »

With his exotic upbringing, superior air and blonde looks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Nick Compton wasn’t exactly our cup of tea.

And you’d be right. We can’t really remember why we’ve included him now. We remember that there were a number of tricky decisions made when selecting this year’s ones to watch. Several cricketers we’re rather fond of missed the cut. How did Compton survive?

Never let it be said that no thought goes into this website. Equally, never let it be said that repeated instances of poor memory don’t play a large part as well.

We’ll be watching Nick Compton this season. Hopefully at some point it will become apparent why.

More players to watch in 2008

Tags: Nick Compton, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
16 Comments »

We saw Tim Bresnan looking out of his depth for England at Old Trafford for one of his four one-day international matches. The crowd didn’t think much of him. He took 0-58 off eight overs. Fortunately for him, Kabir Ali went for 77 off ten, so he didn’t stand out.

It was in the field that he looked worst though. He seemed insanely serious, which isn’t the worst crime, but he clearly wasn’t at all releaxed. To us, he looked like a man who was decidedly rattled by the large crowd and the occasion. Bresnan was only 21 and he hadn’t played a huge amount of cricket. He wasn’t ready.

Some people thrive on being in the spotlight from the word go. Some people need time to acclimatise. We think Bresnan’s got a lot of talent and doesn’t deserved to be judged on some stage-fright cricket during a wholly torrid one-day tournament for England.

Last year Tim Bresnan took 34 wickets at a respectable but not jaw-dropping 32.05. He also hit two hundreds and averaged 39.50. He’s 23. That’s encouraging.

County players to watch in 2008.

Tags: Tim Bresnan, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
2 Comments »

Was it really as far back as August 2006 that we tipped Adil Rashid? Tipped him to be a great player, that is - we didn’t incline him away from the perpendicular or anything. He was one to watch last year as well and justified his inclusion.

There are so many reasons why Adil Rashid should play for England and we don’t really see the point in waiting much longer. Just think, England could realistically field five bowlers and still have a lower order that went Flintoff, Rashid, Broad, Sidebottom, Panesar. That’d make the five-down to all out procession a tad more laboured.

Two all-rounders. Two spinners. A leg-spinner!

We’re coming out in a sweat. And a rash, but that’s unrelated.

Some county players who aren’t quite so worth watching - but you still have to.

Tags: Adil Rashid, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
6 Comments »