3 minute read Shane Warne said he always used to try and really rip a leg break when he first came on to bowl. This wasn’t to try and dismiss the batsman – although sometimes it did – it was really just to sow a seed of doubt. Warne wanted to maximise the
Continue readingMonth: February 2021
The best part of Joe Root’s weird-arsed 5-8 v India at Ahmedabad
2 minute read Busy day. Lots of wickets and even one or two deliveries that didn’t result in wickets. Somewhere in amongst it all, Joe Root took 5-8. For many people, the best part of Root’s spell was the moment when he had 3-0. For other people, the best part was the perfect-o-ball
Continue readingMaybe it doesn’t matter how many seamers/spinners England picked
< 1 minute read It’s always exciting to try and guess what day one talking points will be. When India picked three spinners and England picked one, it seemed like maybe that would be a thing. But you don’t always get to a point where the composition and quality of your bowling attack will
Continue readingSo many bowlers, such pink balls, highly questionable invincibility – Mop-up of the day
2 minute read Welcome to Tuesday. Here are some things people may or may not want to talk about this Tuesday. England beat New Zealand fairly easily Heather Knight’s world champions hadn’t actually played a one-day international since December 2019, but they beat New Zealand in the first of three matches without too
Continue readingA cricket ball lurking behind UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock
< 1 minute read Send your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Please feel free to deliberately place the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. Ged Ladd was watching UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, being interviewed by Sophy Ridge On Sunday. “Just to the north-east of
Continue readingFour of the weirdest eight-fors of the last 25 years (plus one nine-for and one ten-for)
8 minute read There have been 28 occasions in the last 25 years when a bowler has taken eight wickets or more in a Test innings. Some of these were weirder than others. At what point does a bowling performance become really, truly, freakishly remarkable? We’d say at the seventh wicket. Five-fors are
Continue readingCricket bats in a jigsaw
< 1 minute read Send your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. Feel free to put the cricket thing in the unusual place yourself. (In fact please, please, please do. No-one sends us any of those and they’re our favourite ones.) Ne writes: “Here’s a couple of
Continue readingDo England fans think ‘turn’ and ‘deterioration’ are the same thing?
3 minute read India just made 600 runs on what was in some quarters portrayed as being an UNPLAYABLE AND DISGRACEFUL DUST PIT OF SHAME. “It makes batting a lottery,” they said. If that were the case, India must have bought a hell of a lot of tickets. There was a lot of
Continue readingDid you see… Virat Kohli after Moeen Ali clean bowled him for a duck?
3 minute read Virat Kohli is a man who struggles to come to terms with being bowled. We assumed we’d already seen Kohli’s finest “I’ve just been bowled” face. And maybe, for a pure, single facial expression conveying sheer bafflement that such a thing could possibly have happened, the face he produced after
Continue readingSquad rotation (and team turmoil) – looking ahead (and back)
2 minute read We both utterly detest squad rotation and completely agree with it. We’d like to live in a world where it isn’t necessary. But it is. We predicted squad rotation years ago, but it’s still only really seeping into the sport even now. Most teams do little more than flirt with
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