2 minute read Remember when being five down for not many runs was a bad thing? Whatever happened to that? Two weeks ago, England’s men’s team were 93-4 in pursuit of 299 to win. Somewhere around a minute later, they’d won the match – in large part thanks to Jonny Bairstow, who was
Continue readingMonth: June 2022
Oh sure, Daryl Mitchell and Jonny Bairstow are batting really well right now, but…
2 minute read Jonny Bairstow has worked out that he can score twice as many runs simply by doubling his strike-rate. Daryl Mitchell has realised he’ll probably keep hold of his Test place if he scores a hundred in every single match. But what do these developments actually prove? Because yeah, sure, Jonny
Continue readingStokes and McCullum have the Jack Leach they created
2 minute read If you’re attentive and possessed of a decent memory, you’ll clock that the headline above is a very obvious reference to our December article, Root and Silverwood have the Jack Leach they created. There’s a contrast in man management here and if you read that article again, you’ll easily see
Continue readingWe’re honestly not sure the Henry Nicholls deflect-o-catch was our favourite wicket of the day
3 minute read Henry Nicholls getting pinballed out off his batting partner was a very, very weird wicket. Yet somehow we can’t say with certainty that it was even our favourite dismissal of the day. On day one of the third Test between England and New Zealand, the man who – thanks to
Continue readingThe Overtons: England ponder samey attack
2 minute read The Overtones are, in the words of Wikipedia, “a UK based vocal harmony group” (although it’s hard not to think the name would be a far better fit for an Undertones tribute act). The Overtons, in contrast, are a UK based quick bowling partnership. Don’t let your damned auto-correct get
Continue readingStraight Outta the New Upper Compton – a match report
2 minute read Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in the experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (Conversely, if it’s an amateur match, please go into excruciating detail.) Ged Ladd writes… Charley the Gent and I had not seen live cricket
Continue readingBypassing the Broad and Anderson blockade
< 1 minute read Remember that mad notion that England needed to deliberately omit James Anderson and Stuart Broad to create ‘opportunities’ for new seam bowlers? England will play around half a dozen non-Anderson, non-Broad quick bowlers in the coming week alone. It was always a bit of a nonsense. When the two lithe,
Continue readingWhat Jonny Bairstow’s Kingsman church scene innings tells us about the ‘throwing off the shackles’ cliché
5 minute read Violence is great, isn’t it? Violence is so much fun. We greatly enjoyed Jonny Bairstow, at Trent Bridge, with a cricket bat. At tea on day five, England were 139-4, 160 runs from victory and Jonny Bairstow was on 43 off 48 balls, which is quick, but still within the
Continue readingLet’s celebrate England’s erratic slip fielding
3 minute read When the opposition make 550, it’s rarely because of a missed catch. It’s more a result of all the other chances that weren’t even created. At the same time, an innings of 550 will tend to feature a fair few misses, if only because it’s such a huge volume of
Continue readingCaptain Stokes v Captain Root
3 minute read Everything’s amazing and fun and positive under the new England captain. Remember that previous guy? Man was he a miserable arsehole. Didn’t have a clue, did he? Whatever happened to him? Sometimes you accidentally reveal something about the past. We remember being on this cookery course in Thailand once with
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