2 minute read The 2023 County Championship was won in the way all great sporting competitions are won: by another team failing to secure quite enough bonus points halfway through a game taking place elsewhere. Surrey are champions again. Essex are not. Essex had needed at least 400 in their first innings against
Continue readingMonth: September 2023
Headingley Groundstaff v The Elements (an “England” v Ireland autumn match report)
3 minute read Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) David writes… I should have recognised the omens when I
Continue readingThe Surrey squad will surely beat the Essex team to the County Championship this week
2 minute read Surrey are 20 points clear of Essex with a game to go. The crucial piece of information that you probably don’t quite have at your fingertips is that a maximum of 24 points can be scored in a game. We suppose there’s always an outside chance Surrey could shed a
Continue readingFor the avoidance of doubt the 2023 Cricket World Cup absolutely does not “take one day”
2 minute read “History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023,” is the claim. “All it takes is just one day.” This is manifestly untrue. The winning of the World Cup will take one day in much the same way as it will take
Continue readingTwo sports, three days and five bagels at the Home of Rain Interruptions (unless you’re playing real tennis)
4 minute read Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Regular King Cricket contributor Ged Ladd’s report from the 2022
Continue readingNo-one’s making Jason Roy stronger here with the way they’ve gone about this
5 minute read Ain’t no bad news like the retraction of previously issued good news. Jason Roy had already given his relieved response to being included in England’s World Cup squad when he was later excluded from it. How are you feeling since the change of heart, Jase? Not great, we’d wager. Squad
Continue readingViv Richards deserves a respectful nod after Ben Stokes’ latest record
2 minute read A few weeks ago we asked whether Ben Stokes was definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad. We drew no firm conclusions. Smashing 182 off 124 balls to break the record for the highest score by an England batter in a one-day international (ODI) probably
Continue readingDid you see… Achini Kulasuriya run out for 0?
2 minute read “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” said Daniel Norcross on BBC commentary. “The throw’s come in at the non-striker’s end and there is dawdleage.” It’s hard to improve on that assessment. What was so remarkable about this dismissal is that it felt like the textbook, “yadda yadda yadda… and there’s
Continue readingDid you see… Glenn Phillips catch Moeen Ali?
2 minute read We’re in the era of the boundary juggler. It was therefore quite refreshing to deploy an ‘oh wow’ for a good old diving catch yesterday, as Glenn Phillips briefly turned into a glider to dispatch Moeen Ali. England levelled the one-day series against New Zealand yesterday and in so doing
Continue readingAt least Josh de Caires is keeping things unpredictable – unlike Essex
2 minute read You could definitely have AI report on Essex victories. Or maybe you couldn’t. Maybe the reports would get too samey. How would this latest one go for the win over Middlesex? ChatGPT reckons: “Essex’s opening pair, like a well-rehearsed comedy duo, set the tone for the day. Nick Browne, steady
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