< 1 minute read“My practice over the years has gone from searching for perfection to just doing as little as possible. The bare minimum.” – James Anderson Speaking as someone who once earned the nickname ‘Bare Minimum,’ we are delighted with this revelation of the secret behind James Anderson’s success. Perhaps if you
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.
The Periodic Table of Cricket by John Stern – book review
2 minute readWe own a periodic table. Mostly it’s a footrest, but periodically – typically when we have visitors – it reverts to being a table. Apparently there’s another kind of periodic table too which lays out all the chemical elements according to atomic number and whatnot. The Periodic Table of Cricket
Continue readingKusal Mendis doesn’t think they’re gonna need a bigger boat
2 minute readOnce upon a time, a colleague of ours, who we’ll call Gill (because that’s her name), asked another colleague, who we’ll call Stefan (because that’s his name), for help with her computer. We can’t remember the specific issue. It was just one of those generic computer problems that crops up
Continue readingMop-up of the day – syllables, spin, short-pitched bowling and size
< 1 minute readFirst to Kandy, where the five minutes when it was both dry and bright enough to play cricket saw Sri Lanka set Australia 268 to win. David Warner’s recently-discovered inability to make runs outside Australia persisted as he was bowled for one, and the tourists also lost Joe Burns and
Continue readingKusal Mendis has played an innings
< 1 minute readWe haven’t seen any of this Sri Lanka v Australia Test. It’s on Eurosport 2 which stopped working a couple of months ago. The prospect of speaking to BT to try and get the channel working again led us to conclude that it is best left unfixed. We have apparently
Continue readingEngland v Australia at Old Trafford match report
3 minute readWe went to the fifth one-day international between England and Australia. Cricket-wise, it was your quintessential damp squib, even if the weather was a beautifully sunny, warm, dry squib. The paper wallet in which the tickets arrived promised music, action and cricket, in that order. We assumed this was a
Continue readingShould England persist with Moeen Ali?
< 1 minute readIt’s not how, it’s how many. That’s what they say of run-scoring. Does the same apply to wicket-taking? Moeen Ali is actually England’s second-highest wicket-taker in this Pakistan series. He has taken seven wickets at 32.28, which is eminently respectable. He has also conceded near enough five runs an over,
Continue readingOut with Shan Masood, in with a pair of deep sea diving boots
< 1 minute readAfter an hour of zesty nonsense this morning, the cricket restarted. Shan Masood continued his marvellous record of being dismissed by Jimmy Anderson for pretty much no runs. Pakistan can be fairly confident that Jimmy will play the next Test and they can be fairly confident that he will open
Continue readingBatsmen don’t win Test matches
2 minute readA few weeks ago, we spent a good long while discussing what time we should leave the County Ground in Bristol when we already knew the match was over. We stick around at the end of cricket matches. We certainly don’t leave early. Today, England made the decision to bat
Continue readingEngland hit upon innovative new strategy – hundreds from Cook and Root
< 1 minute readSomeone came to Old Trafford dressed as the Cookie Monster today. Perhaps it was a reference to the hundred-scoring monster that is Alastair Cook. Or maybe all his other clothes were in the wash. Earlier today we made a comment about how we generally feel like we’ve seen Cook’s innings
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