< 1 minute readThe wind is tearing the blossom from the trees and depositing it on the dirty wet earth. Men and women in thick winter coats turn their pallid faces to the skies, scrutinising the clouds for tip offs of impending rain showers. Firewood is gathered. Thermostats are turned up. It is
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.
Four things we learned from the 2016 World T20
2 minute readWe could have done more than four, but the article was starting to look a bit long so we just arbitrarily drew a line under things. It’s not even the best four. It’s just the first four that came to mind. Darren Sammy can channel energy Marlon’s upset with Shane
Continue readingEveryone knows that hitting four successive sixes is hard, right?
2 minute readWe’re just checking, only a great many people seem to be holding Ben Stokes entirely responsible for England’s defeat. Sometimes the player hitting the sixes has some sort of say in things too. Think of it like this: if you were a primitive human and you sent one of your
Continue readingWest Indies’ 2016 World T20 win: Fortunately for them, they weren’t playing cyborgs
2 minute readBen Stokes’ coolly outmanoevred Carlos Brathwaite at the death. Had the West Indian launched his attack earlier in the match, he could have hit six sixes in an over. As it was, he was denied by winning the World T20 after just four balls. Stokes is doubtless delighted. The desired
Continue readingEight things to bear in mind ahead of the World T20 final between England and the West Indies
2 minute readYou can call it a preview if you want, but it’s more of a disorderly fact-dump. 1. Windies’ spinners don’t go for owt Samuel Badree conceded 5.68 runs an over in this tournament. Sulieman Benn’s conceded 5.78. Hell, even Chris Gayle’s banged out three overs for 17 and we thought
Continue readingVirat Kohli is not a bowler, Lendl Simmons is not out, Andre Russell is not suspended
< 1 minute readIndia became so utterly convinced of Virat Kohli’s Midas touch that they gave him an over with the ball. He took a wicket with his first ball. That was the point where they should probably have drawn a line under things. Instead, Kohli came back to bowl the final over
Continue readingIf we start calling Jason Roy a ‘roybot’ do you think it’ll catch on?
< 1 minute readChris Jordan and Ben Stokes were the actual heroes for England, but this is Twenty20, so like everyone else, let’s instead turn our attention to Jason Roy – a batsman. Roy used both edges of his bat and quite often the middle. Crucially, he also abandoned the moronic belief that
Continue readingEoin Morgan and Kane Williamson are having a cricket
2 minute readWe find ourself humming Roscoe H Spellgood rather a lot at the minute. This is because of the sheer number of match previews saying that England have come a long way in a short time. It strikes us that if you go to the trouble of being as bad as
Continue readingWhen it comes to Virat Kohli, object to the hero worship, not the hero
2 minute readPerspective is rarely so absent as in the immediate aftermath of a successful Indian run chase. Even so, the plaudits for Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 82 off 51 against Australia were… let’s go with ‘fulsome’. Fox Sports called him an ‘absolute freak’ because a freak’s a good thing these days. Sourav
Continue readingSick of winning hearts, Afghanistan win a match
2 minute readWith West Indies needing 10 to win off four balls, Carlos Brathwaite whopped one high into the legside outfield. Najibullah Zadran sprinted, dived, took the catch, broke his neck or something when landing, but never let go of the ball. Of course he didn’t let go. Why would he let
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