2 minute read We’ll be honest, we’re struggling to know what to say about England’s win at Eden Gardens. Comparing our preview to the scorecard kind of puts things in perspective. The current fashion seems to be to denigrate India, but that’s only half the story. The other half most revolves around Alastair
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
India have a bad day at the crease
2 minute read R Ashwin is a good batsman, but no-one considers him to be one of the best six batsman in India. In that case, why is it that he seems to be thriving with the bat while the specialists are batting like a big bag of grundle? There’s no simple answer.
Continue readingIndia have a bad day in the field
< 1 minute read India have an amazing ability to take a bad day in the field and make it look worse. It’s a flat pitch and they managed to take five wickets (although none for the man with ‘the best wrist in cricket’) but yet it seemed far more horrendous than that. Mostly
Continue readingGuess we’ll write about Alastair Cook
< 1 minute read Does Alastair Cook know that captains are allowed off the field? If he doesn’t, no-one tip him off, because it’s going quite well. In five Tests leading England, he’s now scored five hundreds. He even hit some nice shots today, which isn’t really the point. An Alastair Cook innings shouldn’t
Continue readingYuvraj Singh never quite does it
< 1 minute read A few years ago, it was hard to avoid the feeling that Yuvraj Singh’s favourite cricketer was probably, on balance, after much careful consideration, Yuvraj Singh. However, he’s increasingly rounded and likeable and so it’s disappointing to see him merely flicker in Test cricket. Today’s innings was vintage Yuvraj. He
Continue readingSomething about the third Test
< 1 minute read It’s not that we’ve got nothing to say ahead of the Kolkata Test, it’s that we’ve already previewed the match. You want more than that? You want something timely? Okay, how about whether Steven Finn should play? We’d say that if he’s fit, he should play, because Stuart Broad seems
Continue readingAustralia’s fresh bowlers deliver fresh pies
< 1 minute read Australia were probably down to their third-string attack in the third Test. We’re not sure how deep ‘bench strength’ needs to be these days, but they might want to stay shallower next time they play. This bowling attack was Australia’s choice, but Mitchell Johnson is basically a bowling machine set
Continue readingShould Test cricket be about identifying the best team or the best squad?
< 1 minute read A couple of days ago, we wrote about the slow erosion of a Test team over the course of a series. This is part of the game, but at what point does it become too pronounced? Australia have omitted their two main pace bowlers for the third and final Test
Continue readingRicky Ponting’s batting average and face
3 minute read Take a look at this face. Tell us you don’t instantly hate that face. You could pretty accurately track the progress of Ricky Ponting’s career by our opinion of his face at various points in time. It started badly. He made his first Test hundred in his first Ashes innings
Continue readingA three-Test marathon for Australia and South Africa
2 minute read The modern Test series is more about endurance than ever before. It may feature fewer matches, but with little pause between them, it is more like one ongoing slog than a sequence of distinct skirmishes. We’ll see this vividly in the third and decisive Test between Australia and South Africa
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