< 1 minute read In our book, that’s progress. Sri Lanka are knackered, India are emotionally spent and these days Bangladesh can take advantage of that to get themselves into a position to lose to Pakistan. It’s not full-on, double-shifts-at-the-bunting-factory glory, but it’s not bad. Life’s all about taking pride in minuscule progress anyway,
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.
Virat Kohli likes a run chase
< 1 minute read If Virati Kohli ‘batted out of his skins’ against Sri Lanka last month, he can only have batted out of his flesh against Pakistan yesterday, hitting 183 off 148 balls as India chased down 330. There can only be skellington left. But set Kohli another steep run-chase and you wouldn’t
Continue readingTendulkar hits his hundredth hundred and proves nothing to us
2 minute read These sorts of landmarks are like birthdays. They get a lot of attention, but they don’t change much. People whinge about how they’re getting older when it’s their birthday, but the truth is that every day of your life you’re a day older than the day before and your birthday’s
Continue readingWe were there when Tendulkar hit his hundredth international hundred
< 1 minute read We were there, looking at a Cricinfo scorecard, waiting for the number to change. That’s how people watch cricket these days, right? That’s how we experience these supposedly momentous events. We think we speak for most people when we say that we’re glad that’s out of the way. A hundred
Continue readingDoing the decent thing
< 1 minute read There’s not enough gentlemanly conduct in cricket any more. We don’t mean fair play when we say that. We mean proper, Victorian gentlemanly conduct. Back in Victorian times, life was about doing the decent thing. It was especially important to do the decent thing if it required an extraordinary amount
Continue readingEnglish players in the heat and humidity of Sri Lanka
< 1 minute read We’ve read a couple of things today about how English players will struggle with the heat and humidity in Sri Lanka. Graham Gooch described the conditions as ‘unnatural,’ which isn’t strictly accurate. It strikes us that English cricketers should buck their ideas up. Sri Lanka may well be hot and
Continue readingChasing Sachin by Adam Carroll-Smith | book review
< 1 minute read We’re pretty sure we were meant to get this review up in time for Christmas. Hopefully Adam won’t mind. From reading his book, he seems like the kind of guy who’d understand failure to complete a relatively straightforward task. That happens quite frequently in Chasing Sachin. Not that Adam’s main
Continue readingEngland retain the number one Test spot in fine style
< 1 minute read New Zealand drew with South Africa because it pissed it down on the last day. As a result, the Saffers cannot secure the 3-0 series win they would need to become the top-ranked Test side. This is a highlight. This is better than a Test championship. England have retained the
Continue readingRahul Dravid: the barometer of class
3 minute read Looking through the archives, we’ve written surprisingly little about Rahul Dravid. Many of his best innings predate the site and also – partly as a result of that – we’ve always just assumed that everyone knew how good he was. Forward defensives They call him The Wall. It’s meant as
Continue readingVernon Philander is still having a fine old time
< 1 minute read We had suggested that a few away Tests would see Vernon Philander’s bowling average swell like a space hopper at altitude. What we hadn’t considered was that Philander’s first away Tests would be in New Zealand. You get some good Test matches in New Zealand. The home side have secured
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