3 minute readIt was a win that England were racing to catch from the outset. The Test began with Zak Crawley hitting three fours off Naseem Shah’s opening over and it ended with the light meters out. Ben Stokes’ men never really slowed in between. Even if England hadn’t won, you’d have
Continue reading
2 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. England have a long and rich history of travelling to the subcontinent and handing out caps to spin bowling all-rounders who they wouldn’t ordinarily pick for either their batting or their bowling. These
Continue reading
2 minute readWell it definitely, definitely wasn’t the wild shits. The first day of England’s first Test in Pakistan since 2005 saw them reach 500 quicker than any Test team ever before. Peak dominance of bat over ball came when Harry Brook hit six fours in one Saud Shakeel over. We put
Continue reading
2 minute readYou can take your own chef with you (Omar Meziane, if you’re wondering), but if you’re in a part of the world you don’t visit too often, there’s a decent chance you’ll come into contact with viruses that your immune system doesn’t know all that well. What we’re saying here
Continue reading
2 minute readEngland’s last Test tour of Pakistan finished in December 2005. We launched King Cricket in January 2006. We are about to complete our first lap of Test cricket. That 2005 series finished 2-0 to Pakistan. Shoaib Akhtar and the not-especially-Danish Danish Kaneria skittled England on the fifth day of the
Continue reading
4 minute readEngland have just finished playing Australia in a one-day series. The first match came three days after the T20 World Cup final and the man who went on to captain England in the second game called that scheduling “horrible”. With the bare minimum diplomacy, England’s coach said the series was
Continue reading
< 1 minute readNow that we’re in one of those occasional narrow windows when a World Cup isn’t taking place, it seems a good time to point you all towards the final episode of our podcast series about the 2013 Ashes. The 2013 Ridiculous Ashes comes to a climax with what will, for
Continue reading
2 minute readAn Australia v England series starts this week. The old rivalry. Always an edge to it, bragging rights, a chance to make some sort of statement, yadda, yadda, yadda… The 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off features one of the all-time great film quotes. This is of course
Continue reading
2 minute readEveryone remembers the big over when a T20 batter lays into a bowler and the boundaries flow like overpriced beer in a cricket ground. What’s less obvious, but arguably more influential, is when an innings goes clanking off the rails with a trickle of downbeat gropes at thin air. Adil
Continue reading
< 1 minute readUK readers are probably already aware of this, but just in case you’re not: Sky Sports have again done the surprisingly decent thing of agreeing to share the broadcast of England v Pakistan in the T20 World Cup final with Channel 4. The match is due to start at 8am
Continue reading