2 minute read For the same reason he appealed in the first place: because he’s Shakib al Hasan. Angelo Mathews was timed out during Sri Lanka’s game against Bangladesh in Delhi today. This is, incredibly, the first time a batter’s been out this way in international cricket. It takes a particular type of
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Other than one brief flicker from Adrian Holdstock we’ve been massively unimpressed with the standard of umpiring at this World Cup
3 minute read When most people talk about the standard of umpiring in a cricket match, they tend to mean the quality of the decision-making. But we don’t mean that… we don’t mean that at all. Other than when there’s a stinker of a decision or a marginal call at a crucial time,
Continue readingThe chaotic way England dropped Jason Roy gave a powerful message to the rest of the team
7 minute read Sometimes it’s not about the logic of dropping one player in favour of another; it’s about the message you send to everyone else who hasn’t (yet) been dropped. England talk about playing with conviction, yet coach Matthew Mott and captain Jos Buttler have demonstrated little but uncertainty with this 2023
Continue readingIt’s a particular type of recent ODI experience Jos Buttler’s England lacked – the experience of playing together, winning games
4 minute read England haven’t played this format much recently, so you can forgive them for looking at bit rusty against a guy who hasn’t bowled in an ODI for almost four years. “It’s raining cats and dogs in Sri Lanka so I’ve not been able to play much,” said Angelo Mathews after
Continue readingGlenn Maxwell’s complete commitment to hitting from mad positions
3 minute read Today Glenn Maxwell spent one ball in the 90s and it was a no-ball. There’s not much cause to be nervous in the 90s when it’s so vanishingly unlikely you’ll be dismissed in them. When weird looking batters score a lot of runs, there are two main things people tend
Continue readingAffinity, attendance and attire at India’s greatest food ground – what it was like to watch Australia v Pakistan in Bangalore (shame about the DJ)
7 minute read Send your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Ritesh writes… The moment the World Cup schedule was (finally)
Continue readingThe Tupperware freshness of Jos Buttler’s England World Cup team
4 minute read England’s 2019 World Cup team was just about good enough to win. The hypothesis for 2023 seems to have been, “Maybe if we don’t expose the team to any air or light, it’ll keep.” If you’re almost exactly our age, you may remember the children’s TV series Eerie Indiana and
Continue readingButtler, Bavuma and the big pain of big losses to big teams – with or without Ben
3 minute read Sometimes it feels like every time you switch on Sky Sports, India are playing a game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. We’ve no idea where this feeling comes from because since 2017 the ground’s only hosted one Test match and two one-day internationals. There’s a big match on the
Continue readingLet’s take a look at the many powerful emotions conveyed during a Roelof van der Merwe wicket celebration
4 minute read 2023 World Cup, Game 15, Netherlands v South Africa Roelof van der Merwe very visibly experiences feelings whenever he takes a wicket for the Netherlands. When he took a couple against his former team, South Africa, en route to a famous victory, he arguably experienced a few more than normal.
Continue readingRahmanullah Gurbaz has a point to make and a point boundary to pepper
2 minute read 2023 World Cup, Game 13, Afghanistan v England England are still 2-1 up on Afghanistan in 50-over World Cup matches. Expand the head to head to include all one-day internationals and England are… 2-1 up. You wonder what sort of damage Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mujeeb Ur Rahman would have done
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