King Cricket

April 25, 2017 County cricket

The Hampshire-incinerating inferno that is Gary Ballance plus Lancashire’s lethal pelt

2 minute readSurrey are still top Despite drawing with Warwickshire who had attained just three points from two Championship games before this fixture. The most striking development was probably Ian Bell’s dismissal for 99. Was this more or less painful than Misbah-ul-Haq being left stranded on 99 not out yesterday? The Curran

April 23, 2017 Pakistan

Younus Khan, the world’s oldest 39-year-old, might yet play on

< 1 minute readAin’t no retirement like a Pakistan cricketer retirement, because a Pakistan cricketer retirement is highly conditional. For a man who’s already resigned, quit, been rested, stood down, walked and been banned for life, Younus Khan is still strikingly present. He is due to call it a day (again) following this

April 20, 2017 County cricket

Video: How Ben Coad takes his wickets

< 1 minute readThe ECB doesn’t get everything right when it comes to social media. Earlier this week, they captioned an Alastair Cook highlights reel “Terrific to watch!” which is palpably untrue. But at least they do sneak out nice bite-sized chunks of County Championship footage these days. Here’s Ben Coad taking ten

April 19, 2017 Extras

Laurence Elderbrook embarks upon a career as a ‘cricketer errant’

2 minute readPrevious instalment from Laurence Elderbrook It strikes me that if I am to become a cricketer errant, I will need a squire. I walk next door and ask to speak to Darron-with-an-O. When Darron appears, I inform him that he is my squire. We immediately depart in my motorcar. We

April 18, 2017 County cricket

Great performances from Shiv, Coad, Footitt and no-one from Warwickshire, no-one whatsoever

2 minute readScreen-grabbed Championship table. Ain’t you a bunch of lucky basts. Surrey v Lancashire Surrey remain top of the table despite not having done anything of consequence. Mark Footitt continued being worth watching by again taking five wickets, Lancashire’s Shivnarine Chanderpaul continued being a majestic agglomeration of elbows and knees, and

April 15, 2017 Extras

Roll up, roll up for our last ever Twitter round-up on Cricinfo

2 minute readIf there’s one thing we can say for our Twitter round-up column on Cricinfo, it’s that it clung on. But no more. This week’s edition is the last. Of all the cricket writing we’ve done, the Twitter round-up was the strangest. We can’t begin to explain the psychological impact of

April 13, 2017 County cricket

County Championship Round Two – not even going to pretend to pass this off as a preview

2 minute readWe had at least one dissatisfied reader last week who seemed to be labouring under the misapprehension that we might have been looking to offer “insight”. There’ll be none of that here. Surrey v Lancashire Surrey, just 22 points above the relegation zone, would do well to focus on gaining

April 12, 2017 Extras

Laurence Elderbrook finds a new way to share his gift

< 1 minute readSeveral seasons have passed and I fear that if I leave it much longer, my skills might begin to wane. I could spend another summer at my gentlemen’s club, laying wagers and sharing brandies with other Renaissance men, but there will be plenty of time for that later. Now, while

April 11, 2017 Extras

Mop-up of the day – our 2017 IPL expertise laid bare

< 1 minute readCricinfo is running an IPL quiz called Wait, which team does he play for? We can’t work out whether this is a joke about the inherently transient nature of many Twenty20 competitions or an acknowledgement that ever-changing squads are all part of the fun. We scored two out of ten,

April 10, 2017 County cricket

Mark Footitt and some other stuff: a review of the first round of the County Championship

2 minute readThe first round of the County Championship is over. Here are some of the things that happened. Hampshire beat Yorkshire This match was one for true connoisseurs of momentum in cricket. Hampshire had all the momentum when Yorkshire fell to 152-7 in their first innings, but momentum being momentum, it