King Cricket

July 21, 2016 County cricket

A rather hasty July 21 County Championship round-up

< 1 minute readWhat a headline. Okay, let’s hustle through this unsatisfactorily before another Test match starts. In fact it occurs to us that the daily email comprising this particular post will go out at almost exactly the time the match starts. We really should plan ahead. Never mind. The headline’s written. County

July 20, 2016 Extras

Mike Selvey leaving the Guardian

3 minute readThe Guardian’s cricket correspondent, Mike Selvey, is to part ways with the newspaper at the end of September. “Guardian no longer want 50 yrs intimate knowledge of cricket, cricketers and how game is played for future coverage,” he said in a tweet – later adding the hash tag #abitshitreally to

July 19, 2016 England

Jake Ball: first look in Test cricket

< 1 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from debut performances – but we report on them anyway. Google does currently appear to be conflating Jake Ball with the Welsh rugby player of the same name. The cricket one’s tall, but we’re pretty sure he doesn’t weigh 121kg. Our first

July 17, 2016 England / Pakistan

Pakistan celebrate Lord’s Test win with press-ups

< 1 minute readFor all the good cricket Pakistan played to beat England at Lord’s, their greatest attribute was that they visibly enjoyed playing Test cricket. Throughout the match, they were like a group of 11 children revelling in some sort of collective birthday, and when they won, it seemed they’d received the

July 16, 2016 Pakistan

Yasir Shah’s feline five-for

< 1 minute readYasir Shah has the air of a contented cat. We’re not quite sure what gives us this impression. Perhaps it’s the eyes. In the cat world, a slow blink is a way of saying that the person being blinked at is pretty cool. It says that diplomatic relations between you

July 15, 2016 County cricket / England

James Vince’s batting average in the second division, first division and Test cricket

< 1 minute readWe had a first look at James Vince in Test cricket and weren’t much impressed – but we did add the proviso that we don’t ascribe much value to debut performances anyway. We’ve had a few more looks now and we’re still not particularly impressed. We generally find people’s decisiveness

July 14, 2016 England / Pakistan

Misbah-ul-Haq sweeps Moeen Ali for four

< 1 minute readThen reverse sweeps him for four. Then sweeps him for four again. Then he blocks one because he fancies a change of tempo. Then he sweeps him for four again. It could be a long summer for Moeen Ali. In amongst all the sweeping and reverse sweeping for four, Misbah-ul-Haq

July 14, 2016 England / Pakistan

Airborne Younus Khan

< 1 minute readYounus Khan’s record is even more remarkable when you consider that he seemingly makes contact with most deliveries while airborne. We made this observation on Twitter and Karthik pointed us in the direction of the Airborne Younis Khan Tumblr, which is rather delightful (and also reminds us of a time

July 13, 2016 England / Pakistan

Mohammad Amir’s back!

< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. It’s also worth pointing out that that’s a younger version of his back in the photo above. Younger head too. Same age as the back, in fact – 2010 vintage. What are the odds on Mohammad Amir getting a wicket

July 12, 2016 England

What the hell is Stuart Broad talking about?

< 1 minute readAhead of the first Test against Pakistan, Stuart Broad said one thing that made sense. “The biggest test for the bowling unit will be trying to do what no other team has done this year, which is to win a game and take 20 wickets at Lord’s.” Lord’s: Home of