King Cricket

November 5, 2015 England / Pakistan

England cricketers never last – why learn lessons when you’ll probably never return?

2 minute readIt’s a truism that the England players will learn from this series defeat to Pakistan. You could actually see it happening before your eyes at times: Jonny Bairstow fighting his impulses or Ben Stokes seemingly devising a batting method on the fly. We just wonder whether these players will ever

November 4, 2015 England / Pakistan

England poised to make some sort of history

< 1 minute readIt might be an unlikely series-levelling victory; more likely it’ll be a defeat. Either way, someone somewhere will make a note and history will be made. History is always being made. On a personal level, we have a history of drinking tea and typing that stretches back at least as

November 3, 2015 Pakistan

Shoaib Malik adds to the rich tradition of Pakistani cricketer retirements

< 1 minute readNo-one does retirement quite like a Pakistan cricketer. Mohammad Yousuf’s was a textbook departure, entirely equivocal such that his absence can perhaps only now be considered permanent, some five years later. Or at least it could have been considered permanent if he hadn’t played a number of international matches after

November 2, 2015 England / Pakistan

James Taylor – middle order giant

< 1 minute readEngland in UAE middle-order partnership shocker. Who’d have Liam Plunkett (thunk it)? Fours and sixes are all well and good, but it’s important to cater for fans of the nurdle as well. Today was a most nurdlesome day. Nudges, leaves, jabs into the offside, works to the legside – all

November 1, 2015 England

England’s strongest unit supported by England’s biggest unit

2 minute readAt lunch, Samit Patel had 0-33 off nine overs – neither here nor there. Fortunately, lunch is Samit’s secret weapon. Popeye gains superpowers when he consumes spinach. In much the same way, Samit Patel gains superpowers when he eats pretty much anything. “Bring forth the pastries!” he cried. After lunch,

October 30, 2015 England

Why Samit Patel should play in place of Mark Wood

< 1 minute readMark Wood’s duff ankle means he won’t play the third Test against Pakistan. So who should replace him? Over at Cricinfo, Andrew McGlashan argues that Liam Plunkett is the logical choice. Being as Chris Jordan was only a late call-up to replace Steven Finn, Plunkett is the next pace bowler

October 28, 2015 Match report / Regulars

Lord’s Cricket Ground tour – not a match report

2 minute readBert writes: This website has a number of obsessions. Cricket is one, obviously, but there’s cats and fat cricketers and ankylosing spondylitis and all sorts of other stuff. And there is the apostrophe, with particular reference to the correct use thereof. The thing is, I don’t think this is especially

October 27, 2015 England

Is it okay to drop Jos Buttler?

2 minute readYeah, why not? It’s not like he’s scoring any runs at the minute. We’re also a great believer in the redemptive power of “I could do better than that.” Have you ever found yourself believing you weren’t qualified to carry out a given task, only for someone else to complete

October 26, 2015 England / Pakistan

Wahab Riaz achieves the impossible

< 1 minute readThe formula for deciding on the man of the match is as follows: Which team won? Which of that team’s batsmen scored the biggest hundred? And that’s your man of the match. In the event that no-one made a hundred, you pick the guy who took most wickets. However, in

October 24, 2015 England / Pakistan

England’s batsmen roll onto thorny hedge cuttings

< 1 minute readGood bowling exacerbates uncertainty. This is a very inexperienced England batting line-up and it therefore has good cause for self-doubt – particularly in unfamiliar conditions. When confronted with the contrasting threats of Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah, it was no surprise that it collapsed in on itself like a cheap