King Cricket

July 29, 2014 England

Change bowlers and mourning spilt honey

< 1 minute readThe day in summary: James Anderson earned two wickets through being James Anderson, Moeen Ali earned two wickets through not being James Anderson and Chris Jordan earned nothing. Oh, and Stuart Broad got three. Word of the day – “displacement” Play was reminiscent of the later days of Curtly Ambrose

July 28, 2014 England / India

We just want to watch Jos Buttler bat

< 1 minute readWhatever his keeping’s like and no matter whether or not he’s ‘ready’ for Test cricket, we’re very pleased that Jos Buttler is now in England’s Test team. We like skittishness in a number seven batsman. It is always worth watching Buttler at the crease and when he bats with Ian

July 28, 2014 South Africa

JP Duminy has just scored three off 65 balls

< 1 minute readThat is… stellar. Particularly when you consider that he made three off 58 balls in the first innings. He wasn’t alone either. You can see the full deadbattery in scorecard format here. South Africa were playing for a draw to secure the series and succeeded in fine complete-absence-of-style. Rangana Herath

July 27, 2014 England / India

Four bowlers, five runs and one Gary Ballance

2 minute readAfter winning the previous Test with four-and-a-bit bowlers, India could have gone either way for this one. Unsurprisingly, they went with four bowlers, not five. Sometimes you can determine a lot from these fifty-fifty calls and MS Dhoni does seem to be a bit of a ‘pick the extra batsman’

July 27, 2014 England / India

Test match start days and the concept of ‘appointment to view’

< 1 minute readThis year they moved the Twenty20 Cup to Friday nights to create an ‘appointment to view’. The premise is if people know when matches are being played, there’s a better chance they’ll watch. This year also sees a five-Test series taking place between England and India which boasts four different

July 25, 2014 Extras / Regulars

Mop-up of the day – two very different retirements

< 1 minute readThe first is the unflappable maestro, Mahela Jayawardene, who is giving up the five-day game. Fun fact, stats nerds: his first innings hundred in the ongoing Test against South Africa has tipped his average over 50. He’s actually got another series after this one yet though, so don’t get too

July 24, 2014 Extras / Regulars

Mop-up of the day – an overreaction checklist

< 1 minute readWe’ve produced a valuable guide just in case any England fans aren’t overreacting sufficiently. It can be found over at Cricinfo. Tick all the boxes and you too can call yourself a true England supporter. Andy Caddick’s ears Sam was greatly disappointed that they didn’t get a mention in another

July 22, 2014 England

Alastair Cook should stick to the day job

2 minute readCaptaincy is an odd thing. It always strikes us that becoming captain is like being a writer promoted to a management position. We’ve had jobs where a senior colleague with a stupid job title has come up to us and basically said: “Your writing and editing is so good that

July 22, 2014 England

Another England cricketer eroded

< 1 minute readAfter Matt Prior missed one particular catch in the second Test, a Sky commentator – possibly Mike Atherton – suggested that the wicketkeeper might be having trouble moving to his right due to all his accumulated injury problems. In his statement announcing that he was standing down for the rest

July 21, 2014 England / India

Ishant Sharma with the short ball at Lord’s

2 minute readIt’s an unlikely Cluedo solution, but it happened. We saw it with our own eyes. Joe Root was the third caught attacking the short ball after lunch and he did a cracking Charlie Brown slope upon being dismissed. It was really, really first class. We were in awe. We don’t