King Cricket

February 17, 2014 India / New Zealand

Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling hang around for a bit

< 1 minute readBrendon McCullum is a positive person; the kind of irritating, upbeat character who can’t understand everyone else’s entirely logical can’t-do attitude to things. When he was joined at the crease by BJ Watling in the second Test against India on day three, he’ll have thought: ‘Okay, if we can just

February 14, 2014 India / New Zealand

MS Dhoni to be investigated for toss fixing

< 1 minute readThat’s a reference to his name cropping up in talk of IPL match fixing and the fact that he’s won 12 international tosses in a row, including all of them on this tour of New Zealand (without yet winning a match). Top tossing, Mahendra. Top tossing. Even if the perfect

February 13, 2014 Australia / South Africa

How to react to a Johnsonning

< 1 minute readIt’s not just England then. South Africa have been forcefully Johnsonned and are probably already considering reverting to a more conservative team for the second Test. Five bowlers is great when you’re top of the world and full of confidence, but let’s just see what happens now that they’re rattled.

February 12, 2014 Australia / South Africa

Australia add boring partnerships to their repertoire

< 1 minute readIf there’s one thing Australia have been lacking, it’s dull, steady, three-an-over partnerships in the middle order. Today they got one and they look like a proper team again. Even while gaily twerking atop England’s comatose body, there was a fragility about the Aussie Test team. How odd that they

February 11, 2014 Australia / South Africa

Off the pace – an alternative South Africa v Australia preview

2 minute read“We’ve got the best fast bowlers.” “No, we’ve got the best fast bowlers.” “Not being funny, but actually, I think you’ll find we’ve got the best fast bowlers.” “Yeah, right, whatever. Have you even seen our fast bowlers?” The build-up to what promises to be a fascinating Test series between

February 11, 2014 Match report

Middlesex v Nottinghamshire County Championship match report

2 minute readGed writes: Late season, I always try to take in a day of county cricket with my old friend, Charley “The Gent” Malloy. It helps us both to prepare for the inevitable winter withdrawal symptoms to come. By 11am we were already tucking in to sesame bagels stuffed with honey

February 10, 2014 England

Demanding loyalty or earning support

2 minute read‘How about we put together a nice cosy environment where everyone goes along with everything Alastair says?’ Imagine we’re not talking about cricket for a second and put yourself in a position where someone’s just said that to you. How do you feel? Do you think that sounds like a

February 9, 2014 India / New Zealand

New Zealand surrender almost all of their advantage

< 1 minute readLeading India by 301 runs after the first innings, New Zealand frittered away all but 40 of them in the second innings to ensure an unexpectedly exciting finish to the first Test. If you’re in an almost unassailable position and want to make things interesting for yourself, get bowled out

February 8, 2014 Bangladesh

Mominul Haque hits a hundred

< 1 minute readWell that was easily the tensest sporting moment of the last 20 years. Possibly ever. There he was, on 99, and Cricinfo refreshed several times with no change to his score. Surely this moment couldn’t be ripped away from us so cruelly? We were absolutely on tenterhooks. But huzzah! After

February 7, 2014 Bangladesh / India / New Zealand / Sri Lanka

Meanwhile in cricket…

< 1 minute readIt’s a week in which teams have been relying on their big name, 30-something batsmen. This isn’t a coincidence. That’s just the way Test cricket works. Kumar Sangakkara has indulged in some average bolsteration by hitting 424 runs in the second Test against Bangladesh. For their part, Bangladesh managed two