King Cricket

October 11, 2023 Sri Lanka

No, Kusal Mendis, you will not fool us into watching you (except maybe in highlights packages)

2 minute read2023 World Cup, Game 8, Pakistan v Sri Lanka Early evidence in our quest to find a Sri Lanka player worth watching suggests that Kusal Mendis is a contender. No way, son. We’ve been fooled before. In that World Cup players to watch piece we did, we said that our

October 10, 2023 England

Is Dawid Malan the new Jonny Bairstow? Always on the hunt for doubters to prove wrong

2 minute readWhen will Dawid Malan (six hundreds in 23 innings, average of 63.15, strike-rate of 98.44) finally prove himself? “I’m desperate to do well in this format and prove a point that I deserve to be in there,” said Malan today, after his latest ton. Two games ago, Malan hit another

October 9, 2023 England

Jos Buttler is lost in Dharamsala’s sandy outfield

2 minute readNot to get all Meatloaf about this, but England would do anything to save a run. But they won’t do that. No, they won’t do that. If you haven’t already seen, England are due to play in Dharamasala tomorrow. It’s possibly the most beautiful ground in the world if you

October 6, 2023 England / New Zealand

By the largest of margins – but Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra should be pacing themselves like, ooh, let’s say Dawid Malan

2 minute read2023 Cricket World Cup, Game 1, England v New Zealand There’s not much sign that New Zealand have many batters in form, while two of the three we’ve seen are clearly peaking too soon. England, in contrast, are pacing their ascent to top form beautifully. Starting here at ‘dogshit’, they

October 4, 2023 Extras

The Worth Watching Ratings: One player from each nation (except Sri Lanka) to keep an eye on during the 2023 Cricket World Cup

6 minute readOnce upon a time, cricket was a bigger part of our job. A World Cup or two ago, we used to watch a fair bit of one-day cricket and consequently had a pretty decent handle on how each team went about its business. These days? Not so much. This may

October 3, 2023 Match report

A Lord’s nets amateur practice report

2 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Regular King Cricket contributor Ged Ladd writes… For the first

October 2, 2023 Extras

One of the World Cup mascots is called Tonk

2 minute readThe other one is called Blaze, but we do not care for Blaze. This is Blaze. Let us never speak of Blaze again. This is Tonk. Tonk is, “a super cool batter who tonks every ball.” We like Tonk. This is largely because we like the word ‘tonk’. It is

September 28, 2023 County cricket

No points for Sai Sudharsan, but a Championship for Surrey all the same

2 minute readThe 2023 County Championship was won in the way all great sporting competitions are won: by another team failing to secure quite enough bonus points halfway through a game taking place elsewhere. Surrey are champions again. Essex are not. Essex had needed at least 400 in their first innings against

September 27, 2023 Match report

Headingley Groundstaff v The Elements (an “England” v Ireland autumn match report)

3 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) David writes… I should have recognised the omens when I

September 25, 2023 County cricket

The Surrey squad will surely beat the Essex team to the County Championship this week

2 minute readSurrey are 20 points clear of Essex with a game to go. The crucial piece of information that you probably don’t quite have at your fingertips is that a maximum of 24 points can be scored in a game. We suppose there’s always an outside chance Surrey could shed a