King Cricket

December 26, 2013 Australia / England

Finding food in an Astramax van

< 1 minute readFor a team whose coach mocks England for having a boring approach to the game, Australia are hypocritically wedded to maidens. As the series wears on, it’s clear that Mitchell Johnson is just a go-faster stripe on an Astramax van. He distracts us, gains our attention, but this bowling attack

December 23, 2013 India / South Africa

South Africa are bloody annoying to play against

2 minute readWe’re a day late with this and have little to add, but since when has turning up late and contributing little stopped us? Just over a year ago, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers combined to play out an unlikely draw against Australia. Du Plessis made 110 not out

December 22, 2013 England

Graeme Swann was more than a quarter of an attack

3 minute readGraeme Swann’s retirement seems somehow emblematic of England’s current state. It sounds like he’s been aware of reduced efficacy for a while now, but could put it to the back of his mind so long as England were winning. Now they’re losing and the ensuing clarity has shunted a memorable

December 21, 2013 New Zealand

Ross Taylor is having a fine old time

< 1 minute readThe story of the New Zealand v West Indies series seems to be West Indies’ batting collapses. This is odd, because they’re hardly a new phenomenon. It’s also harsh on Trent Boult, who’s a darn tidy bowler. It’s perhaps even more unfair on Ross Taylor, who has countered everything thrown

December 20, 2013 India

Ishant Sharma is the mole in the living room

< 1 minute readSometimes we really feel for Ishant Sharma. Whenever we see him, he appears to be bowling on a flat pitch in a one-day international with the batsmen going hell-for-leather and fielding restricitions in place. In reality, that isn’t the only time we see him bowl. It just feels like it

December 19, 2013 England / Extras

Something a cricketer shouldn’t say on Twitter

2 minute readWe’ve done our usual Twitter thing for Cricinfo, but you’ll notice we haven’t mentioned Ryan Harris and his Al Swearengen style whinge about not being let into some casino. Nor have we mentioned Graeme Swann. If you don’t already know, Swann’s receiving criticism for likening England’s Ashes defeat to being

December 18, 2013 India

Virat Kohli is officially up and running

< 1 minute readNot sure what organisation or body deems a player to be ‘up and running’. We’re going to try and decree it ourself and hope that it sticks. But what do we mean by ‘up and running’? Virat Kohli’s just about the best one-day batsman in the world and he’s been

December 17, 2013 Australia / England

Ben Stokes is a large, brightly-coloured straw

< 1 minute readYou can see him a mile off. Clutch him. CLUTCH HIM! It’s not so much that he scored a hundred on what was actually a fairly even, true pitch between the cracks. It’s more that he looked unruffled. Any idiot can bat, but hardly anyone can bat in the muggy

December 16, 2013 England

The Jonathan Trott era

3 minute readCan we make this ‘a thing’? We’re pretty sure it’s a thing. The story goes like this: England pick Trott, he scores a hundred and they reclaim the Ashes. He then spends the next four years shielding the middle order so that it – and also the lower order –

December 14, 2013 Australia / England

Kevin Pietersen and caricatured batting

2 minute readKevin Pietersen can often look a caricature of a batsman. Look at his leave. When he leaves a ball, Jesus Christ it stays left. The ball really knows it hasn’t been hit following KP’s huge, flourishing, circular withdrawal of the bat. Today, Pietersen batted sensibly and in keeping with this