King Cricket

October 31, 2013 India

Virat Kohli rises above the rate of inflation

2 minute readEvery year they change the rules for one-day internationals and every year the highest-scoring matches become even higher scoring. That’s where the effects are most keenly felt – at the top end. If there’s one man you want in your team in a modern world where targets of 350 and

October 30, 2013 England

Alastair Cook’s back

< 1 minute readApparently Alastair Cook developed a bad back while flying. This is an ability we didn’t know he had. Those who have been fortunate enough to witness an airborne Cook say he spurns dramatic swoops in favour of steady progress at a consistent altitude and that when bad weather is forecast,

October 29, 2013 Australia

George Bailey v David Warner

2 minute readWe haven’t really given much thought to Australia’s other five batting slots which means we can pitch Bailey v Warner as being a battle for the sixth one. They’ll almost certainly both play in the first Ashes Test, but let’s gloss over this so that we’ve got something to say

October 28, 2013 Match report

Lord’s Indoor School match report

2 minute readGed writes: An occasional, regular feature of my summer these days is to spend a few evenings with friends in the nets at the Lord’s Indoor School. 29 July was our third net this year; me, Escamillo Escapillo and Charley “The Gent” Malloy. I was sporting my new “Thirst Extinguisher”

October 25, 2013 Bangladesh

Mominul Haque – possible focal point for faintly unhinged obsessive tendencies

< 1 minute readPeople latch onto particular players for all sorts of odd reasons, developing long, intense, one-way relationships with them. Maybe you attended the one match where an otherwise poor player achieved momentary competence or perhaps they were the first player you saw responding to ‘give us a wave’. It can be

October 24, 2013 Pakistan / South Africa

Orchestration and delusion

< 1 minute readAfter losing the first Test to Pakistan, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said: “It should hurt. But this team has too much ability to make this a habit.” We immediately thought about the distinction between confidence and delusion and how the only real difference is what happens afterwards. These seemed

October 23, 2013 County cricket

Exclusive celeb gossip scoop

< 1 minute readA secret source writes: I thought this might interest you. It’s just like the 3am Girls in The Mirror, only with better grammar and more discussion about the state of County Championship wickets than they normally have. Overheard at the gym at the weekend – a regular first-team Lancashire player

October 22, 2013 Extras

A quick Cricket Badger update

< 1 minute readWe won’t do this regularly because that would be boring, but we thought we’d at least let you know how week one of Cricket Badger went. We picked up a couple of hundred subscribers – most within the first day. More pleasingly, we will have about 20 per cent more

October 20, 2013 India

Ishant Sharma’s death bowling

< 1 minute readBailout made an unusually strong and comprehensive argument in favour of Stuart Matsikenyeri when we requested names of players whose continued selection seems inexplicable. However, Ishant Sharma was mentioned more frequently. Sharma seems to be the subject of much scrutiny at the minute. A Cricinfo article about him last week

October 18, 2013 Pakistan

That Pakistan win over South Africa

< 1 minute readNo-one comes here for the clever headlines, right? As most of you know, Pakistan did indeed win the first Test against South Africa, doing so in typically Pakistani style. Chasing 40 to win, they fell to 7-3. At this point, Misbah-ul-Haq, who continually strives to be the most dour batsmen