King Cricket

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

September 21, 2023 Extras

For the avoidance of doubt the 2023 Cricket World Cup absolutely does not “take one day”

2 minute read“History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023,” is the claim. “All it takes is just one day.” This is manifestly untrue. The winning of the World Cup will take one day in much the same way as it will take

September 20, 2023 Match report

Two sports, three days and five bagels at the Home of Rain Interruptions (unless you’re playing real tennis)

4 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’s report from the 2022

September 18, 2023 England

No-one’s making Jason Roy stronger here with the way they’ve gone about this

5 minute readAin’t no bad news like the retraction of previously issued good news. Jason Roy had already given his relieved response to being included in England’s World Cup squad when he was later excluded from it. How are you feeling since the change of heart, Jase? Not great, we’d wager. Squad

September 14, 2023 England / West Indies

Viv Richards deserves a respectful nod after Ben Stokes’ latest record

2 minute readA few weeks ago we asked whether Ben Stokes was definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad. We drew no firm conclusions. Smashing 182 off 124 balls to break the record for the highest score by an England batter in a one-day international (ODI) probably

September 13, 2023 England / Sri Lanka

Did you see… Achini Kulasuriya run out for 0?

2 minute read“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” said Daniel Norcross on BBC commentary. “The throw’s come in at the non-striker’s end and there is dawdleage.” It’s hard to improve on that assessment. What was so remarkable about this dismissal is that it felt like the textbook, “yadda yadda yadda… and there’s

September 11, 2023 England / New Zealand

Did you see… Glenn Phillips catch Moeen Ali?

2 minute readWe’re in the era of the boundary juggler. It was therefore quite refreshing to deploy an ‘oh wow’ for a good old diving catch yesterday, as Glenn Phillips briefly turned into a glider to dispatch Moeen Ali. England levelled the one-day series against New Zealand yesterday and in so doing

September 7, 2023 County cricket

At least Josh de Caires is keeping things unpredictable – unlike Essex

2 minute readYou could definitely have AI report on Essex victories. Or maybe you couldn’t. Maybe the reports would get too samey. How would this latest one go for the win over Middlesex? ChatGPT reckons: “Essex’s opening pair, like a well-rehearsed comedy duo, set the tone for the day. Nick Browne, steady

England just need to get through the new ball and then they'll be able to dominate the Australians with the…

And, along similar lines to what Ged said, applying that attitude to playing conditions more generally would have its benefits.…

Feeling obliged to do something "for your mates" that you work with day to day, even when it's inherently unsafe…

Well, hence the 'use sparingly'. Archer's shown he still has the capacity to bowl quickly, but not necessarily 20-odd overs…

That is assuming that Archer will be bowling 90mph+, and not the 82-85mph he was bowling in his 2nd and…

From Chris ‘Napoleon’ Woakes to unbreakable Mohammed Siraj: 9 moments of pure cricket madness from the final day of a blinding and brutal Test series

Zimbabwe in England: six lessons from history for those not old enough to remember this kind of thing

In praise of the matter-of-fact dynamism of Travis Head

Mark’s wood: Talking joinery and timber with England’s fastest bowler

23 of the best, worst and weirdest cricket moments of 2024