King Cricket

July 29, 2012 England

Good luck to James Taylor but we really don’t get it

< 1 minute readRavi Bopara’s found another way of missing out on a Test match. We don’t know what it is, but it’s led to England selecting James Taylor in his place. We really don’t understand this. Taylor plays the kind of innings where everyone coos about his ‘class’ and says how it

July 26, 2012 Match report

England v Australia day-night match report from Birmingham

3 minute readNe writes: We had arranged to meet at Marylebone station, in order to get the Chilterns Railways line up to Birmingham. This route had many advantages: firstly, on the day tickets are significantly cheaper than those offered by Virgin at Euston; secondly, the train nerd in APB (my travelling companion)

July 25, 2012 South Africa

Enduring South African flawlessness with the bat

< 1 minute readWe’re not a fan of batting. Fours and sixes elicit an approving nod of the head, but they don’t move us in the same way as wickets. This has perhaps been compounded by a period of Test cricket that lasted until recently in which huge scores became the norm. That

July 24, 2012 South Africa

Ingredients of a Dale Steyn

2 minute readIs there a real lack of perspective these days, or is it just that the internet has provided an outlet for people who never had it? Before the first Test, some people were talking up Vernon Philander as being the main threat to England’s batsmen and after the first day,

July 23, 2012 England / South Africa

England embrace the modern fashion for innings defeats

2 minute readWhen it comes to meticulous planning, individual excellence and the most admirable examples of team spirit, the cyclists seem to have cornered the market here in Britain. The cricket team has rather folded. Can no side merely lose a Test match any more? Nowadays, when good teams fall, it always

July 22, 2012 England

Bowling dry – not a cure-all

< 1 minute readWho are the batsmen who have really troubled England in home Tests in recent years? Rahul Dravid, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels. And what characterises those three batsmen? An unhurried method, we’d say – they don’t go chasing after the ball. Is this a coincidence? When the ball doesn’t swing,

July 19, 2012 England / South Africa

Alastair Cook – endurance batsman

2 minute readHello South Africa and welcome to England. This is Alastair Cook. He is fitter than you are. We’re not sure you’re going to get on very well. Thus far, South Africa have had a fairly typical experience of touring England. It has rained and Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott have

July 18, 2012 England / South Africa

England v South Africa preview

2 minute readThere seem to be a lot of head to head type previews of this series. We never really get much out of them, because cricket doesn’t really work on a points system. There are no judges comparing the two teams’ attributes. You decide which side’s the better by pitting them

July 17, 2012 Pakistan

Kamran Akmal’s back

< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. Or has he? Actually, that would explain a lot. Lack of core mobility would probably have an impact on catching ability and could potentially give rise to the level of pan-handed buffoonery exhibited by Kamran Akmal. Actually, on second thoughts,

July 15, 2012 Australia

Why we liked Brett Lee

2 minute readTest bowling average v England: 40.61 – what’s not to like? Yes, it’s one of those weird statistics, but Brett Lee actually wasn’t all that destructive in the Ashes. There was theatre and tension every time he came onto bowl, but all that happened was that the batsman thought: “Ooh,