King Cricket

July 5, 2023 Match report

Meeting people is easy – an Edgbaston 2023 match 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.) King Cricket contributor Sam Blackledge writes… ‘Meeting People is Easy’,

July 2, 2023 Australia / England

Ben Stokes’ 155 v Ben Stokes’ captaincy – which was more irregular?

2 minute readBen Stokes’ incredible attempt to play a twice-in-a-lifetime innings has tragically overshadowed the Lord’s Test’s most extraordinary passage of play: England spending two-thirds of a day bowling nothing but 80mph bouncers and it somehow working out for them. Forget day five. We’ve all seen a Stokes special before and everyone

June 30, 2023 Australia / England

Do England want Pat Cummins to bowl?

2 minute readThe attitude of England’s top order batters appears to be that if you aren’t Pat Cummins, you’re going to the fence. It’ll be interesting to see the impact of this as the series wears on. Australia’s most accurate bowler, Scott Boland, conceded 147 runs in 26 overs in the first

June 28, 2023 Australia / England

It’s a bit grim when Josh Tongue is talked up as the quick one

2 minute readIt’s not just that England have fielded five right-arm seamers in this Test, it’s that the one bowling 85mph is being lauded as the quick one. Where’s all the pace gone? It’s there a leak somewhere? Let’s pull back the carpet and see if there’s 5mph pooling somewhere under the

June 27, 2023 Australia / England

You can ignore Ollie Robinson – England probably won’t “go harder” in the second Test

4 minute readWe still don’t feel like we know Ollie Robinson all that well, but one thing we’ve concluded is that he is now pretty well established as England’s talker-of-bollocks in chief. Robinson somehow made the headlines last week for a tetchy and sweary outburst at Usman Khawaja after dismissing him for

June 26, 2023 Australia / England

Ashleigh Gardner sees your 10 wickets in a match and raises you

2 minute readAfter securing a 268-run target via Tammy Beaumont’s 208 and Sophie Ecclestone’s second five wicket haul of the match, England were, if not happy, then at least steely-eyed and up for a challenge going into their second innings. Then Ashleigh Gardner took 8-66. Moeen’s Ali’s seeping spinning finger last week

June 25, 2023 Australia / County cricket / Extras

The Kookaburra cricket ball – what’s the big deal?

2 minute readThey’re going to use the Kookaburra cricket ball for the next couple of rounds of the County Championship. Why exactly? Have you ever seen that godawful film where Nicolas Cage is a pilot and a bunch of people suddenly cease to exist? Nic Cage films range from actually good to

June 23, 2023 Australia / England

Ellyse Perry is a lot less bothered than you’d think about getting out for 99

2 minute readThe climax of the last Ashes Test was so dramatic that they decided to play another one. No, not that Ashes Test climax – this Ashes Test climax. For England and Australia cricketers, Test opportunities come around either constantly or almost never, depending whether you’re a man or a woman.

June 22, 2023 Australia / England

Why do we complain about declarations? Maybe because declarations feel easier to quantify

4 minute readFew declarations pass without public complaint, but Ben Stokes’ first innings declaration in the first Test of the 2023 Ashes was more controversial than most. People complained when it happened and then they really complained when England lost. England were 393-8, Joe Root was on 118 and Nathan Lyon had

June 20, 2023 Australia / England

A lesson from Pat Cummins: even bloody awful Ashes cricket is bloody brilliant

4 minute readIt just ratchets up, doesn’t it? The climax of a tight Test match ratchets up the tension and anguish to the same point a normal sport can take you… and then it just gleefully and sadistically carries on ratcheting from there. It keeps on ratcheting for maybe another hour of