King Cricket

May 30, 2011 England / Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka slightly taken aback by England attack

< 1 minute readImagine you’re Sri Lanka. You’re four days into the world’s most uneventful bike ride. You’re in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain on a beautiful flat road and you can clearly see that there is nothing threatening for 50 miles in any direction. You’re tootling along at about 8mph feeling

May 30, 2011 England

Ian Bell’s year – an actual opinion

< 1 minute readDon’t be afraid. We’re experimenting with having opinions. We meant to say it before the first Test – and maybe this isn’t the best timing when he’s on 98 not out – but we think Ian Bell will be England’s best batsmen in the next 12 months. Ashes 2010-11 Bell’s

May 29, 2011 England

Jonathan Trott is relentless

< 1 minute readJonathan Trott is on holiday with his family. They decide to play table tennis – winner stays on. After Trott has won the first 18 games, Mrs Trott quietly suggests that he might like to find a way to let the kids win a couple. Trott says no. After 86

May 28, 2011 Extras

Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths hit Cricinfo

< 1 minute readWe have to plug the Chuck Fleetwood-Smiths (Jarrod Kimber and Sam Collins, formerly Two Pricks at the Ashes) because Jarrod wore our T-shirt yesterday. We had an extended discussion about Jarrod’s mooted attire earlier in the week, during which we told him about the time a friend had seen us

May 27, 2011 Extras

Sri Lanka’s bowling attack without Murali

< 1 minute readOur latest Cricinfo piece is picking up rave reviews. cud hav been more funnier!!! Extremely lame. Nothing to laugh at all who is Alex Bowden? I am sure ppl will remember Murali long after him We thought it was one of the better ones. Have a read, see what you

May 26, 2011 England / Sri Lanka

Playing Sri Lanka will be hard work

< 1 minute readA good first day of Test cricket for England, in the sense that it put them straight. Playing Sri Lanka demands perseverance. It demands perseverance so earnest it comes with a pipe and a scowl. If Sri Lanka’s feisty wins in their warm-up matches hadn’t got the message through to

May 26, 2011 County cricket

Kyle Hogg takes a lot of wickets

< 1 minute readHe took seven, in fact. For 28 runs. That is acceptable. That is very, very acceptable. He’s not quite up there with his grandfather yet, but he made Lancashire’s 328 look as whopping as a medium-sized block of flats, as Hampshire were bowled out for 133. England hold the Ashes,

May 25, 2011 India

Royal Challengers Bangalore get another life

< 1 minute readThose who suggest we might have lost track of the IPL during the league phase may have a point. We were at a friend’s house yesterday and he switched on the IPL, asking: “Is this important?” to which we answered, with some confidence: “No.” Turns out it was important and

May 25, 2011 England

Dropping Kevin Pietersen from the England Test team

< 1 minute readWe’re not a fan of this idea. You might say that we’re too easily pleased; that we’d support any batsman who scored thousands of runs for England with unparalleled panache. But you’d be wrong. There’s another thing. We once made Kevin Pietersen say ‘pie’. You can’t buy an experience like

May 24, 2011 Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka are sneaky

2 minute readIf you’ve only been half paying attention to Sri Lanka’s two warm-up matches, you might have got the wrong impression. In the first, against Middlesex, the first day ended with them having conceded 321-5. Andrew Strauss scored a hundred, but so did Dan Housego. “They can’t bowl,” said Robert Baby-Bunting