King Cricket

June 22, 2009 County cricket / England

Why is Michael Vaughan not in England’s Ashes squad?

< 1 minute readBecause he’s busy scoring tens of runs for Yorkshire and pensively rubbing his knee when in the field. Seven first-class innings, 147 runs at 21 with a top score of 43. County cricket can consider itself safe from combustion. It’s common for people to say that Michael Vaughan has ‘class’,

June 21, 2009 Pakistan

Shahid Afridi wins T20 World Cup for Pakistan

< 1 minute readOut of form and out of practice, Pakistan were playing like a cutlery drawer full of spoons at the start of the tournament but literally improved with every game. Shahid Afridi played like a grown-up today, which is again missing the point of Shahid Afridi. But being as he won

June 21, 2009 Pakistan / Sri Lanka

Why support Pakistan in the World Twenty20 final?

< 1 minute readWe’ve been quietly supporting Sri Lanka all along – as we often do in these tournaments. They always looked a decent bet with their oddball bowling attack and they’re pretty likeable sorts as well. But then Pakistan turned up. When they’ve actually been allowed to play over the last couple

June 20, 2009 Sri Lanka

Tillakaratne Dilshan largely unarsed by bowling or conditions

< 1 minute readInternational Twenty20, or T20I, has a short history, so Tillakaratne Dilshan has been able to launch himself into third place on the list of all-time run-scorers largely as a result of this tournament. Dilshan’s scored over half his career runs in the last fortnight and a good chunk of those

June 19, 2009 Pakistan

Umar Gul bowls at the stumps

< 1 minute readThere are a lot of cute, overcomplicated theories about Twenty20 cricket: Mix it up. You’ve got to bowl something different every ball. South Africa’s hugely impressive left-armer, Wayne Parnell, showed that if you can bowl yorkers on demand, you can make it very hard to score. But Parnell’s got room

June 19, 2009 Pakistan

Shahid Afridi can bat again even if Twenty20 doesn’t flatter him

< 1 minute readIt pains us that a whole generation of young cricket watchers won’t ‘get’ Shahid Afridi. Even after watching him hit 51 off 34 balls, they still won’t get it. Twenty20 has legitimised the Shahid Afridi approach to batting and legitimacy has no place in the world of Shahid Afridi. Shahid

June 19, 2009 Pakistan

Younus Khan thinks Twenty20 is only a fun game

< 1 minute readDoes. He. Bollocks. It’s the last over of the semi final and everything’s at stake. The ball goes out to long-off, Fawad Alam slings it in, hits the stumps and Albie Morkel’s run out. South Africa need 16 off three balls and Pakistan have as good as won. Is Younus

June 18, 2009 Pakistan / South Africa

Did South Africa choke in a semi final again?

< 1 minute readNo, they got beaten by Pakistan, who were ace. It’s good to have the real Pakistan back. At the start of the tournament, we looked at their team and thought: ‘Where’s the fun? Where’s the Pakistani all-or-nothing genius and chaos?’ Turns out it was in there all along.

June 18, 2009 England / India / Pakistan / South Africa / Sri Lanka / West Indies

Our World Twenty20 XI

< 1 minute readTell you what’s boring: people picking fantasy teams and then publishing them on their websites. Who cares? The arrogance of these people to think anyone would be remotely interested. Here’s ours. Chris Gayle – plays forward defensives and sixes with the same facial expression Tillekeratne Dilshan – reliable, effective and

June 17, 2009 India

IPL is a lower standard of cricket

< 1 minute readOver the last year or so, the IPL’s marketing/propaganda has been accepted to such an extent that players and journalists the world over have been lauding it as cricket not just called Twenty20, but from the year 2020 – way ahead of its time. You can’t help but learn in