King Cricket

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

June 16, 2009 Extras

Cricinfo article about Lord’s

< 1 minute readWe did another piece for Cricinfo. It’s about how they could improve the Lord’s atmosphere for Twenty20 matches. It’s okay – possibly even a 7/10 – but the important part is that we’ve managed to squeeze a reference to wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men into an article on a

June 16, 2009 Australia

Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark reveal the extent of institutionalised avian molestation in Australia

< 1 minute read“It’s interesting to see each other’s balls.” So said Mitchell Johnson this week. Apparently the Aussies have been discovering that the balls in England aren’t like the ones they’re used to back home. Stuart Clark explained further: “I think it’s just we’ve grown up playing with Kookaburras for so long

June 15, 2009 England / West Indies

Two Test batsmen in Twenty20

< 1 minute readWhen you’ve already taken five wickets in a nine over match, as England did, you’d hope to have worse batsmen at the crease than Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. England’s six and seven were James Foster and Graeme Swann, for example. Needing 10 an over is no cause for panic

June 15, 2009 England / India

Bouncers in Twenty20 cricket

< 1 minute readEngland got their tactics right against India – brilliantly so. Admittedly, they stole these tactics off the West Indies who bounced India to defeat earlier in the week, but to be honest England probably carried out the plan even better. Indian batsmen are used to low, slow pitches and one-day