King Cricket

December 22, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

Alastair Cook papers over some cracks

< 1 minute readThe quiet, southern, well-kempt, left-handed Michael Atherton for the 21st Century (actually, maybe he’s not Michael Atherton, thinking about it) brought the merest hint of pride back to shameful, shameful England with what we can’t help but describe as a rearguard hundred. Alastair’s very much a rearguard hundred kind of

December 21, 2007 England

Andrew Flintoff’s impact

< 1 minute readAndrew Flintoff’s been away quite a long time now. He hasn’t featured in full health for England for even longer. We were starting to forget what was so good about him, but we think we remember. It’s because he has an impact. Career averages of 32 with both bat and

December 20, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

England’s learning curve away from home versus Sri Lanka’s

2 minute readIt’s bad when the aftermath starts on day two. We didn’t realise we’d be so much further on by day three though. We’re struck by the contrast with Sri Lanka’s tour of England in 2006. When Sri Lanka arrived, they were, without wishing to be disparaging, ripe for the taking.

December 20, 2007 Australia / New Zealand

Ricky Ponting goes through some rather spectacular motions

< 1 minute readNo, he hasn’t risked eating cream cheese in Karnataka and isn’t enduring THOSE sorts of spectacular motions (just say no, kids). He’s just going through the cricketing motions, only ‘going through the motions’ for Ricky Ponting involves scoring unbeaten hundreds. He operates at a higher level, this batsman. Australia won

December 20, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

Chaminda Vaas has one of his days again

< 1 minute readHere’s a post about Chaminda Vaas which deserves a second showing. Read that, then come back here. It took England two days to take six Sri Lankan wickets. Sri Lanka managed to take six English wickets by the time the score had reached 33. The world authority on subcontinental bowling

December 19, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

England heading for fifth in ICC rankings

2 minute readIf England don’t win this Test match, they’ll drop to fifth in the ICC’s Test rankings. With rain forecast and two days gone without one innings being completed, it looks like this’ll happen. We think it’s fair. Generally speaking, over their last few series, England have looked worthy and full

December 19, 2007 England

He bowls a heavy ball

< 1 minute readApparently Ravi Bopara is ‘quicker than he looks’. This is a moronic statement that’s often made about a bowler. ‘He skids onto you a bit’ is another. Very rarely does anyone actually mean that the ball is delivered at such a low angle that the ball skids rather than bounces.

December 18, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

Harmison in the wickets

< 1 minute readPretty good, but he can do better still. We won’t really be satisfied until he runs through a side. That’s what Steve Harmison’s supposed to do – the Dreamland Steve Harmison who we regularly summon up when things aren’t going England’s way. The not-at-all-real Steve Harmison who embodies English cricketing

December 18, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

There’s a Test match in Galle

< 1 minute readTake that Mother Nature, you hooker. Okay, so you may have given that teddy bear special powers and turned him into SuperTed, but do you really think that balances out the tsunami? No, it doesn’t. This is our way of lauding the Sri Lankans for getting on with things and

December 17, 2007 Australia / Regulars

Shaun Tait astride a big cannon

< 1 minute readWe’ve been putting altogether too many words on this site of late, so for no real reason, here’s a picture of Shaun Tait astride a big cannon. It’s not THAT big a cannon though. Ho, no, no – not as big as this cannon. We like big cannons. We don’t