King Cricket

November 23, 2007 India / Pakistan

Misbah-ul-Haq run out failing to ground his bat

< 1 minute readOr himself for that matter. If you didn’t see Misbah-ul-Haq getting run out for 82, you’ll get an idea as to what happened from the accompanying picture. Misbah was about to make his ground after a quickish single. The throw came in from Dinesh Karhik at backward point and Misbah

November 22, 2007 India / Pakistan

Misbah-ul-Haq in Test cricket

2 minute readWe labelled Misbah-ul-Haq a Twenty20 specialist during that format’s World Cup. That was a bit misleading because we don’t particularly believe in being a specialist in one format or another. The best cricketers play the match situation and the best batsmen weigh up what to do to score runs against

November 21, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

England warm-up Sri Lanka

< 1 minute readIt’s been very generous of England to attempt to sort out Sri Lanka’s opening vacancy within 24 hours of the retirment of Marvan Atapattu. Upul Tharanga made a hundred for the Board President’s XI and Sri Lanka’s muppets would appear to have an easy decision to make. If there are

November 21, 2007 Australia

A run-making monster and…

< 1 minute readSuave thinks he’s spotted something: Thoughts?

November 20, 2007 Australia

Darren Lehmann retires

2 minute readDarren Lehmann was twice the batsman Mike Hussey is. That’s not a fat joke, nor is it meant as a put-down for Hussey, who we rate very highly – it’s just that Darren Lehmann was magic. Some players have a really good season where they stand head and shoulders above

November 19, 2007 Australia / Sri Lanka

Australia uncharacteristically fail to drive home their advantage

2 minute readSri Lanka have got two really top drawer batsmen, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and both have scored hundreds in this second Test. That’s more top-drawer batsmen than most teams have, but unfortunately Australia aren’t most teams. Andrew Symonds is making up the numbers a bit, but they’re otherwise pretty

November 19, 2007 South Africa

Jacques Kallis, interesting?

< 1 minute readWe don’t know what’s going on here. There we were idly reading a short piece about New Zealand quick, Mark Gillespie, when suddenly the writer makes the most outrageous claim imaginable. Will from The Corridor – who knows what he’s on about – describes Jacques Kallis as ‘dazzling’. ‘Dazzling’ is

November 17, 2007 Australia / Sri Lanka

Australia opt not to deviate from the template

< 1 minute readAustralia bat first and all but remove any chance of a Sri Lankan win by the end of the first day. On the second day they drive home their advantage before declaring at about 550 allowing them a few overs at the Sri Lankan openers. That was the first Test

November 16, 2007 Australia / Sri Lanka

Mike Hussey: statistically aberrant and statistically abhorrent

< 1 minute readWhat? You didn’t think we’d come up with something like that and only use it the once. No way. Statistically aberrant and statistically abhorrent – it’s got a rhythm to it AND it makes sense. At least it does so far. When you’ve read it for the 500th time, all

November 16, 2007 India / Pakistan

Sachin Tendulkar tries to camouflage his brilliance

< 1 minute readWell we’re onto you, young Sachin Tendulkar. Just because some young tyro hasn’t learned to turn fifties into hundreds, doesn’t mean we won’t spot real talent when it stares us in the face. This lad’s one to watch. India beat Pakistan in the fourth one-day international and in so doing