King Cricket

October 9, 2007 Australia / India

Matthew Hayden leads the way – in the wrong direction

< 1 minute readGroups for whom Matthew Hayden is a standard-bearer: Modern opening batsmen who don’t have to face proper bowling Bears who eat faces Pious turds India beat Australia in the third one-day international at Chandigarh. However, they couldn’t stop Matthew Hayden from top-scoring with 92. Hayden’s one-day record since he returned

October 8, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

Graeme Swann the hero for England

< 1 minute readWe’ve been waiting to write that headline since March 31st last year, when we made Graeme Swann one to watch for that season. Graeme let us down then, but since being given a chance in the England side, he’s been encouragingly solid at a time when solidity has been at

October 5, 2007 Pakistan

Inzamam-ul-Haq retires

3 minute readNo. Don’t do it. We know you’re 37, but since when has lack of fitness affected your game? Besides, you’re as svelte now as you’ve ever been. Inzamam’s appearance has always been deceptive though. Maybe his slimmer look is deceiving us too. He’s got one more match to go –

October 5, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

Win the toss and bat

< 1 minute readThere’s one more match at Dambulla and so far that appears to be the best route to victory. In the first match, Sri Lanka batted sensibly and then England were skittled. In the second match, England batted haphazardly at first, then pragmatically later, once Owais Shah got to the crease

October 4, 2007 Regulars

Andrew Strauss given out ‘hunchback at slip’

< 1 minute readPakistan here successfully appeal for the little-known mode of dismissal ‘hunchback at slip’. As he delivers the ball, Mohammad Sami notices that his team mates have smuggled Quasimodo into the first slip position and asks the question of the umpire. This means of dismissal was removed from the laws later

October 3, 2007 South Africa

Mark Boucher breaks record for Test dismissals

< 1 minute readIan Healy, Australia’s wicketkeeper before Adam Gilchrist, had 395 victims in 119 Tests. Mark Boucher’s just gone past him in his 103rd Test. Quite impressive really. There are fewer draws these days and a couple of poorer teams, which goes some way towards explaining how Boucher managed to reach this

October 3, 2007 County cricket / Match report

North Gear Premier League Twenty20 Grand Final match report

< 1 minute readRoyal Cricket (no relation) visited Canterbury to ignore the North Gear Premier League Twenty20 Grand Final. They say this: Our mate Paul Hibberd’s younger brother, James, was playing, so we didn’t ignore him but we did spend lots of time ignoring the cricket and looking at the cameras to make

October 2, 2007 Australia / India

Brad Haddin shows it won’t be that big a deal when Adam Gilchrist retires, when it really should be

2 minute readOn Saturday, Brad Haddin played his first international match since February after Australia’s batsmen suddenly decided they didn’t want to bat in India and feigned any number of injuries. Haddin hit 69 then, although India’s innings was washed-out. Today, Haddin hit 87 not out off 69 balls and Australia won

October 2, 2007 England / Sri Lanka

We’re a young side and we’ll learn from this

< 1 minute readThere’s not a great deal to write about England’s loss in the first one-day international against Sri Lanka yesterday. This is partly because it’s a very ho-hum one-day series, coming about 20 minutes after the Twenty20 World Cup, which itself was hot on the heels of a seven match one-day

October 1, 2007 Pakistan / South Africa

Jacques Kallis fills the void

< 1 minute readShaun Pollock may have been dropped, but South Africa have got more than one crushingly dispiriting all-rounder at their disposal. In fact, South African cricket can boast a whole battalion of line-and-length-bowling competent-batting dullards. Jacques Kallis is a little better than competent, of course, although he’s a dullard in more