King Cricket

What Jonny Bairstow’s Kingsman church scene innings tells us about the ‘throwing off the shackles’ cliché

5 minute readViolence is great, isn’t it? Violence is so much fun. We greatly enjoyed Jonny Bairstow, at Trent Bridge, with a cricket bat. At tea on day five, England were 139-4, 160 runs from victory and Jonny Bairstow was on 43 off 48 balls, which is quick, but still within the

June 13, 2022 England

Let’s celebrate England’s erratic slip fielding

3 minute readWhen the opposition make 550, it’s rarely because of a missed catch. It’s more a result of all the other chances that weren’t even created. At the same time, an innings of 550 will tend to feature a fair few misses, if only because it’s such a huge volume of

June 8, 2022 England

Captain Stokes v Captain Root

3 minute readEverything’s amazing and fun and positive under the new England captain. Remember that previous guy? Man was he a miserable arsehole. Didn’t have a clue, did he? Whatever happened to him? Sometimes you accidentally reveal something about the past. We remember being on this cookery course in Thailand once with

June 7, 2022 England

The embiggening of Stuart Broad

2 minute readStuart Broad has always been a bowler who makes the absolute least of his height. But Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum may have a plan… Height is an attribute for a quick bowler. You don’t need data analysis to deduce this – a team photo’s enough. In most international teams

June 5, 2022 England / New Zealand

Did you see… Stuart Broad’s secondary appeal?

2 minute readAppealing is one of the great aspects of cricket and Stuart Broad is, in his own way, one of the all-time great appealers. At Lord’s, against New Zealand, he delivered a very fine secondary appeal. If you missed it, Colin de Grandhomme was run out by Ollie Pope at slip

June 2, 2022 England

Matty Potts: first look in Test cricket

2 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. Before this match, we wondered whether Matty Potts was unusually tall or unusually quick. Turns out he’s neither, which makes Rob Key’s comment that he saw him as a “point of difference”

June 1, 2022 England / New Zealand

5 things to watch out for as Brendon McCullum’s England take on Brendon McCullum’s New Zealand

6 minute readHas any man credited with such great influence over two teams ever had less direct influence on either? Brendon McCullum undoubtedly laid foundations for the current New Zealand side. Just as Nasser Hussain added vertebrae to England between 1999 and 2003 before they delivered higher profile successes, McCullum set the

May 30, 2022 England

Ollie Robinson’s no longer back-to-back

< 1 minute readGreat news, England fans. Ollie Robinson’s come up with a far more efficient way of getting through his very many injuries and illnesses. To recap Ollie Robinson’s recent fitness record: a back spasm in Hobart; three missed Tests in the West Indies for much the same reason; a tooth infection

May 26, 2022 England

Ollie Robinson’s back

< 1 minute readAs in his back – his actual back. Also Jofra Archer’s back, Saqib Mahmood’s back and Matt Fisher’s back, as well as Mark Wood’s elbow, Olly Stone’s ankle and Chris Woakes’ knee. There’s a bit in Kilimanjaro: Going for Broke when one of the four disabled climbers lists how many

May 24, 2022 County cricket / England / New Zealand

Let’s try and work out what the team playing against New Zealand this week should be called

3 minute readA First Class Counties XI is playing New Zealand this week. First Class Counties XI is not a good team name. The issue here is that this is not a Lions team because the Lions team is England’s formally recognised second-string. The First Class Counties XI isn’t even third-string really.