Cricket writing, from our own data
Cricket records, rules explained and notes on the daily puzzles. Written from our own dataset, never rewritten from a news site.
Test cricket explained for someone watching their first day
Five days, two innings each, and a result that can be a draw. What is actually happening on day two when nobody appears to be trying to win.
One-day international cricket explained, and its identity problem
Fifty overs a side, the format that invented the World Cup and now sits awkwardly between the two everybody argues about. What it does that neither of the others can.
The first Test match, 1877, and why nobody called it that
Australia beat England by 45 runs at the MCG in a game neither side considered historic. The label came later, and so did almost everything else.
The first Cricket World Cup, 1975, and the format it proved
Sixty overs a side, in whites, with a red ball, and a final that finished after nine at night. It turned one-day cricket from a county gimmick into the sport's biggest event.
Highest individual scores in Test cricket, and what they cost
Only one batter has passed 400. The list is shorter than people expect, and the innings on it took between eight and sixteen hours to build.
Most Test wickets of all time, and the two who will not be caught
Muralitharan's 800 and Warne's 708 sit above everybody. The list below them explains more about how cricket changed than the two at the top do.
World Series Cricket, and the two years that built modern cricket
Refused broadcast rights, a television executive signed fifty of the world's best players instead. Most of what looks normal about televised cricket came out of it.
The first Women's Cricket World Cup, 1973, two years before the men's
England beat Australia at Edgbaston in a tournament organised by a businessman and a cricket administrator, funded privately, and largely forgotten.
How to read a cricket scorecard properly, line by line
Every number on a scorecard is answering a question. Once you know which, the card tells you what happened without anyone having to describe it.
Cricket fielding positions, named and explained
Forty-odd names that sound arbitrary and are not. The whole system is three words combined, and once you know the grammar you can name any position on the field.
The googly explained, and why it is so hard to pick
A leg-spinner's delivery that turns the other way, bowled with the same arm action from the back of the hand. What it does, how to spot it, and why it changed spin bowling.
The rise of the West Indies, and the fifteen years nobody beat them
Between 1980 and 1995 West Indies did not lose a Test series. The four-man pace attack is the famous part; the reason it worked has been widely misread.