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.
The second new ball, and why captains do not always take it
A new ball becomes available at 80 overs and taking it straight away is frequently the wrong decision. What the captain is weighing is reverse swing against hardness.
Over rates, and the penalties that finally changed them
Sides bowled slowly for forty years because fines were cheaper than the advantage. It stopped when the penalty became points and fielders rather than money.
The pink ball, and what day-night Tests actually changed
A red ball is invisible under lights and a white one falls apart. The pink ball is the compromise, and it swings longer and makes twilight the hardest hour in cricket.
What an opening batter is actually for, format by format
The only position in cricket defined by what it faces rather than where it bats, and the job reverses completely between a Test match and a T20.
The sweep, the reverse sweep and the switch hit explained
Four shots that start from the same position and end up in four different places, all invented to send the ball where the fielders are not.
What a wicket is actually worth in each format
Ten wickets and a fixed number of balls produce completely different economies. In a Test a wicket is the only currency; in a T20 the tenth one is nearly worthless.
The World Test Championship points system, explained
Sides play very different numbers of Tests in a cycle, so the table ranks by percentage of points available rather than by points won. That one choice explains the rest.
The yorker, and why the best delivery is the hardest to land
The target is a strip of ground about a foot deep at the base of the stumps. A foot either side and it is the easiest ball in cricket to hit.
Virat Kohli by the numbers, and the chase that defined him
An ODI average above fifty built almost entirely in run chases, plus a Test captaincy that made India believe they could win away from home.
Virender Sehwag by the numbers, and the fastest triple centuries
Two Test triple centuries scored at close to a run a ball, from an opener with one plan against every bowler on every pitch: see the ball, hit the ball.
Viv Richards by the numbers, and the batter who never wore a helmet
8,540 Test runs at 50.23, scored at a rate nobody else in his era approached, by a man who faced the fastest bowling in history in a cap.
VVS Laxman by the numbers, and the innings that outgrew them
8,781 Test runs at 45.97, a record that undersells him because most of what he was for happened in the situations nobody else could bat in.