Pressure
What really puts a T20 batter under pressure?
The IPL plants a tree for every dot ball. Yet across men's and women's T20s, four dots in a row leave the next wicket no closer than any other ball does.
From the data
Blog
Pace bowling
What fast bowlers lose when they lose their pace
A fast bowler is about 4 kph slower by his mid-30s, yet in T20 cricket he saves more runs than he did at 26. The obvious explanations don't cover it.
Pointless Investigations 5
Do batters score more on their birthday?
Test batters average 37.31 in Tests that run over their birthday and 37.32 the rest of the year. Travis Head has spent his birthdays at the MCG.
Cricketer of the year
Cricket’s player of the year since 2006, picked again by the numbers
The ICC's voters and our ratings have named the same man in fewer than half the years. Where they split tells you what an award chooses to remember.
NPL 2026
Who will win the Nepal Premier League 2026?
Our model makes Biratnagar Kings, rebuilt around Andre Russell, the most likely winners of NPL 2026, just ahead of the holders Lumbini Lions.
Bowling variations
Why the slower ball belongs at the death
Sam Curran's moon ball is an extreme version of a delivery most seamers now bowl all innings. Speed readings show where the slower ball pays, and where it goes for runs.
Selection
What away records tell Test selectors before a tour
India go to New Zealand with a top order short of runs against the moving ball. The number selectors reach for first may be the worst one to trust.
Pointless Investigations 4
Do teams play worse after flying east?
Baseball research says eastward jet lag costs teams games. Test sides that flew east have won 34.2% of their decided away Tests, and England haven't won an Ashes opener in Australia since 1986.
Matchups
Why captains should bowl more off-spin at left-handers
A left-hander walks in and the captain throws the ball to his off-spinner. Is that old reflex right in T20s, ODIs and Tests, and do captains follow it far enough?
Home advantage
How much is home advantage worth in cricket?
Between equals, home sides win two Tests in three. Some trips cost touring batters a quarter of their average, and on others they lose nothing at all.
IPL 2027 retentions
Which IPL grounds favour spin, and do their sides buy for it?
Eden Gardens is the one IPL ground that clearly favours spin, and Chepauk no longer does. Before the 2027 retentions, is a turning home pitch worth buying for?
IPL 2027 retentions
Who is overpaid in the IPL? Fees against our ratings before the 2027 retentions
T Natarajan is back at Sunrisers before the 15 November retention deadline. Which IPL players are overpaid, and what are sides really paying for?
Pointless Investigations 3
Does your surname decide how often you make a duck?
Split every Test top-order batter since 2001 by the first letter of their surname and the alphabet turns out to be a batting order.
England central contracts
England central contracts 2026-27: two years for Crocombe, none for Hill
Rob Key's contract list hands two years to one big Sussex summer while the seamer our red-ball ratings rank fifth in the country is left with nothing at all.
Tests
Greatest Test batsman of all time: why the lists never agree
Ask who the greatest Test batsman of all time is and the answers scatter. Patchy old scorecards, a very different calendar and the choice of measure reshuffle Smith, Root and Sangakkara, so where does that leave Bradman?
Coaching
Cricket keeps handing its biggest coaching jobs to its biggest names
Stephen Fleming takes England's Test side with 111 Tests behind him as a player and no red-ball match as a head coach. Cricket keeps hiring famous names, but do famous playing careers make better coaches?
Test cricket
The old men at the top of Test cricket
Australia took the Ashes 4-1 with one player under 30 in the squad. The puzzle is whether this side is great, or simply the last one standing in a thin field.
Pointless Investigations 2
Does a moustache make a better Test batter?
David Boon averaged 43.65 behind the most famous moustache in Test cricket. Forty-nine of today's top-order batters, sorted by their facial hair.
Test batting
Top 10 Test batters of this century
A podcast put Sachin Tendulkar first and Kumar Sangakkara sixth. Weigh every run against the pitch and the attack, and neither makes the ten.
IPL
Impact Player: the death of the all-rounder?
Washington Sundar played 17 IPL games this season and bowled nine overs. Four seasons into the Impact Player rule, the IPL's top order bowls half as much as it did, and the rest of T20 cricket shows no such change.
Pointless Investigations 1
Is 111 unlucky?
David Shepherd hopped on one leg whenever the score reached 111. Batters on 111 in Tests are out less often than on most of the scores around it.
PCA Team of the Year
Nine Durham wins and no Durham name in the PCA Team of the Year
Durham went through the Division Two season unbeaten, and none of their players made the PCA Men's Team of the Year. Ranked on this season alone, across all four domestic competitions, half the PCA's side holds up.
Australia in ODIs
What is Australia’s name worth at the bookmakers?
South Africa have beaten Australia in six ODI series in a row, and Australia started as favourites in every game of the last five. Eight years of bilateral ODIs show how often the market has been right about them.
England central contracts
Twenty-one wickets at 8.76 and the England contracts still to come
Ollie Robinson spent two years without an England contract, then took 21 Pakistan wickets at 8.76. As the ECB draws up its next list, the county seamers it overlooked for the Ashes are waiting too.
Boom and bust
Cricket’s boom-or-bust reputations under pressure
Zak Crawley made 267 and then passed 20 once in his next twelve Test innings. The feast-or-famine label stuck. His record, and those of Glenn Maxwell, KL Rahul and Mohammad Rizwan, test how long such labels deserve to last.
The toss
The toss call W.G. Grace warned captains about
W.G. Grace told captains to bat when they win the toss, even when in doubt. Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston and Babar Azam at Lord's are among the captains who doubted him in England.
The Hundred 2026
A thirteen-ball fifty and no Hundred deal
Kamran Dhariwal hit a thirteen-ball fifty and Sam Hain went without a bid. The Hundred’s auction left six English cricketers with a case to answer on the pitch.
IPL 2027 auction
Looking for an IPL 2027 bargain among ten familiar faces
Aneurin Donald has won England caps and still never been bought at an IPL auction. He joins Mitchell Owen, Steve Smith and seven others whose cricket makes a case for another look.