With the rain continuing to stay away from England, the County Championship and CB 40 are shaping up nicely and there were plenty of individual performances to admire. Warwickshire's Varun Chopra may have failed to register another double-century but he did make 115 in the one-dayer. The only 'double' this week was scored by Marcus Trescothick. The Somerset skipper thumped 227 to help his county recover from their awful start to the first-class season, beating Hampshire. Durham's spin all-rounders Ian Blackwell and Scott Borthwick put on a show in their 8-wicket win over Warwickshire, while Notts all-rounders Samit Patel and Paul Franks were also on form against Worcestershire. The county champions also had Alex Hales in the runs, with a third 80-something of the summer, followed by 113 in the one-day defeat to Essex, for whom Ravi Bopara hit 50 to go with his Championship century during the week.
Ed Joyce top-scored for Sussex in both their matches, and Lancashire wicket-keeper Graham Cross made an impressive 125, including five sixes, against Sussex in their Division One draw. Surrey's own 'keeper Steven Davies was twice out in the 90s this week but his opposition stump man John Simpson struck a career-best 143 for Middlesex as part of a big partnership with his captain Neil Dexter, who added 145 and three wickets to the winning cause. It was a tense finish to the Derby-Leicester Championship game. Will Jefferson top-scored with 133 but special mention must go to team-mate Claud Henderson's 96 overs in which he conceded only 172 runs while taking seven wickets. They're the sort of stats I thought went out of fashion with big bands, DAs and winkle-pickers! The South African spinner took a battering in Sunday's 40-over game against Warwickshire, but Leicestershire's young batsman James Taylor was again in the runs, making 101 in the unsuccessful run chase against the Bears.
However my County Player of the Week is Hampshire's Liam Dawson. In his first match of the season he compiled two half-centuries but this week in his third he went considerably better, notching 91 and 169. Surprisingly his 260 runs weren't enough to stave off defeat against Somerset but the 21 year-old opener gets my award for the week.
On the international front, the IPL has thrown up more six-hitting, with Yuvraj Singh smashing a few healthy innings but for me the outstanding performances came from a pair of Sharmas. Playing for the Deccan Chargers, Ishant claimed 5-12 at Kochi, four of his victims out for a duck. Still only 22, Sharma is widely respected but his figures don't bear out his talent. 90 Test wickets at an average of 36 and a similar average in T20 allied to an economy rate of almost 8 an over don't exactly come close to a Malinga or Steyn, but he had a great match last week.
However for consistency over three IPL games, my other Player of the Week award goes to his namesake Rahul Sharma. The Pune Warriors leg-spinner may be inexperienced in the first-class format but in T20 he is proving a very useful man to have around. In the last seven days, he has claimed match analyses of 1-27, 0-27, 2-27 and, just to spoil the symmetry, 3-13. That's what I call economy and consistency! Shame his colleagues couldn't match it because all four games were lost!
