It's been a funny old week. There've been the end of a Test series in the Caribbean, a key warm-up tour game at Taunton, County Championship matches, the final T20 Cup group stage fixtures and today the return of the domestic 40-over competition. With ll the different formats, it's quite difficult to compare the different individual performances, and nobody seemed to master them all within just seven days.
In Dominica, Ishant Sharma and Shiv Chanderpaul caught the eye while the Indians' three-day game was controversial for Somerset's temporary signing of Andrew Strauss, presumably at the behest of the ECB, so the out-of-form England captain could get some batting practice against the forthcoming Test opposition. He certainly managed that, with fluent innings of 78 and 109 not out, although an excellent century from Arul Suppiah and last day fireworks from Suresh Raina and Peter Trego will have pleased the crowd.
In T20, there was a century for Sussex's Murray Goodwin, a hat-trick and figures of 5-6 for Durham's Paul Collingwood. Darren Stevens produced two match-winning all-round performances for Kent in two days, against Surrey and Essex, to reach the quarter-finals. No such success for Stevens in one of today's few CB40 games not destroyed by the weather. Instead, it was Dutch captain Peter Borren's 33-ball 71 not which created a shock defeat of Kent.
In the Championship, there were big scores made by Zander de Bruyn, Chesney Hughes and Craig Kieswetter, while at Derby, Jonathan Clare, betting at nine, struck a career-best 130 and took five wickets against Glamorgan. However, my Player of the Week, just edging the decision over Strauss, is Alex Hales of Nottinghamshire.
So often in the past season or two the Nottinghamshire number three has been scoring runs in the County Championship, but getting out short of three figures. In fact he has made more centuries in one-dayers than in first-class cricket. The tall 25 year-old from Hillingdon was, in one match, out twice in the 80s earlier this summer so it was great to see him go on to reach 184 this week, albeit against my county Somerset!
His runs were vital to the Notts triumph in last season's Championship and he now boasts a career average of a shade under 40. In List A matches, it's a very respectable 37, scoring at more than a run a ball, while in T20 he is remarkably consistent, striking more than 20 in six successive games in June/July, and getting them quickly, too. It may be premature to talk of him as an international player but if he maintains recent form, he must be a genuine candidate for an England ODI debut and perhaps a future number three in the Test team. He's only 22 so when Trott and KP move on, I shall be happy to hail Hales as a new star, so long as he doesn't make more hundreds against Somerset...
