Two 38 year-old batsmen with 46,000 first-class runs between them have been facing each other this week, and not in international competition. Instead, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ricky Ponting are representing Derbyshire and Surrey, respectively, in a County Championship Division One relegation battle, and it's great to see them both strutting their stuff.
The little man from Guyana has always been a class act, with runs flowing wherever he goes. He did it with Durham last time and now Derbyshire are reaping the benefits of his experience. In this home match, Chanderpaul scored 125 in a 265-run partnership with Wayne Madsen against an attack missing Jade Dernbach but including Meaker and Tremlett. When Surrey replied, the Aussie legend plundered 192 on his debut (190 more than Graeme Smith managed on his last month!) and contributed to century stands with Arun Harinath and Stephen Davies. Many were surprised when Ponting hung up his 'baggy green' last year while continuing his career with Tasmania but I applauded him for doing so. His IPL season may have been a disaster but his Shield performances were superb and now his new employers in England must be licking their lips. With Smith out of action, it is down to Ponting to keep them in the top tier.
Sadly for me, it looks as if Somerset are heading down for the first time in several years. They avoided defeat against Yorkshire at Taunton but probably only because the first day was washed out. Adil Rashid collected a third consecutive century but at least James Hildreth registered his first ton of the summer in reply. The draw meant that Sussex will remain top no matter what happens in their game against Nottinghamshire, still in play as I type and delicately poised.
In Division Two, Northamptonshire are sitting pretty 25 points clear at the top, despite only drawing at home to Hampshire. There were no major position changes this week, largely because of poor weather at the start. However, Lancashire came agonisingly near to closing that gap. Only some stubborn late-order defence from Gloucestershire frustated Glenn Chapple's men at thebend of a match which featured 110 from Alex Gidman and a second consecutive 'six-for' from 18 year-old Gloucester seamer Craig Miles.
Daryl Mitchell's 156 and Jack Shantry's 7-69 were the performances of Worcetershire's curtailed game against Essex while Kent had the better of their clash with Leicestershire. Darren Stevens claimed 5-39 and just missed out on a century against his former county. The coming week features some intriguing fixtures, the pick of which must be Middlesex v Sussex and Northants v Worcestershire. Here's hoping for some June sunshine....
