After missing the previous week while in Tenerife (not much interest in cricket in an international hotel during the football World Cup!), it was back to the usual mixture of the quick and quirky at home and abroad. While Yorkshire's L-men Lyth and Leez produced another big opening stand, they can't compete with young Nick Browne. He became the first Essex batsman to strike two unbeaten centuries in the same match, and they happened to be the first senior three-figure scores of his career! Meanwhile, the rather more experienced Hashim Amla was taking two consecutive hundreds off the Sri Lankans in SA's ODI series, no mean feat.
No room for Nick Compton in the England set-up but he twice passed 80 for Somerset in the Championship draw with Middlesex, followed by a brisk 46 in today's T20 win over local rivals Gloucestershire. Leicestershire skipper Josh Cobb was also in the runs in both competitions; a 137 versus Kent and 60 in the T20 against Lancashire. Luke Wright's 158 for Sussex was the highest score of the week, albeit against Northamptonshire, so he edges out other middle-order centurions Will Gidman and Dawid Malan. Paul Stirling's week consisted of three half-centuries for Middlesex, which should help him nail down a solid place in the side.
My wicketkeeper is not David Bairstow, despite his rapid T20 hundred today. His Championship duck cancelled it out! Jos Buttler also made some swift T20 runs for Lancashire but my gloves go to Surrey skipper Gary Wilson who scored an unbeaten 97 as well as captaining the county to another big Championship win which puts them right in the promotion mix.
I was tempted to add Andrew Flintoff to the team after his five wickets in the biff-bang stuff. However, he barely batted and was somewhat fortunate to get those wickets. Chris Tremlett, on the other hand, combined a five-four and late-order 56 for Surrey, while Mitch Claydon trumped that with 5-77 and 77 for Kent against Leicestershire. Anthony Ireland's 5-22 was the pick of the short-format bowling performances in England but Sunil Narine's stupendous return of 4-1-3-0 for Guyana in the CPL opener takes the biscuit for economy, and for a change also keeps Saeed Ajmal out of the XI.
Finally, in comes Steve Magoffin. Such a consistent wicket-taker in the first-class game for Sussex, he claimed 5-12 and 3-28 in the county's demolition of Northants. Sorry, Freddie, must try considerably harder!
He wasn't as good as: Amla (SA), Browne (Ess), Compton (Som), Cobb (Leic), Wright (Sus), Stirling (Mid), Wilson (Sur, + *), Claydon (Kent), Ireland (Leic), Magoffin (Sus), Narine (Guy)
