It was all change at England this week, although Joe Root rescued his nation with another splendid Test century to deliver an early blow against New Zealand. In the Blast’s North division, the Birmingham Bears stuttered while Lancashire Lightning won all three fixtures. Northants Steelbacks are hot on their heels and could easily have been top of the table. Their clash at Old Trafford went down to the penultimate ball, when the otherwise admirable Jimmy Neesham bowled a wide and no-ball to hand the hosts a two-wicket victory.
Two days earlier, against Leicestershire, the Kiwi had smashed six sixes in an unbeaten 75, along with Aussie Chris Lynn’s 106 not out to reach the week’s highest score of 227-1. Josh Cobb and bowler Tom Taylor also performed consistently for the Steelbacks. Lancashire’s rise to the lead has been more of an all-round effort. Runs and wickets have come from the entire team, and Liam Livingstone has exemplified this effort.
I feel sorry for the Worcestershire captain Brett D’Oliveira. Like Livingstone, he has made top-order runs and spun effectively with the ball only, unlike the Lancs man, victories are proving more difficult to come by. Their only win to date was Friday’s thumping of the Bears. The Birmingham outfit’s only points this week resulted from an eight-over thrash against Nottinghamshire. This match was more memorable for two batters, Brathwaite (Bears) and Patel (Outlaws), making tactical retirements in a bid to herald someone more successful against leg-spin or with faster legs. Notts ended up losing by a solitary run.
In the South, Surrey and Somerset are looking string at the moment, although these things can turn in a few key overs. Sam Curran and West Indian Sunil Narine turned on the style with bat and ball. The former took 5-30 against Hampshire while the leg-spinner lived up to his global reputation by conceding hardly any boundaries and scoring plenty himself. Somerset lost their first T20 of the summer against Sussex, for whom another Windies man Obed McCoy took a career-best 5-33. With Somerset ramping up the chase, he and Tymal Mills (4-32) captured five wickets for two runs in eleven frantic balls to win by 47. At least Somerset bounced back with a resounding defeat of Glamorgan.
The highest individual score was Joe Denly’s 110 for Kent at home to Middlesex. However, the biggest blitz was hammered by Alex Hales against Derbyshire. He crashed five sixes and a dozen fours, dominating an opening stand of 115 with Joe Clarke. He fared less well against Yorkshire; David Willey bowled him first ball! A final shout-out to Leicestershire’s Naveen-ul-Huq. The Afghan paceman’s 5-11 did for Worcestershire and took him to the head of the wicket-taking table.
In
the coming days, a welter of local derbies are scheduled. The Roses, London and
Avon contests in particular could deliver some interesting cricket.
Team
of the Week: Lynn (Nor), D’Oliveira (Wor), McDermott (Ham), Seifert (Sus +),
Hales (Not), Livingstone (Lan), S Curran (Sur), Narine (Sur), Naveen-ul-Huq
(Lei), T Taylor (Nor), McCoy (Sus)
