Championship Top 6 decided

While England were polishing off a 3-0 series win against Pakistan, the county circuit was mostly concerned with finalising the initial ‘conference’ stage of the 2021 Championship. The week got off to a miserable start. The English government’s response to the rampant Covid Delta variant may be to abandon all safety precautions but the virus made its presence felt from the start. 

Kent’s entire First XI was forced to isolate before the start of their Group 3 match against Sussex. Their makeshift side managed to avoid defeat against their neighbours who themselves fielded an unfamiliar line-up. 20 year-old opener Ali Orr and 19 year-old seamer Jamie Atkins put Sussex in the driving seat but Kent’s Hastings-born Harry Finch responded with a gutsy 115 to earn a draw. 

In Group 1, Essex and Derbyshire had already begun play at Derby when a positive test wiped out the home side and forced the abandonment. It seemed tough on Essex who needed victory to have a chance of defending their title. Fortunately it wasn’t Covid which ultimately thwarted them but Warwickshire, whose draw at Worcester ensured that not even a maximum-point win would have handed them a top-two place. The West Mids derby was quite high-scoring in a generally wet week. Daryl Mitchell and Ed Barnard struck tons for the home county but South African Pieter Malan scored 141 and 77 not out for Warwickshire in what has been a weak season for their batting. 

Nottinghamshire consolidated their position as leaders with a draw at Durham. Losing the second day to rain made a result less likely, despite Joey Evison’s impressive first-innings 5-21, and Durham managed to bat out the final two sessions. 

In Group 2, Sam Robson’s 154 and seven wickets for Tim Murtagh propelled Middlesex to their second triumph of the summer, beating Leicestershire by 121 runs. However, given they have lost seven out of the previous nine, they still finished last. The battle at Cheltenham to decide which of Gloucestershire and Hampshire advanced to the top group went the way of the visitors. New recruit Nick Gubbins struck an unbeaten 137 and Colin de Grandhomme took 4-31 to establish a huge lead. Tom Lace responded with an excellent 118 but none of his colleagues reached 30, leaving Hampshire to knock off the required 54 with the loss of three wickets. 

However, it was Somerset who remained at the summit despite a rollercoaster ride at The Oval. Stand-in skipper James Hildreth made 107 and Jack Leach twirled his way to 6-43, leaving Surrey in trouble at the start of day four. Following their opening gambit of 429, Somerset then tumbled to just 69 at the hands of spinners R Ashwin (6-27) and Dan Moriarty (4-20), giving Surrey a glimmer of victory hope. At 25-2, Somerset must have fancied their chances of a similar skittling but a draw was eventually agreed. 

In Group 3, Yorkshire and Lancashire were already guaranteed Division One status but Keaton Jennings led a high-scoring Lancashire top four until the weather, and a dangerously unfit Headingley outfield brought the clash to a premature conclusion. In Cardiff, Glamorgan’s fifth wicket pairing of Kiran Carlson and Chris Cooke put on a mighty 307 against Northamptonshire but their bowlers couldn’t finish the job on the final day. Both will play in Division Two when the Championship resumes after The Hundred weaves its spell. 

Team of the Week: Robson (Mid), Jennings (Lan), P Malan (War), Gubbins (Ham), Carlson (Gla), Cooke (Gla +), D’Oliveira (Wor), Evison (Not), W Davis (Lei), Leach (Som), Murtagh (Mid)

Cricket Lifts the Lockdown Spirits

 Eighteen months ago I commended the West Indies for making a decent fist of their home Test series against England. The same goes for this summer’s hastily-rearranged Wisden Trophy, squeezed into a few weeks. 

Back in the Caribbean Jason Holder’s team had in the opener walloped the tourists, for whom Stuart Broad had been left out, albeit for tactical reasons. At Southampton the Windies again triumphed and Broad moaned publicly. Maybe he needed taking down a peg or two so he was really fired up and ready for the Old Trafford double-header. If that was the strategy it worked brilliantly. 

The Second Test had been Ben Stokes’ triumph but the decider was undoubtedly Broad’s  It was also inspiring to watch Chris Woakes at his most accurate but his 34 year-old team-mate took the honours as well as that landmark 500th Test wicket. 

So in cricket terms it was success for Joe Root and England, Ben Stokes’ batting and Stuart Broad’s bowling. For West Indies, Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach looked world-class at times but the batting was terribly brittle in Manchester, a frequent refrain in recent years. Dowrich’s ‘keeping looked extremely ragged, too. 

But the last few weeks haven’t really been about what happened on the pitch. It was about reviving the whole sport after months of inactivity courtesy of the Coronavirus pandemic. Massive credit must go to the tourists who had to endure weeks of isolation before any play was possible. The idiotic Jofra Archer nearly messed the whole thing up by his selfish diversion home after leaving Southampton but luckily he didn’t spread any infection. 

The secure Covid-proof bubble may have wobbled a bit but it held firm to permit three full Test matches. All that was missing, of course, were the crowds but thank goodness the broadcaster stopped short of providing a fake soundtrack. Or maybe it was there but, given the reserved nature of Test cricket  spectators, I just didn’t spot the difference! 

This week a few county matches are taking place with limited attendance to facilitate social distancing. Much as I love the county game, I do wonder how on earth they are going to attract as many as a thousand into The Oval for anything other than a hot summer evening’s T20. Despite what the buffoon Boris Johnson says, if there are to be no cricket-related infection spikes, social distancing is here to stay, certainly for the remainder of the summer. The crowd-less Premier League contests proved successful in re-energising fans but only those elite clubs could afford to complete the season without paying customers and the ancillary income generated by bars and takeaway food stands. 

Sadly events in the USA, Asia, Anfield, Elland Road and some parts of Europe have demonstrated that many young people are too selfish to consider wider society in their rush to get back into the traditional summer pastimes of boozing and partying. Holidays to Spain have been curtailed almost as soon as they restarted and the only arenas to fill up have been hospital ICU wards. None of us want a return to the dark days of April but if interest in cricket can continue to be generated by England’s games with the Windies and Pakistan, along with truncated domestic competitions and even village cricket I’m all for it. It’s been a tough year so far so let’s embrace cricket in this ‘new normal’ world.

Cricket's more than just tea and cucumber sandwiches, Boris!

Yesterday, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson performed one of his regular Covid U-turns and announced that recreational cricket could after all re-start in England on 11^th July. A few days earlier he’d refused because of “issues with teas and dressing rooms” and blaming the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty for insisting the ball was a potential means of virus transmission.

Teas and dressing rooms? That just proves how hopelessly out of touch Johnson is. I’ve no doubt some local clubs do indeed lay on a spread in the afternoon ‘tea’ interval’ and that players do indeed get changed in a dressing room of sorts. But, as an exasperated Michael Vaughan remarked, they are hardly essential to the sport. In any case, I have it on good authority that recreational cricketers, like their pro counterparts, are not averse to the odd slurp of the PM’s new favourite beverage, a pint of beer in place of a mug of English Breakfast or cup of Earl Grey. 

International cricket of sorts is restored this coming week when England entertain the West Indies in a Test. Now I don’t know whether players will be able to stop themselves smearing the ball with their saliva, any more than Anderson or Stokes can refrain from showering spittle-flecked sledges at their opponents It’s been irritating watching Premier League football these last few weeks. No fans, pitchside officials wearing smart face coverings, no ball-boys and elbow pumps at the start – only for the handshakes and hugs to resume once play starts and finishes. It makes a mockery of the whole thing. It really shouldn’t be too difficult to adapt. After all we’ve all being doing plenty of adapting the past four months. Some of us weren’t even allowed out of our houses for ten weeks. 

Now I’m delighted that Test cricket is returning and the county game will resume on 1^st August even if we have absolutely no idea about the format(s), structure or calendar. Championship fixtures should look familiar given that, sadly, spectators have been socially distancing for years. Actually I do support the absence of fans at the moment; it’s far too soon, especially in England, which remains a country with one of the highest infection rates outside the Americas. All in good time.

 I’ve never played cricket at any meaningful level but I have watched it in my local park as well as at Test arenas and it is a thoroughly relaxing summer spectator sport and presumably very enjoyable to participate in, too. It is certainly no more dangerous regarding Covid transmission than golf, tennis or basketball, which have been permitted for weeks. 

I do hope Boris manages to emerge from his secure fridge and observes the delights of recreational cricket himself, just as long as he doesn’t attempt to play; I recall his overly-aggressive attempts at football and rugby. I also trust he’ll bring his own sandwiches and a flask of tea – and take his litter home with him afterwards.