Nottinghamshire Thrash the Champions

It was a good week for the bowlers, especially on the first day. Indeed Saif Zaib’s 135 was the highest innings of the week. Saturday was nearly a national washout, which ruined half the games as contests, but the rest ended in convincing victories. 

Just a fortnight ago I’d have split my sides at the suggestion of Essex being thrashed by hapless Nottinghamshire but after breaking their three-year duck last week, Notts turned the tables by twice bowling out the champions for a sub-300 aggregate. Steven Mullaney top-scored with 117, while Luke Fletcher’s career-best 6-24 did the damage in Essex’s first innings, followed by Lyndon James in the second. Pity poor Shane Snater. In only his sixth Championship outing, he took 7-9 and still ended up on the losing side. Incredibly Nottinghamshire now top Group 1 ahead of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, who drew at Edgbaston where Rob Yates and ‘keeper Michael Burgess made hundreds. 

Gloucestershire’s winning ways were maintained at Lord’s where Middlesex were their fourth victims of the season so far. This week’s hero was left-arm seamer David Payne who captured eleven wickets for only 87 runs. At Southampton Somerset were bossing it at halfway but an obdurate four-hour 44 by Joe Weatherley on day four tested their patience. Fortunately for my lot, Josh Davey finished the job started by Craig Overton and they claimed equal shares of the ten Hampshire wickets. The other Group 2 fixture saw Leicestershire being held by Surrey despite their first innings featuring no fewer than three centuries, by Evans, Harris and Swindells. 

In Group 3, it’s still the Roses rivals occupying the top two positions. Rain on both sides of the Pennines prevented any result in Yorkshire’s match against Kent and Glamorgan’s visit to Lancashire. In contrast, Northamptonshire rebounded after their heartbreaking one-run loss last week by drubbing Sussex at home by an innings and 12. The aforementioned Saif Zaib Northants’ charge but it was the combined efforts of veteran Gareth Berg and Ben Sanderson, taking nineteen wickets between them, which proved decisive against the South Coasters. 

Next week, they meet neighbours and fellow strugglers Kent at Hove, while Yorkshire will take charge of the group by avoiding defeat at Glamorgan. The same goes for Somerset, who host Surrey in their quest for a fifth triumph out of six. Gloucestershire sit it out which may prove fortuitous give the rotten weather forecast. The top two in Group 1 are also resting so if Worcestershire record a maiden success in 2021 against Durham they will leapfrog both Notts and Worcestershire. 

Team of the Week: Evans (Lei), Stoneman (Sur), Harris (Lei), Saif Zaib (Nor), Burgess (War +), Mullaney (Not), James (Not), Berg (Nor), C Overton (Som), Payne (Glo), Sanderson (Nor)

County Week: Wickets tumble to Ball and Stone

It proved fitting that the 2018 County Championship commenced on Friday the 13^th because it was certainly unlucky for all players and spectators. In contrast to the warm sunshine of last year’s launch, it was virtually a  complete washout. In fact, conditions at Headingley were so bad that Yorkshire’s eagerly-awaited encounter with reigning champs Essex was abandoned without a single ball bowled.

When play did start elsewhere, it was woefully one-sided. The only century scored in five matches came from David Wiese, batting at number nine for Sussex. The highest score by any opening batsman was Daniel Bell-Drummond’s second innings 61. In short, England was a seamer’s paradise.

One of the few specialist batsman to make runs was James Vince, whose swift 75 for Hampshire helped set up a 196-run victory over promoted Worcestershire. Visiting captain Joe Leach nabbed seven wickets, as did Kyle Abbott, although it was his Hampshire team-mates Fidel Edwards and Liam Dawson who polished off the tail to go top of the table.

At Old Trafford, the final morning witnessed a crazy avalanche of wickets, with twelve tumbling in only fifteen overs. Aussie Joe Mennie ripped out the Notts top three in his first two overs but the damage to Lancashire had already been inflicted over the weekend and Steven Mullaney’s men needed only ten to win! In total, one-time England internationals Jake Ball and Harry Gurney hoovered up seventeen wickets for only 100 runs. Crazy stuff!

It was a similar situation in Division Two. At Canterbury, Gloucestershire became the first side to win a Championship fixture without scoring more than 110 in an innings since 1982. Amidst the carnage caused by the pacier men like Matt Taylor and Kent’s Kiwi import Matt Henry, it was the young spinner Ryan Higgins, brought in from Middlesex, who boasted the best single return of 5-22, albeit in a losing cause.

Middlesex seemed to operate perfectly well without him, though, as James Harris (9-48 in the match) and Tim Murtagh (8-63) flattened Northamptonshire within eight rain-hit sessions. Harris also contributed the game’s highest individual score: 46 not out. He usually starts the season strongly so let’s hope in 2018 he doesn’t succumb to his customary injuries. Even lacking key batsmen, the lads from Lord’s were straightforward winners and even at this early stage must surely be odds-on favourites to bounce back from the second tier.

Edgbaston saw the only match to finish as a draw, although the wet outfield didn’t allow very much play. The three top scores of the entire week were all achieved here, led by the aforementioned Wiese’s run-a-ball 106 and his captain Ben Brown’s 91. Their eighth wicket stand of 155 was a Sussex record against Warwickshire and came in spite of Olly Stone’s highly commendable 8-80 and a fine all-round performance by the home side’s Tim Ambrose. The former Sussex ‘keeper compiled 81 and took six catches in the first innings.

I can only hope the weather is kinder next week, so that batsmen can at last get runs under their belts in a full fixture list. Middlesex must fancy their chances at Derby while in Division One, Essex and Yorkshire get a second chance of playing, against Lancashire and Notts, respectively. Surrey’s big names enter the fray at home to Hampshire while Somerset host Worcestershire.

My Team of the Week is inevitably bowler-heavy. For the first time since I’ve compiled such lists, I have been able to fill the top five slots with only two specialist batsmen. Mad! Hopefully normal service will be restored next week.

Bell-Drummond (Ken), Vince (Ham), Brown (Sus), Ambrose (War, +), Berg (Ham), Harris (Mid), Abbott (Ham), Wiese (Sus), Stone (War), Ball (Not), Gurney (Not)

Players of the Week: Gareth Berg and Shaun Marsh

While the vagaries of April's global weather has brought unbroken sunshine to England and rain to India, there have been plenty of interesting results and individual performances.

Last week's candidates for Player of the Week were mostly in the mix again. Lasith Malinga may be playing games with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board but he lets his bowling arm do the talking for Mumbai in the IPL, especially with his 3-9 in 4 overs against the Deccan Chargers. In England, Chris Woakes claimed 6-49 in the Championship and his Warwickshire colleague, Varun Chopra thumped his second double-century in successive matches, plus a 54 in the CB40. He is now looking quite a useful one-day player and, judging by his run-accumulation, pretty useful in the four-day game, too.

Other star turns in domestic cricket included Craig Kieswetter's 100 in Somerset's welcome CB40 win over Notts, fellow 'keeper Niall O'Brien's rapid 90-somethings for Northants and his skipper Andrew Hall's 5-22 in the one-day defeat of Leicestershire. Zander de Bruyn's 172 for Surrey against Glamorgan showed Somerset what they have been missing so far, and Essex opener Alistair Cook's 155 reminded us all what he could do for England at Test level this summer. Farveez Maharoof may not be the most successful of Sri Lankan players, but in Lancashire colours he enjoyed an excellent all-round week. Yorkshire's Ryan Sidebottom and Richard Pyrah each grabbed eight wickets in the match against Notts which, thanks to a second innings batting collapse, could not prevent the champions nicking an unexpected 58-run victory.

However, my County Player of the Week is Gareth Berg of Middlesex. he's one of those useful all-rounders who scores few hundreds and takes few 'five-fors' but nevertheless contributes a great deal to the team. Aged 30, his first-class career has just entered only a fourth season but this week, he combined a match-winning 80 with aggregate bowling figures of 6-80 against Derbyshire. This was followed by a miserly 4-24 in the CB40 victory over Worcestershire. Berg is yet another South Africa-born player but is usefully available to England should an ODI all-rounder berth become vacant.

Over in the IPL, in addition to Malinga, Harbajhan Singh's 5-18 for Mumbai against Chennai caught the eye, and his team-mate Rohit Sharma plundered 87 in 48 balls and 56 in 34 in his two games this week. Chris Gayle' love of T20 at the expense of everything else showed its face when his arrival in the competition for Bangalore was trumpeted by a powerful unbeaten 102 against KKR. Nevertheless, over the week, the West Indian was narrowly eclipsed by Aussie Shaun Marsh, my other Player of the Week.

The Aussie has become something of a T20 specialist, his first-class talents earning him a place in the Test squad but as yet no slot in the first XI. 33 ODIs have yielded more than 1100 runs at 37 but in the shorter format, his average is an impressive 45 at a strike rate of almost 138. This week, the Kings XI Punjab batsman struck 71 against the Royals and a punishing 95 in 46 balls versus Delhi, the latter in a very high-scoring match in which Sehwag and Warner put on 146 in 70 balls, which even Marsh's efforts couldn't match. I still think he will one day emulate his father Geoff and make his Test debut but for now the world should enjoy his batting talents in T20.