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)

Jarvis and Woakes make it a brill week for the bowlers

Hurrah! The last week in May and finally the bowlers have something to celebrate. With five counties collecting their 16-point win bonus, there were some major shifts in league positions, too, with Lancashire surging to the top of Division One, and non-playing Yorkshire slumping to mid-table.

For once, there was considerable competition for places in my Team of the Week, too. I can’t count the performances of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad but, while England were hammering another nail in the coffin of the five-day game, any number of counties were promoting the four-day format in all its glory.

Perhaps the best match was at the Rose Bowl, where Hampshire overcame Nottinghamshire by 69 runs. It probably didn’t help the visitors to lose star bowler Jake Ball to an England call-up mid-game, nor Chris Read to injury. However, despite nine wickets from Harry Gurney, it was the whirlwind sex machine, aka Tino Best, who did most to propel the hosts to victory on day four. Strangely the highest individual score was a mere 72!

Lancashire made short work of Surrey, with Alviro Petersen’s first hundred of the campaign and Kyle Jarvis capturing eleven wickets. Durham are just ten points behind them after despatching Warwickshire. Chris Woakes finished on the losing side despite claiming a magnificent 9-36. However, in mitigation he followed Jake Ball to the England camp before the second innings could begin. Instead, the final day bowling honours went to Durham’s James Weighell, although his own nine-wicket haul came at the expense of 130 runs.

At Lord’s, Middlesex and Somerset shook hands on each side’s sixth successive draw. Chris Rogers and Nick Gubbins swapped centuries, while James Hildreth and Peter Trego again stabilised Somerset’s batting. Trego seems to bowl less these days but two more fifties make him an invaluable asset at six or seven, especially as our new wicket-keeper can’t bat to save his life.

In the second tier, it was the bad old Leicestershire who turned up to Grace Road and face Worcestershire. Matt Henry and Joe Leach cut through their second innings batting like a hot knife through butter, dismissing them for 43 and leaving their own top-order a meagre total to chase, which they did for the loss of only three wickets.

At Derby, Shiv Thakor’s fine century and five-for were in vain, as Kent wrapped up another seven-wicket success. Sean Dickson ended a miserable run by amassing the week’s only double-century, and James Tredwell justified his four-day place with six scalps.

Gloucestershire must be licking their lips now that Michael Klinger has arrived at Bristol. He racked up 140 on his season debut, but it wasn’t enough to beat Northants, for whom Steven Crook found some form with the bat. Glamorgan kept leaders Essex at bay, thanks largely to Will Bragg, who followed a first-innings duck with a career-best 161 not out.

Next week, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that Somerset can break their duck at home to Surrey. I just hope Mr Sangakkara doesn’t take a liking for the Taunton wicket! However, the Bank Holiday weekend heralds the War of the Roses at Headingley. Can Lancashire widen the gap over the champions?
In the promotion hunt, Essex travel to Northampton while Kent entertain Leicestershire, whose new-look batting line-up needs to forget this week’s second-innings horror show.


Team of the Week:
Dickson (Ken), Jennings (Dur), Bragg (Gla), Klinger (Glo), Davies (Lan +), Thakor (Der), Crook (Nor), Woakes (War), Jarvis (Lan), Weighell (Dur), Gurney (Not)

England squads have a reassuringly similar look

In these days of horses-for-courses selection policies, it's interesting to see the England ODI and T20 squads for the Sri Lanka series looking so similar. Maybe the ECB wanted to save money by negotiating multiple-night stays with a hotel chain, or just maybe if a player is a fine limited overs cricketer it doesn't matter if it's over 50 or 20 overs. I'd like to think the latter.

There are no gimmicks, either. While Andrew Flintoff is rumoured to be close to a T20 comeback for Lancashire (what as? The clubhouse barman?), Peter Moores have gone for tried and tested performers along with Harry Gurney, who made his international debut against mighty Scotland and took 0-20 in his four overs. At least the Notts seamer offers a left-arm option, seemingly a necessity in T20 where anything which disrupts a batsman's rhythm - if only for a couple of balls - can be a match-winner.

The only differences between the ODI XIV and T20 XIII are that Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Gary Ballance are in the former unit at the expense of Alex Hales and Moeen Ali. Hales I can understand as he is a shadow of his former self in any game which spans more than a few hours. Moeen Ali, on the other hand, is surely a better player in the longer format. His career List A strike rate is a shade under a run a ball, but his spin bowling is a handier option in T20.

I guess the selectors went for Ballance (in more ways than one) for the ODIs as this is more the Yorkshire player's bag, although whether he gets to play is another matter. Michael Carberry may struggle to get his pads on, too, unless there are failures in the early games for Joe Root or Eoin Morgan. Ian Bell and Jos Buttler are certainties, as are Cook (well, he is the captain), Ravi Bopara, sole spinner James Tredwell, Anderson and probably Tim Bresnan. As surmised earlier, Gurney will be tested as a left-hander against Jayawardene, Sangakkara et al, while Chris Jordan may get the nod over Chris Woakes, who had better start practising carrying boxes of drink cartons.

It dosn't matter terribly who is selected for the T20 Eleven; there's only one match to play. Nevertheless, whoever wins will have bragging rights as the countries face the five-match ODI rubber and the Tests to follow. I'd expect Moeen Ali to play as a spinning all-rounder, so it's down to one of Woakes, Carberry and Jordan for the final place, with Gurney looking over his shoulder.