The County Championship whirred back into life on Good Friday, with 3 April its earliest start in history. By extension, Rory Burns claimed the record for its earliest dismissal, with Surrey’s captain run out 10 minutes into the day’s play at Edgbaston in a scene usually reserved for the village green.
Cricket really can be a sod sometimes. All that pre-season graft, all those hours dreaming big, only to plink a drive early on, think it has beaten mid-off, and set off for the run in good faith. The throw from Warwickshire’s Ed Barnard may have been wild but Kai Smith mopped up smartly at the stumps. Talk about sick Burns.
Not that the 800 or so punters inside the ground – or the 4,000 watching via YouTube – could gripe about the quality overall. The English season getting underway when chocolate eggs are still in foil may be par for the course these days but there are nine Test cricketers playing in this Division One clash.
Surrey’s entire top six has worn the whites of England; the kind of strength that explains all the predictions of winning a fourth title in five. And of the nine, only Chris Woakes would call himself a former Test cricketer – even if Brendon McCullum’s continuation as head coach may mean there are more in practice.
For the two England players wondering where they stand after featuring in the winter’s Ashes defeat, it was not an ideal start. Jamie Smith walked out at No 3, curiously, and walked back shortly after with nine to his name. It may not have been on a par with that howling dismissal in Sydney in January but a thick edge driving Ethan Bamber on the up was inauspicious all the same.
Ollie Pope got his head down for a spell at No 4 but failed to cash in on a couple of lives. The first was a tight lbw, leg stump-ish and thus inviting doubt. But the second saw a crooked defensive shot edged and dropped while Pope was also on the walk. Soon after he fell to an inswinger from Bamber, lbw for 20.
For all the recent public relations work, only McCullum and England know how much credence they will actually give to such performances at this time of year. Although contrary to the narrative, April is not a lottery month. Runs tend to flow, with the pitches fresh and bowlers still blowing off cobwebs.
There was a bit in the surface early on here, however. And as well as the class of Woakes at one end, Bamber is another a canny medium-fast seamer who moves the ball both ways. That said, Dan Lawrence triggering to a guard outside off stump and edging him to slip before lunch made for a bad misjudgement.
The most accomplished in the morning was Dom Sibley with a watchful, unbeaten 21 from 81 balls. But one suspects he would need an avalanche of runs at a far greater lick to win a Test recall. The same may well go for the bulk of the recently discarded across the country, given McCullum’s penchant for a shiny new toy.
Perhaps there was one here. When Woakes finally teased a nick from Sibley, and castled Ralphie Albert second ball, Surrey had stumbled to a worrying 65 for six. But over the next two and a half hours came a stirring fightback worth 155 runs – a club record for the seventh wicket against Warwickshire. Ben Foakes, a known quantity to England and seemingly on the outer, was one half of this, with Tom Lawes the other.
Lawes is an interesting cricketer: a three-time title winner at 23, a new ball bowler showing signs of more pace, and one who can clearly hold a bat. His career-best 83 from 121 balls involved repelling a pretty relentless attack and putting the pressure back on it too – things that tend to catch the eye.
Either way, with Foakes pushing on to a fine century and steering Surrey past 300 runs, day one at Edgbaston added up for a hard-fought contest; a blend of seasoned pros and young hopefuls going at each other from outset.
It may start too early, it may be flawed in some aspects, and there may be outliers like Jacob Bethell who almost leapfrog it entirely. But for all of that, the County Championship endures as the main nursery for English cricketers.