Seven positive results from nine matches bring shape to the season
Two bowlers, who are very much not Spring chickens, deliver wins for Lancashire and Hampshire in another chilly April round
Ball one: Special players trump special measures
Division One’s only 100% record belongs, rather unexpectedly, to Sussex. Less unexpected is the fact that they still find themselves five points off the pace and in third. Ah, bonus points and administrative sanctions – two old friends back to make a complicated game still more complicated.
The home side certainly did it the hard way on the field at Hove, 137 runs behind eight down in their first innings and then conceding 78 runs to Warwickshire’s last two wickets in their second dig. There are teams who might look at a target of 328, which would be the highest innings of the match, think about the 12 points handicap imposed for matters concerning the boardroom not the players, and walk into the April chill with shoulders slightly slumped, somewhat sorry for themselves.
Not Sussex. Three recent recruits made the runs required, Daniel Hughes with 83 providing the foundation for Jack Leaning (120) and Tom Price (70) to bring home the spoils with an unbroken stand of 144.
Though the game must have some means to deter risky financial decisions, it’s on the field that trophies should be won and lost, a case being made rather well so far by Ollie Robinson’s fighters.
Ball two: Overton goes from a panning to a praising
After Essex had won their opener by an innings and plenty, they were brought down to earth, receiving a dose of their own medicine from Somerset.
It was always likely that two highly effective seam attacks would, if not exactly cancel each other out, certainly balance the game in such a way that if a batter could get in and make a ton, that might be decisive. What nobody expected was that the batter who would make that ton would actually be a bowler.
Craig Overton, who must be wondering if this captaincy lark will continue to be such a rollercoaster ride after last week’s criticism in this column, took guard with his team 114-5, still behind the home team’s 149, neither side with much of an advantage. He left 216 runs later, his own share a career best 141, the match not quite won, but it more or less was when Essex swiftly lost three top order batters before reaching 50.
Unlike his twin brother Jamie, Craig’s international and franchise career never really got off the ground, his loyalty lying four square with Somerset. There have been controversial moments for sure, but no fans enjoy the successes of their own like Taunton’s – and good on them for it. There’s still a very long way to go, but if I were a West Country sculptor, I’d be checking that my chisels were in good order and I’ve access to a bloody big chunk of stone. Just in case the call comes in September.
Ball three: a bridge too far for promoted Glamorgan
After Overton’s declaration rather killed the opening of their defence of the pennant last week at Taunton, Nottinghamshire’s home campaign was ignited by a win from the front against a Glamorgan side who might already be looking down the barrel of a long season.
Notts captain, Haseeb Hameed, was out to the first ball of the match and then the sixth of the second innings, the old pro Timm van der Gugten his tormentor on both occasions. But having a Championship on your CV gives you confidence that if it’s not your day, there are teammates with good reason for thinking it might well be theirs.
Jack Haynes made a round hundred in the first innings and Joe Clark 136 in the second. Usually scores of 279 and 311/9d would barely merit the description of giving the bowlers plenty to work with, but Hameed had the high pace of Josh Tongue and Dillon Pennington, supported by the nous of Fergus O’Neill and Brett Hutton, with Liam Patterson-White’s spin on hand if required. And, more importantly, he had an opposition batting line-up for whom only the promising Asa Tribe and budding all-rounder, Mason Crane, could muster a score of more than 30 in both efforts.
Ball four: Baker cooks up easy win with Abbott as mentor
Hampshire bounced back from a mauling last week with one of their own at Headingley, as Yorkshire’s two substitutes (Jhye Richardson and Jack White both indisposed during the match) couldn’t help to avoid a dispiriting start for the home fans.
Sonny Baker was very much flavour of the month this time last year, leading to the quick playing a couple of late season England white ball matches that might be charitably described as coming too soon. Showing the value of raw pace, he shot out Sam Whiteman LBW, then disturbed the timber of nightwatchman, Ben Coad and cleaned up James Wharton in a single over, 4-45 his eventual haul.
At the other end, Kyle Abbott, a couple of months off his 39th birthday, was on his way to a ten wicket haul in a first class career that sees him pay less than 21 runs for each of his 720 victims. Whether an ageing South African taking a place that might go to a young English bowler trying to make his way in the game is a good or bad thing, is a matter on which I’m agnostic. But Baker is in an ideal spot to listen and learn from a man 16 years his senior – if he does, he should do much better if England come calling again.
Ball five: Anderson and Andersson
To nobody’s great surprise, Durham top Division Two, but to pessimistic Lancashire fans (that’s me and all the rest of them) it’s a surprise indeed to see that Lanky are second!
It was a great game of cricket at Old Trafford in which the two near neighbours traded blows in a tight affair that turned the home side’s way with the contributions of two old Ashes adversaries.
Marcus Harris (125 and 66) top scored for the Red Rose in both innings, his return to the colours shoring up a top order that had collapsed to 40-5 last time out. But the visitors were 77/4 in pursuit of 138 and firmish favourites when Sir James had Martin Andersson (228 and 54 this season) caught by Michael Jones (in a nice redemptive moment) for 15. Cue three more for the old hoofer as Derbyshire’s last five wickets went in a clatter to leave them 30 short of their target.
Anderson had figures of 9.5-3-18-4 after getting through 23 overs in the first innings. And those of us saying, “Sure, he’s still got it, but can he maintain it in the second innings?” had our answer. You don’t take 1157 wickets and counting, if you can’t come back and close out a win.
Ball six: pitching for pitch data
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Durham each made over 600 and Surrey over 500 without any help from freak heatwaves or depleted attacks (see substitutes rule above). Luke Procter might still be batting now had he not declared on himself on 261 -m a wee Wiann, if you will. Though I’ll admit to a frisson of excitement every time a score climbs, does anyone, even the batters themselves, enjoy these one-sided affairs?
At The Oval on Friday, a seasoned observer of cricket in South London remarked that he’d seldom seen so green a pitch – I replied saying that it’ll be very flat by the afternoon. It was, as Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope can attest and it stayed flat, as Rishi Patel, Steve Eskanazi and Ben Cox will be equally pleased to confirm, all five cashing in their chips for a ton.
But why so? As I often find myself saying at this time of year, other sports are drowning in data (indeed, so too is cricket, if bowler-batter match-ups and most runs scored through midwicket off left-arm wrist spin is your thing) but we still measure pitches like they did in the 1890s, never mind the 1990s! Why can’t we know how much moisture there is in the wicket at the start of each day, how much grass is left for the bowlers, exactly how fast or slow a pitch is?
Only when we can measure a pitch can we reliably improve it. And we all know what a good pitch plays like so why can’t we have them – or rather, pitches closer to that paradigm? There would still be plenty of variation within the ideal of a bit of pace for all with a bit in it for the seamers early on and the spinners later. And it might avoid us barely bothering to look up from our phones when Smith flat pulls a six to raise his 150.