Final Over of the Week in County Cricket

Ball One – “It’s like a penalty shoot-out that’s lasted for an hour already!” So said the BBC local radio commentator breathlessly relaying the last eighteen overs of Lancashire’s pursuit of the win against a Hampshire side that could have done with a bit of that kind of fight earlier in the season. Just when it appeared that the two left-arm spinners had toiled in vain, inside the last five minutes, Simon Kerrigan induced an edge from the typically obdurate Neil McKenzie to spark jubilant scenes at Aigburth. Lancashire’s junior spinner (he’s 22!) returned innings figures of 37.2-14-51-9 to show not just the skills that catch the selectors’ eyes, but the stamina and heart too. Of bowlers taking 20 or more Division One wickets, Lancashire men occupy first, second, third and eighth slots in the averages – but the team are not top of the tree…

Ball Two – Because Warwickshire are three points ahead of Glen Chapple’s men, having smashed last year’s champions, Nottinghamshire, by an innings and plenty at Edgbaston. Despite Alex Hales’ 178 runs for once out, Warwickshire had much too much for their fellow Midlanders, with tons for Westwood, Troughton and a very relaxed Rikki Clarke, before Chris Wright (what a signing he has been) led the bowling effort with seven wickets. Three points ahead of Lancashire, but with an awkward last fixture away at a Hampshire side who might still escape in the final reel, the eight points deducted for a poor pitch four long months ago may prove crucial in the final reckoning.

Ball Three – Knowing a win probably wouldn’t be enough to keep them up and behind by 70 on first innings, it would have been easy for Yorkshire to roll over at Headingley, but they didn’t. Stand-in skipper, Joe Sayers, rallied his troops to punch out a defiant win that will stand them in good stead come next season’s promotion campaign (which should, mark you, should, be a breeze). The key man for the Tykes was once again Ryan Sidebottom, whose 12 wickets in the match continued a very fine season in which he has 62 wickets at 22 and 389 runs at 20 – a good return for the three year contract that brought him home last winter.

Ball Four – In Division Two, Surrey’s late season form that has carried them to a Lord’s final, has also given them a chance of promotion after a win at Essex, a team whose season has dribbled away alarmingly. The match marked a return to form for Chris Jordan, after a series of debilitating injuries that had stalled a career that many saw leading to international honours. Scores of 71 and 79* and figures of 4-57 are an impressive return for a man still only 22 years of age. Next week is a big one for Surrey, but next season is a big one for Jordan who must deliver those kind of numbers much more consistently.

Ball Five – Gloucestershire cruised to a ten wicket victory over rock-bottom Leicestershire in what might be the most predictable result of the season. The T20 Champions League is unlikely to go away, so maintaining the integrity of late season fixtures for those counties with an eye on a very big pay-off might prove a challenge in the future. Not that there was any suggestion of impropriety on the part of Hoggy’s men – Leicestershire have been dismal in the LVCC from beginning to end.

Ball Six – I’m not slow to criticise the BBC’s approach to sport, whether it be their unwillingness to bid seriously for rights or their talking-points led television coverage, but the online ball-by-ball coverage of county cricket is a magnificent service for the fan of the domestic game. Done on a shoestring, the absence of bells and whistles adds to the drama, giving a close finish the atmosphere of a world heavyweight title fight from the fifties or old-fashioned satellite coverage of Olympic Games, with voices crackling down the line. You wouldn’t want such production values all the time, but it was perfect for the drama-drenched denouement at Aigburth.

by Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week 4th Sept 2011

Ball One – From many weeks of starting these columns with a rousing chorus of “Oh Lanky, Lanky… Lanky, Lanky, Lanky, Lanky, Lankysher” to a column that starts “Oh dear Lanky, Lanky.” Pitiful batting against the straight bowling of Worcestershire’s seam attack saw Glen Chapple’s men tumble to a ten wicket defeat well inside two days. Perhaps the not so super over that saw them crash out of the Twenty20 semi-finals last Saturday did even more harm than it appeared. T20 may have plenty of hits and make the CFO giggle, but the LVCC is where history is written and where Lancashire minds, with just two matches to play, must be focused.

Ball Two – Having looked dead and buried in the race for the title, Durham put plenty of runs on the board, and bowled Sussex out twice to go back to the top of the table. With the potential of Scott Borthwick removing half the Sussex wickets in the first innings and Ian Blackwell’s weight of experience doing the same thing in the second dig, the twice champions of the last three years will go into their last match knowing they have the weaponry to force a win and, with rain possible at any time late in the season, the 20-odd points that a victory attracts will make them difficult to catch.

Ball Three – And catching them is the goal of Warwickshire, who couldn’t get through Yorkshire’s deep, if inconsistent, batting order in time to give themselves a realistic chance of getting over the line against the plummeting Northerners. As things strand now, the Bears are second to Durham, three points ahead of Lancashire who have exactly the same record as Warwickshire. Wouldn’t it be fun if the title were decided on bonus points? Which it will be if Durham win their last match (home vs Worcestershire) and Lancashire (home vs Hampshire and away vs Somerset) and Warwickshire (home vs Nottinghamshire and away vs Hampshire) draw theirs. There’s plenty of cricket to be played yet, but this column won’t be alone in decrying a title decided on bonus points after so pulsating a season.

Ball Four – If Durham were dead and buried in the race for the title, Hampshire were similarly interred and deceased at the other end of the table. But no more! They are now within touching distance of handing the wooden spoon to Yorkshire and have Worcestershire and Sussex eyeing the second chair on the trap door nervously. Key to Hampshire’s sudden run of form has been the return to the colours of Michael Carberry, who not so long ago was worrying about getting back into the England side before getting the reality check of a life-threatening diagnosis – blood clots on the lung. With his international career almost certainly finished, the mental recovery must have been as challenging as the physical rehabilitation, so his involvement in a second record stand in a matter of weeks speaks volumes for the man. It’s already a great story – if Hampshire stay up, it’s the story of the season.

Ball Five – In Division Two, Middlesex welcomed back an old friend from the Test summer who promptly gorged on an attack even more threadbare than India’s. Chris Rogers declared with Andrew Strauss on 241* – if he hadn’t, Strauss might still be batting now. Though Leicestershire put up a bit more of a fight in the second dig, they lost by an innings and can get back to thinking about Champions League booty – Middlesex can think of Division One.

Ball Six – Fellow Londoners Surrey welcomed a man who perhaps should have played a part in the Test summer. No Indian spinner looked likely to take six wickets in the series never mind in an innings, which is what Pragyan Ojha did to roll second placed Northants for 152. With Steve Davies suddenly finding form and a threat from an overseas player (for once), Chris Adams might fancy a tilt at mid-table Essex and Derbyshire in the last two games, knowing that Northants will face a Gloucestershire side with an outside sniff of promotion themselves in their last match. Division One cricket at Lord’s and The Oval in 2012? National newspapers might even report it…

With less than two weeks left of a five month season, 12 of 18 counties have everything to play for. Anyone who tells you that there’s much wrong with the structure of the County Championship that a more sympathetic scheduling couldn’t fix, is plain wrong.

Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com, Cricket on Five and Testmatchsofa.com.

Ali Brown – My life in cricket

That Alistair Brown never cemented a place in England’s stuttering one-day side is a mystery of modern cricket. A century against India in his debut series in 1996 suggested a long future in the international game but before his final game, in 2001, he made just 16 appearances. For Surrey, his brutal batting brought a set of world records: a double-century off 118 balls in a 40-over game against Hampshire at Guildford in 1997; a world-record 268 off 160 balls in a 50-over game against Glamorgan in 2002; 176 off 97 balls as Surrey hit 496 for four from 50 overs against Gloucestershire in 2007. Now 41 and playing for county champions Nottinghamshire, Brown was a key part of the all-conquering Surrey team that won championships in 1999, 2000 and 2002 and a total of six trophies in five seasons, including the first-ever T20. Pigeonholed as a one-day player, Brown’s first-class average, in the mid-40s, was for a long time the highest of any current player not to have played Test cricket. Brown speaks to former SPIN editor Duncan Steer.

SPIN: You were arguably the most attacking English batsman of your generation: who made you that kind of  player?

Alistair Brown I had two idols: Viv Richards and Ian Botham. They were the guys who shaped the way I wanted to play. I think they inspired me to play more aggressively than some. Then my father . . . my dad had played for Surrey Young Amateurs in the ’50s – he never played professionally, but I used to go with him to club games and he played very aggressive knocks.

SPIN Is it a state of mind to play so attackingly? Could more batsmen play like you if they decided to?

Brown: I think it’s got to be in your make-up. But it depends on circumstances too. It was lucky for me that I was able to get some of those big scores, because I had a very strong batting side around me. When you know you have Chris Lewis or Brendon Julian coming in at number eight, it gives you an extra freedom.

SPIN: What was it like coming into the Surrey set-up in the late-80s?

Brown: The dressing-room was quite a poor place when I joined. Ian Greig was in charge and I don’t think he had the full support of the players. I remember as a youngster I was sent to find [West Indies fast bowling legend] Sylvester Clarke one morning. I was told he’d either be in his flat or at Ladbrokes. But I couldn’t find him in either, so he didn’t play the game. Greig wasn’t happy but I think it showed the lack of respect that  Clarke then came for a drink in the Tavern at the end of the day’s play. It was indicative of what was wrong. And if the dressing-room isn’t right, it doesn’t matter who you’ve got in your team. When you’ve got people like Waqar Younus or  Clarke in your side and you’re not getting close to winning trophies, it suggests something’s not quite right.

I got into the first team in 1992 and within two or three years it had gelled and by 1995 we were capable of winning trophies. A lot of our players came through at the same time: Graham Thorpe, Martin Bicknell, Mark Butcher, Ian Ward . . . and a lot of that gelling was down to the captaincy of Adam Hollioake. He was the best captain I played under: he was a strong leader, he had a lot of ideas, he was well respected and he got the team playing as one.

SPIN: What was the highlight of Surrey’s long run of success?

Brown: Definitely the first championship win, in 1999. That’s higher than any individual honours. You strive for so long to win championships and to be part of that band of players coming together was very special.

SPIN: After that team started to break up, Surrey stopped winning trophies, and eventually got relegated. Was the transition period managed badly?

Brown: I think it all started when Ben [Hollioake] died in 2002. The season after that we felt, ‘We’re going to win this for Ben’. But it was a hard blow for Adam and he was never the same player again. Adam was an extraordinary leader,  a very hard leader. And, of course when Ben died that affected Adam and we didn’t have that leadership from the top. That was the start of the end for us as a team. Ian Ward was sacked, which I found difficult to understand. He was sacked, basically, to bring in younger players as I was, in the end. Ward was sacked to bring in Scott Newman as I was sacked to bring in James Benning.

But that was the start of it, in 2002. the whole atmosphere in the dressing-room changed. Add to that, Saqlain Mushtaq, who had been outstanding for us, had a knee injury and I don’t think he ever came back to be as good a bowler again.

When Adam stood down, Jon Batty came in as captain. Jon was a great guy but it was difficult for him to follow someone who was Surrey’s best captain for 30 years. Another factor was that if our overseas player went away for five weeks to the Asia Cup or whatever, we didn’t tend to bring in a temporary replacement – as most other sides would do. I think because we’d had such a good era between 1996 and 2002, there was a feeling that we were good enough to get away with it.

In that good era if we had a team meal everyone would go out and get on well together. But post-2002, it started to fragment a bit.

SPIN: In his first book, Mark Ramprakash suggests that some of the players from the next generation simply didn’t have the right work ethic to succeed . . .

Brown: I have seen lots of county players who could be better, players for whom the penny hasn’t quite dropped. But it’s not necessarily about working harder. You need to find what’s best for you. At Surrey I don’t think anyone trained as a hard as Ramps: he’s as good a player as I’ve played with or against. My preparation was always geared to my being able to perform to the best of my ability. So I did less than Ramps. Then one year, I thought, ‘Maybe I should do a bit more.’ So I trained with Ramps, went for throw downs at 8.30 instead of 9.30. But by the time I got to the game I wasn’t as fresh as I wanted to be. I did what Ramps did for half a year and averaged about 26. So I went back to being a bit more relaxed – and averaged 80 for the rest of the season.

SPIN: Your 268 is the innings you will be remembered by – is that the one you personally rate as your No 1?

Brown: It’s the sort of innings that comes along once in a lifetime. I’m lucky enough to get days where I see the ball like a beach ball and that was one of them. The ball was swinging around for the first few overs but I hit a few off the middle, then I hit a few more off the middle.  Sometimes you hit the ball really clean and think: ‘I hit that well.’ Then you think: ‘My God, I hit that really well.’ And I just continued with it. When you come in after an innings like that, you know you’ve played out of your skin. And all the players come up and shake your hand – and they give you a look. And that look is an incredible feeling – it says, ‘That was unbelievable.’

SPIN: Wasn’t there an unsung innings somewhere along the way that you preferred?

Brown: I hit 110 not out against Essex and it was the best innings I ever played. It wasn’t the one that people will remember, but it was the best because Mark Ilott and Ashley Cowan were swinging the ball all over the place, but we won by three wickets. I saw it through, whereas the big innings I’ve got have all been on good wickets. I got a good hundred against Glamorgan too. They had Simon Jones and Jacques Kallis bowling – Kallis made Jones look medium pace.

SPIN: On your England debut Mike Atherton opened the batting with you. Have England made any progress in ODI thinking since you were playing?

Brown: Well, if we could harvest a few Marcus Trescothicks we’d be right up there. You need a mix of someone who is technically able to adapt to that level and to score quickly. You can either play someone aggressive and try to tighten them up or you can take someone proven at Test level and try to make them a one-day player. It rained for two days before my first ODI and the ball did absolutely everything. All I could think was, ‘I’m opening with Athers and I might not outscore him!’ The ball would be in one area then swing all over the place. I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to start hitting this.’ So not an ideal start. But it was nice to get a crack. If things had been different I would have played longer. But I was dropped shortly afterwards.

SPIN: Well, you were dropped straight after scoring a century, which even by England’s hopeless selection standards of the time seemed poor.

Brown: There was a gap between my getting a hundred and the next one-day series … I felt it was a bit harsh. But there’s not much you can do about it. I thought, ‘Hang on, if I score 100 and get dropped . . .’ Then I’d go back to Surrey and get a big score and they’d bring me back in again.

SPIN Can we a talk about the whole IPL episode in 2008? You were approached by Mumbai Indians shortly after singing a new contract with Surrey – but reportedly turned them down only to lose your Surrey contract later in the year. How close did you come?

Brown: I was very close to signing for Mumbai. Harbhajan Singh told me that Sachin Tendulkar wanted me to play for them. Sanath Jayasuriya and Shaun Pollock would be in the team too . . .  just being around them would have been a real experience. I’d have been the first English player to sign. But I’d just signed a one-year contract with Surrey, so I would have had to rip that up and pop off for a few weeks. Harbhajan told me I was mad – the team owner had oodles of money, Sachin wanted me to come. But I was on a good contract at Surrey.

SPIN: How do you look back on your departure from Surrey?

Brown: It was very disappointing, I was effectively left out of the side on age grounds, in that I was left out of the side averaging 40-something and kept out by someone averaging 20-something. I’d been told when I signed my last contract that the team would be picked on merit. I never wanted to go that way. But I’ve loved playing at Notts: they’re a brilliantly run club and remind me of lots of things that Surrey had when we were in our prime. To win the championship with them last year was unbelievable.

But I have so many good memories of playing at Surrey. I’d like to go back there at some stage and have some input.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week August 14th 2011

The Final Over of the Week in County Cricket – August 14

Ball One – While the garlands are rightly being placed around the necks of Andies Strauss and Flower for England’s ascent to Test cricket’s number one ranking, perhaps dear old county cricket, well down the news agenda in a week of riots on the front pages and football on the back pages, can shyly shuffle forward to take some of the applause – like Gary Pratt on the open-top bus, if you will. Though every player did their bit, England’s bowlers have come in for particular praise, running in all day, bowling to plans, working as a unit – pretty much exemplifying the approach that the county cricket treadmill was said to knock out of a young player. Here are the numbers of matches played by England’s fab five in front, if the media are right, one man and a dog: James Anderson (Lancashire) 54; Stuart Broad (Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire) 37; Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire) 87; Chris Tremlett (Hampshire, Surrey) 99; Graeme Swann (Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire) 161.  That’s plenty of time to ingrain bad (or should I say good) habits.

Ball Two – One of the criticisms levelled at county cricket is the number of declaration matches thrown up by the inevitable rain of an English summer. Many of the abominations (a session of slogging to reach a pre-determined target or, worse still, captains failing to agree a target leading to one side batting out time at two runs per over) have been despatched to history along with three day cricket, but the two division championship also forces captains to concentrate on getting results. In the top vs bottom clash at the Riverside, Jimmy Adams, desperate for a win, used a couple of old school forfeitures to set Durham 276 in 82 overs and was rewarded with 18 points for his positive approach. The stand-in Hampshire captain was indebted to two of England’s (maybe even Hampshire’s) forgotten men: Dmitri Mascarenhas and Kabir Ali, who took nine wickets between them, to show their class in a season ravaged by injury. That both men have over 400 first class wickets at around 28 but are so far down England the pecking order that you would need a telescope to find them, is an indicator of England’s strength in depth and to the commitment to young players, already identified through the Lions, as the future. If the two old hands stay fit, Hampshire might yet scramble to safety.

Ball Three – But they won’t if Worcestershire continue to fight like cornered tigers, as they did in defeating a vastly superior (on paper) Sussex side away at Horsham. Whilst Saeed Ajmal’s marathon second innings spell bowled his side to victory, old warhorse Alan Richardson, 36 now and with plenty of miles on the clock, grabbed six wickets in the match including the key one of Murray Goodwin. That, of course, is what he’s paid for, but the likes of Richo always find another way to contribute too – his jaunty second innings 41 at Number 11 proved vital in a match won by just 34 runs – nous counts.

Ball Four – What can one say about Surrey (without crying or giggling according to taste)? With a Test ground, still big off-field earnings through conferences etc and a coach given security of tenure that others can only dream of, they were bowled out twice for a total of 231 runs, sliding to fifth in the second division, with it all to do if promotion is to be achieved. Perhaps Surrey need a Rob Key figure as the ex-England man played his second monumental innings of the season against the Londoners, carrying his bat for 110 with the next best score a paltry 22. Still only 32 and in his benefit year, perhaps the Rob Key figure Surrey need is Rob Key himself, but it would be a surprise if he were to forsake Kent, but stranger things have happened and, with Ramprakash surely unlikely to play often in his 43^rd year (if at all), Key would add some much needed ballast at the Oval come 2012.

Ball Five – Kiwi Martin Guptill is unlikely to provoke a walk-up crowd to queue round the houses, but he’s exactly the sort of smart signing Surrey have failed to make for years. At Derbyshire, he can quietly get on with his work, as he did in racking up over 200 runs for once out in a low scoring match against Gloucestershire. That was enough to secure the win for Luke Sutton’s men who have edged into the promotion race and, with a couple of home matches and a season closer at The Oval where the natives (and the players) might be somewhat restless, still to come, I wouldn’t back against them playing first division cricket in 2012.

Ball Six – In the Twenty20, Lancashire secured their semi-final spot by defending 152 rather easily in the end. Though Junaid Khan’s stump exploding pace caught the eye once more, it was the lefty spin twins, Gary Keedy and Stephen Parry who set up the win yet again. Together they delivered figures of 8-0-45-2, the sort of numbers that win far more games than they lose. With Durham losing in the county championship, Lancashire are in at the business end of the two big domestic  competitions with much riding on Keedy continuing his tremendous form. There’s few in the game would begrudge him some glory come season’s end and the Wisden Cricketer of the Year accolade that would surely come with either trophy. The Almanack’s new editor will certainly be lobbied by this correspondent no matter how the season plays out!

Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week – 7th August 2011

Ball One – Oh Lanky, Lanky… As the dog days of August hove into sight, is Lancashire’s challenge for the title losing its bite? After a rare rain delay at Liverpool, the fans were treated to another thriller as Warwickshire held out for the draw eight down. Or was it that Warwickshire were denied a victory equally as important to them? With Keith Barker, a number eight hiding at ten, and a set Tim Ambrose at the crease, you couldn’t rule the Bears out. And that’s how it’s been all summer long in Lancashire’s exciting LVCC season – and Lanky fans aren’t satisfied yet!

Ball Two – Warwickshire enjoyed the benefit of Chris Woakes’ impressive bowling and batting, since he was deemed surplus to requirements for the England second string’s match vs Sri Lanka A. These are days of plenty for English cricket – that a man who averages 32 with the bat and 24 with the ball cannot even make the Lions’ squad, is an indication of the depth of English talent just now. Warwickshire’s Director of Cricket must have been pleased with that decision from the England selectors.

Ball Three – Table-toppers Durham could not extend their lead at Lancashire’s expense as they ran into an obdurate Nottinghamshire XI with Chris Read once more to the fore, punching out his 20^th first class ton – not bad for a keeper, whose batting is his very much his second suit. That Durham were in a position to draw was largely down to Michael Di Venuto, who seems to have been around as long as Sachin – and very nearly has. The Aussie is one of a few over 35s prospering towards the top of the Division One batting averages -  Dale Benkenstein, Murray Goodwin, Neil McKenzie and dear old Colly are there with him to lend pipe and slippers should he need them.

Ball Four – And top of that particular shop, averaging 83 having piled up 1669 runs already is, of course, Tresco, whose Somerset XI have charged up to third after a sluggish start to their campaign. This time it wasn’t the batting that exploited conditions at Taunton, but the canny bowling of old campaigners Alfonso Thomas and Murali Kartik who, having cracked a few late order runs, shared 16 wickets to beat Sussex comfortably. They have nearly 1000 first class wickets between them, but fewer than 50 international appearances – and pretty much define the old pro getting through the overs on the county circuit.

Ball Five – The Rose Bowl groundstaff, having been docked points recently for a  pitch that was deemed as poor, produced a strip that injured a few records, as Michael Carberry and Neil McKenzie piled up 523 runs for the third wicket. Though it did little for Hampshire’s chances of avoiding the drop, the members will be pleased to see Carberry back in the runs so quickly after his delibilitating health problems kept him out for so long. Though never mentioned as an England bat these days, just 17 months ago, he batted for nearly four hours in his one Test and at 30 and fit again, 300 not out is a good way to catch the selectors’ eye.

Ball Six – In sharp contrast to the excitement at the top of Division One, Kent and Leicestershire played out a quiet draw that kept both counties firmly anchored to the foot of Division Two. Matches like this one are a good reason for discounting runs and wickets taken in Division Two when it comes to assessing a player’s performance in a season – not that anyone in that match (with James Taylor out gorging on Sri Lanka A’s bowling) can be said to be having a good season this time round.

Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com, Cricket on Five and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week – 24th July 2011

Ball One – In the second extraordinary Roses Match of the LVCC season, Lancashire once again prevailed in a thrilling climax. After having Yorkshire on the canvas at 45-8 in their first innings, trailing by 283 runs, Glen Chapple’s men looked on in horror as Rich Pyrah produced the fireworks to score a century with able support from Ryan Sidebottom (batting well again this season) and Tim Bresnan, about whom more later. As so often happens after late order runs, top order wickets fell, and Yorkshire were soon favourites with Lancashire holding only two wickets and a slender 176 runs lead. Saj Mahmood and Kyle Hogg showed the proper batsmen the way and biffed a couple of fifties to take the match back into coin toss territory and Lancashire were favourites again. Like a Manx cat, this Yorkshire XI has no tail, and Lancashire had to fight to the last man to get over the line by 23 runs to bag a thrilling and crucial win. Seven of those hard-gained wickets fell to Lancashire’s two most important players, who share 74 years between them – captain Chapple and spinner Keedy. Both men, deeply loved West of the Pennines, also share something else – Yorkshire birthplaces. Just five points behind leaders Durham, could the old muckers share the LVCC trophy too?

Ball Two – I’ll declare an interest (but you knew that anyway didn’t you?)  – Tim Bresnan’s arrival into the Roses Match left a bitter taste in the mouth. Note: the word I used was arrival – I have no objection to England releasing players back to their counties which deserve the maximum benefit from having nurtured their talent. But let’s wait for a break in the innings before the England man has a go eh?

Ball Three – The Championship is not a two-horse race, as the proprietor of this magazine will be keen to point out. Quietly, stealthily, imperceptibly, Warwickshire have cruised into third place just eight points behind the Old Trafford men. Like Lancashire, their success has been built on players finding a way to win (is anything more important in First Class cricket – though how can it be defined?) Though an old hand like Michael Yardy has seen it all, even he must have been quietly confident as his decision to bowl reduced Warwickshire to 192-6. But he was to be kept in the field for more than two whole sessions, as Tim Ambrose turned the clock back with 73, Chris Woakes underlined his authentic all-rounder status with 74, and then two bowlers who bat a bit, bashed a demoralised attack, as Keith Barker made 117 and Jeetan Patel chipped in with 65. With the stuffing knocked out of them, Sussex could muster fewer in two digs than Warwickshire got in one and, with Jeetan Patel completing a fine match with ten wickets, Jim Troughton had his win.

Ball Four – The other “enforce the follow-on and win” result was the London derby played in the commuter belt down at Guildford. Surrey were heavily tipped for promotion at the start of the season, but their strong bowling resources do not offset their brittle batting. Though Tom Maynard underlined his potential again with a lightening century and Zander de Bruyn made another fine contribution, Surrey have just two other LVCC centuries (one each for blond, boy-band lookalikes and batalikes, Jason Roy and Rory Hamilton-Brown). In 29 visits to the crease, ex-England men Steve Davies and Mark Ramprakash have just 6 fifties between them. On the wickets Surrey play on (and for the money they pay them), that’s not good enough.

Ball Five – Enforcing the follow-on doesn’t always work, as Tresco and co found out at Taunton. After Tresco did the Tresco thing leading Somerset to an imposing 480, table-toppers Durham were soon in trouble and batting again 260 behind. But Somerset’s quintet of 30-something bowlers had used up 74 overs and a lot of energy getting there and it showed second time round, when hands were shaken with Durham 209-1. Given the time left in the match, the follow-on was Tresco’s only option, but he found out how tough it is for bowlers who are getting on a bit and coming off an exhausting 16 match Twenty20 jamboree.

Ball Six – Against an admittedly rather friendly Sri Lanka A attack (let’s face it, their first choice first class attack is hardly poo-inducing these days) James Taylor helped himself to 209 runs for once out (and run out to boot). The young man is keen to play for England and prepared to ship out of Grace Road to do so – disappointing for skipper Hoggy, but a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone is a laudable trait in a young player as an old player once said and still says so frequently given the chance. In any of the previous 35 years that my memory recalls, James Taylor would have played for England by now. Don’t believe me? Check out some of those that did!

Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com, Cricket on Five and Testmatchsofa.com.

Final Over of the Week – June 26th 2011

Ball One – Whisper it to fans of the Red Rose, but Lancashire are genuine contenders for the Championship. Their success has been built on the willingness of individuals to take responsibility for the team’s performance and this was in evidence again as Stephen Moore, a one-time England hopeful whose career has stalled since his move to Old Trafford from Worcestershire last year, got Lanky up to 240 to defeat current champions Nottinghamshire. Anchoring one end, but maintaining a positive tempo, his knock allowed five other batsmen chip in with no more than 35 each to seal the win. A six wicket margin looks comfortable, but only with the power of hindsight.

Ball Two – Durham have broken away with Lanky at the top of the table, but will be rueing a missed opportunity at home to Yorkshire. Phil Mustard was one wicket short of unleashing his ultra-experienced bowling line-up on Yorkshire’s all-rounders and had plenty of time left in the game, but he ran into his counterpart, Andrew Gale, playing a captain’s knock that will have pleased the old boys amongst the members, and the quietly impressive Zimbabwean-raised Gary Ballance. Having tried pace, seam and spin for 37 overs without success, Mustard conceded the draw and the cheers were just about audible from the other side of the Pennines.

Ball Three – In the relegation clash, the stretched resources of Worcestershire were sufficient to see off the always ambitious, but not always achieving, Hampshire. Dominic Cork’s four international bowlers mustered one fewer wicket than dear old Alan Richardson, still trundling in at the age of 36. Now at his fourth county, everyone knows what you get from Richo, but that doesn’t mean that everyone can deal with it. He has a lot more work ahead of him if Worcestershire are to avoid the drop, but he won’t shy away from it and he’s paying comfortably fewer than 30 runs for a wicket this season, yet again.

Ball Four – Warwickshire have an extraordinary number of players who will, with all due respect, be footnotes in the annals of international cricket – there’s William Porterfield and Boyd Rankin of Ireland (denied the opportunity to play regularly with the big boys) and England fringe types, Jim Troughton, Tim Ambrose, Darren Maddy, Rikki Clarke and Chris Woakes. Nearly men they may be, but they all had a hand in an easy win over pre-season favourites Somerset, whose championship season will need a kick start very soon.

Ball Five – Strange goings-on at Lord’s, home to one of the flattest Test wickets in the world, but also home to a Middlesex vs Kent match that saw 23 wickets fall on the first day, over half of which were shared by line and length merchants Tim Murtagh and Azhar Mahmood. The wise men of the ECB Panel who are charged with investigating such matters inspected and interrogated, but, having sucked on a thoughful tooth, decided against exercising their option to dock points, settling for a slap on the wrists for a “below average” strip. Which ground was it again?

Ball Six – Oh yes. The Twenty20 chugged on too. There’s a feeling that not every county takes it entirely seriously and, with Notts fined just £600 for fielding an ineligible player (only David Hussey, the leading runscorer in T20 history), who can blame them?

by Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com, Cricket on Five and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week – 19th June 2011

Ball One – The oft-heard, nay always heard, cry is that “They play too much cricket”. So why did the following array of talent turn out for Sussex IIs vs Surrey IIs – Luke Wells, Ed Joyce, Joe Gatting, Ollie Rayner, Naved Arif, James Anyon and Amjad Khan? Unsurprisingly, against a team captained by er… Chris Jordan, they scraped home by 144 runs in the 40 overs game. And why weren’t Sussex’s youngsters given their chance to impress? Two days later, Luke Wells played for the IIs again – remember that when there’s talk of burn-out in August.

Ball Two – Eleven Twenty20 matches were abandoned this week with barely a ball bowled between them. That punches a hole in the finances of county cricket at a time they can ill-afford it. Of course, the county game survives on the ECB’s hand-outs from revenues generated by England matches, so the less than capacity crowds for the Sri Lanka Tests (World Cup finalists’ just a couple of months ago) in the cricketing hot beds of er… Cardiff and Southampton may hurt county cricket even more.

Ball Three – 143 runs is a decent margin of victory in a first class match, so it’s a helluva win in Twenty20. Somerset smashed 30 boundaries in 20 overs, piling up 225-2, with their opener Trescoing his way to 108 as only he can. Despite Essex’s internationally experienced batting, there was no way back from there, even if Scott Styris had been fit to slog-sweep a few over cow-corner. With Essex needing 176 to win with only five wickets in hand, it must have been a very long last fifteen overs looming for the players and the crowd, so everyone must have been relieved when Essex’s incompetence ensured that the match was wrapped up in another 32 balls.

Ball Four – Having played for Cambridge against Surrey in his last match (and joined the long list of left-arm spinners to have dismissed KP) Zafar Ansari swapped colours and played for Surrey against the hapless Essex men. He contributed a handy 30* and delivered four overs for a measly 24 runs. Still a teenager, it’s a promising start for a yet another young Englishman making his way in the county game – I have never known a season when so many promising players have made their marks.

Ball Five – Phil Mustard is one of 13 wicket-keepers in county cricket to have represented England. He’s well down the pecking order these days, but he’s still only 28 and a highly effective county man. With Mustard (75 off 41 opening, keeping and captaining) and Ian Blackwell (43 off 27 at Three and 4-0-30-2), Durham have two splendid all-rounders who give plenty of scope for batting and bowling options down the order. Durham look very strong in all formats, but have suffered from non-results in T20. Some luck with the weather should see them well placed for a tilt at a third title in four seasons.

Ball Six – Speaking of which, they are one of eight counties that start County Championship matches this weekend. Nobody knows why.

by Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week – 5th June 2011

Ball One – The Red Rose droops for the first time this summer, as the wheels fall off the Lancashire bandwagon at Chester-le-Street, courtesy of another magnificent contribution from Ben Stokes, whose injured finger will give him a much needed break from the game but is a setback for his England chances. Durham’s other key man in a big win in every sense was Ian Blackwell, who always seems to get himself into a game – this time with the ball. It would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for his England career to be revived, but in county cricket he is an er… huge player.

 Ball Two – At Hove, the other young player really catching the eye this season, Luke Wells, batted over seven hours for his 174. For nearly six of those hours, the man at the other end had 18 years on him but finished with 100 more runs. Murray Goodwin has been a superb example to English pros making their way in the game and a very good reason for employing non-England qualified players in our domestic game. Luke is learning from a master batsman.

Ball Three – Not yet 24, Moeen Ali is in the middle of a very tough first season as Worcestershire captain. He’ll be heartened by a fine, and unexpected, win over champions Nottinghamshire in which he led from the front with 119 runs for once out in a low scoring match, chipping in with a couple of handy wickets too. There’s much talk of the purpose of county cricket being primarily to produce England top quality players – and that’s certainly a priority – but the game is illuminated by players like Moeen, who is likely to fall just short of an England call-up, but is a delight to watch and presents a wonderfully positive image of a young Muslim man in a media in which they are often unfairly stereotyped.

 Ball Four – Like Worcestershire, Kent are looking at a long season that will stretch playing resources to the absolute limit, so they need their experienced men to cash-in when set. Having fallen far from his days playing for England (just 16 short months ago) Joe Denly pushed on to make 143 in the first innings and 74 in the second, providing the platform for a much needed win over Leicestershire. Still only 25, Joe’s England chance may already have come and gone, but being a county pro ain’t a bad way to make a living, is it?

Ball Five – Chesney Hughes, a man with something of Keiron Pollard about him, backed up his 124 in the championship match with a hard hit 65 in Derbyshire’s thrilling 190 all tie with local rivals Lancashire. From the island of Anguilla, he is a West Indian who plays with the kind of freedom that gladdens the hearts of middle-aged men like me, in whose (faulty) memory every county had a Caribbean batsman who “gave it licks”. Like three other men mentioned this week, Chesney is only twenty – we can look forward to fifteen years of licks from him!

 Ball Six – No league football on Saturday and fine weather around the country – kids all antsy after a week off school and wanting to get out of the house. Nice time to watch some cricket? Not unless you had a ticket for the sold-out Test or a Sky subscription, for county cricket was there none.

by Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at nestaquin.wordpress.com and Testmatchsofa.com.

County Cricket’s Final Over of the Week: 29th May 2011

Ball One – Table topping Lancashire rolled Hampshire in little more than two day’s play. No surprise there from the form team of the season. Well yes actually, it was a surprise, as 19 wickets were taken by bowlers who had not played in last week’s pulsating win over Yorkshire, with Kyle Hogg the pick, bagging 11 wickets in the match. That’s the depth of squad that wins championships.

Ball Two – On the batting paradise that is Taunton, the clash of two of the form batmen of the season went Somerset’s way, but not before Jonny Bairstow (136 and 80) and Marcus Trescothick (189 and 151*) underlined their credentials. Tresco won’t play for England again of course, but the flame haired Tyke is building a convincing case – in his father’s day, he might be in already, such was the revolving door selection policy in those days. Stability, correctly, rules today.

Ball Three – Another young pretender, Durham’s Ben Stokes, missed out with the bat contributing just 33 to Durham’s gigantic 602-6 declared, but was not to be denied with the ball, delivering 39 overs in the match, taking seven wickets and filling in for Steve Harmison, no less, as opening bowler in the second dig. Still a teenager (until next week) Stokes has the inestimable quality of making things happen.- good for Durham, and possibly, good for England.

Ball Four – Another player who makes things happen is Graham Napier, who backed up his record-breaking 196 of last week with five wickets in Middlesex’s first innings. In many ways, Napier’s role at Essex is a little like that of the overseas pro in a Lancashire League club – but he has to do it five days a week, rather than just at the weekend.

Ball Five – Usman Khawaja has taken time to find his feet in the English game, but you don’t get a reputation like his without being able to play a bit. His century for Derbyshire may mark his arrival in county cricket after a slow start and will stand him in good stead in the queue for slots in the Australian Test XI.

Ball Six – Though London-based players often get rather more media coverage than their performances merit, Surrey’s Jason Roy looks like a very special talent. He is electric in the field and brings some of that to the crease, hitting the ball very hard indeed. After scoring his maiden ton, albeit in batting out a draw, he has staked a claim to an opener’s berth at The Oval. Returning to Ball One, England still miss Tresco, especially in the limited overs stuff, and a hard-hitting opener may well catch the selectors’ eye.

by Gary Naylor, whom you can tweet at @garynaylor999 and find at  nestaquin.wordpress.com and Testmatchsofa.com.

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