Ball one: Shakespeare’s county puts on show
Ethan Bamber knows a bit about drama (he is the son of Olivier Award-winning actor David Bamber), so it was no surprise that he finished a thrilling chase with a theatrical six. His 30 not out for Warwickshire against Durham was hardly a bit part, but it was a match in which there were 22 starring roles, county cricket delivering its unique storylines across not three acts, but four days.
Ben McKinney, the Durham and England Lions starlet, anchored the home side’s first innings of 387 in which England Under-19’s legspinner Taz Ali picked up four wickets in his 21 overs. Michael Booth took four quick wickets of his own in Durham’s second innings but a lead of 149, five down, was bolstered by the late order to such an extent that Alex Lees was able to declare late on the third evening, setting the visitors a target of 339.
That looked like a good decision when Ben Raine and Matthew Potts had the Bears five down still in double figures, but centurion Ed Barnard found fine support from Kai Smith and Booth, in at eight, batted with great calmness. That set the stage for Bamber, who had all the answers and delivered the last line in a riveting narrative.
Ball two: Simpson tailor-made for Sussex
Sussex must be wondering what all the fuss is about in Division One as the newly-promoted team handed out a 260-run shellacking to Somerset at Hove.
After former captain Tom Haines (141) and Daniel Hughes (91) had pushed the lead out to 277, John Simpson – playing the cricket of his life in his sophomore season as captain – added a second undefeated century in consecutive matches, leaving Somerset to survive four sessions.
To their credit, the visitors fought all the way down the card, but left-arm seamer Sean Hunt, one of many to migrate between Surrey and Sussex over the years, added 4-28 to his first-innings 5-48, despite missing the fourth day, and victory was secured with a session in hand.
What of last week’s Toast of Taunton, Tom Banton? Six in the first innings and a duck in the second – cricket can be cruel as well as kind.
Ball three: Bairstow brings tear to the eye
Even a Red Rose man like your correspondent might have found a speck of dust in his eye as Jonny Bairstow led out Yorkshire as full-time captain on the ground where his father had done the same job 40 years ago. His team did him proud, as they steamrollered Worcestershire by over 500 runs to register only their second win in Division One since 2019.
The pace attack that spearheaded promotion last year, led by Ben “Betsy” Coad, George Hill and Jordan Thompson was supplemented by the experience of Jack White, and that quartet gobbled up 19 Worcestershire wickets between them.
Perhaps the enormous mental effort in securing the draw at Taunton in the first match of the campaign got to Brett D’Oliveira’s team because conceding 771-14 while compiling only 267-20 in response is an abject capitulation. They’re away again at Chelmsford this week (due to ongoing winter flooding issues at New Road) and the skipper has a job on his hands to raise his team.
Ball four: Oval pitch gets better (or worse?)
Do pitches deteriorate at all these days? The Oval presented a case in point as a little swing and a lot of injudicious shot selection led to two first innings that required just the one ball each. Looking on, I felt it was a 450-par pitch. I may have been overstating the impact of the relatively short boundary to the gasometers but Dom Sibley seemed to agree, booking himself in for bed and breakfast, carrying his bat for a round 100 first time and helping himself to another ton in the second dig.
Sonny Baker’s raw pace (very raw, very pacy) brought him five wickets as Surrey looked for quick runs before a late declaration on day three, but Hampshire held out comfortably, losing just two wickets on the last day to an attack featuring Dan Worrall, Kemar Roach, Jordan Clark and Matt Fisher – bowlers who know how to get it over the line.
The unseasonably clement weather might bid us farewell soon, but pitches (and not just at The Oval) might have to give a little more encouragement to bowlers, especially late in the match, if the full spectrum of first-class cricket’s delights are to be savoured.
Ball five: perfect Kent are … second
Kent are the only county in the country to enjoy a 100% record but they sit behind Leicestershire in the Division Two table due to our old friends, bonus points. This column believes that teams should play to win rather than to hit arbitrary targets, but it will all come out in the wash by autumn. At least, let’s hope so.
Daniel Bell-Drummond backed up last week’s three-day win by 145 runs with another three-day win, this time by eight wickets. Kent looked in trouble at 79-6 in the first dig but wicketkeeper Harry Finch and Aussie all-rounder Grant Stewart added 101 for the seventh wicket to turn it into a single-innings shootout.
Having made 311 of their own, Middlesex were slight favourites as the match entered its fourth innings, but all the nip and tuck of the previous three soon disappeared. Zak Crawley did Zak Crawley things (dropped on 0 then a blaze of boundaries) to get his team off to a flyer and Ben Compton stroked his way to an undefeated ton, while Tawanda Muyeye blitzed his way to a complementary effort at the other end.
The Zimbabwe-born batter wants to play for England. His talent is obvious to anyone watching him for 20 minutes, something I suspect Rob Key, the England cricket team’s managing director, has done. If the 24-year-old can add consistent scores to his power and strokeplay, he’ll be shouldering his way forward in the long queue of middle-order Bazballers vying for selection.
Ball six: Bohannon at it again
Three of Josh Bohannon’s 12 previous centuries have come against Northamptonshire and a fourth arrived in time for Lancashire to secure the draw against an understandably tiring visiting attack.
The question facing Luke Procter – who was born in Lancashire but is now captaining Northants – halfway through day three was whether to enforce the follow on (this column says no in nine cases out of 10). Sure, the lead was 268, but what was the true nature of conditions? Were they so benign that numbers six, seven, eight and nine could compile 286 between them (as his own late middle order had) or so treacherous that eight wickets could disappear for 100 runs, as Lancashire had just demonstrated.
He opted not to have a 30-overs thrash at the Tom Tom Club (Bailey, Hartley et al) and told his bowlers to go again. That they did, on loan Calvin Harrison backing up 19 overs in the first effort with 57 in the second for his 11 wickets, but only Liam Guthrie and Saif Zaib could conjure a scalp apiece to support him. Lancashire had batted 232 consecutive overs when handshakes were offered, but one can only imagine the weariness in body and mind of their opponents when Bohannon was sixth out, the lead a fragile 28 with plenty of time left, but with more than 200 overs already in their legs.
This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog