G&C 188
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 188
August 2018
Caption Competition
Jonathan Agnew: I know you have the leg break and the googly, what are the others?
Adil Rashid: I also bowl lots of full tosses and long hops.
Out and About with the Professor
So what to make of Yorkshire’s season thus far?
After a slightly scratchy start they did pretty well in the Royal London Cup before running into James Vince in stunning form at the Aegeas Bowl. They have flirted with top spot and with relegation in the Championship and seem capable of winning and losing easily in the T20 Blast. Consistent it ain’t. On top of that we have lost a captain and a chairman less than half way through the season and there is much talk of some senior players moving on.
So, unusually for Yorkshire, there is some discord about.
It is not quite true to say that the County Championship is all the members are interested in...it is true to say that it is all some of the members are interested in.
There have been good wins against Notts, Essex and It is not quite true to say that the County Championship is all the members are interested in...it is true to say that it is all some of the members are interested (most importantly) Lancashire but also very sound defeats (twice) against Surrey. There is still a fair bit of Championship cricket to go of course, given the bizarre fixture list, but Surrey already seem likely winners.
So that leaves the “Blast”. The performance against Derbyshire at Headingley was dire (all out for 100 in 14 overs) but dominant, two days’ later, against Leicester. The problem last year was identified as lack of runs. And the year before that? Lack of runs. The solution for this season was the recruitment of Pujara and Williamson. We were told at the AGM that Yorkshire would have three of the world’s top five batsmen. Well...Root obviously has played very little and Pujara has not been a success. His first five scores were: 2, 18, 7, 6, and 9. Things did improve a bit thereafter, most especially in the RL Cup, but by nowhere near enough. He left Headingley with a first class average of 14 from a dozen innings, only a touch above that of Jack Brooks...who would not feature in anybody’s list of the world’s best five batsmen. Many years’ ago The Great Jack Morgan sent me a football “White Elephants XI” - a team of the worst transfer buys in the then Football League. I can’t now recall who was selected but I think the name Tony Hateley was there somewhere. I wonder if he could do the same for county cricket and if Pujara’s name might feature.
To add to the woes, Gary Ballance added his name to the long list of cricketers who have succumbed to stress-related illness, giving up the captaincy after a trial break from the game. Steven Patterson thus became a rather (to me at least) unlikely captain. Then the Board Chairman, Steve Denison, stepped down, having being involved, in some unspecified way, in the fall out of the financial collapse of British Home Stores. Having, reportedly, been fined for his auditor role, he then failed the “fit and proper person” test to sit on the Board. He resigned in order, as they say, not to be a “distraction”. I’m not sure that what goes on at Board level is much of a distraction (or of any interest at all) for the players...but I guess it doesn’t help. More important must be the players who are unavailable due to fitness, reluctance, or England duty or, in the case of Rashid, all three.
There is, however, good news. Kane Williamson has arrived and, judging from his innings yesterday (MoM for 77 against Leicester), is in very fine form. And, Yorkshire look to have found a wicket keeper. Jonathan Tattersall is a local lad, born in Harrogate. He was a precocious talent and played a first team game some four years’ ago. But his batting and leg-breaks were not thought good enough and he was let go. Some minor county and overseas stuff and he has re-invented himself as a wicketkeeper. And very useful he looks indeed. His spectacular catch to dismiss the tubby and dangerous Cosgrove was probably the turning point of the match against Leicestershire and every thing else looked nice and tidy. It is early days, and he is very young, but I have seen him a couple of times now and, given that he can bat as well, he looks a real prospect. Andrew Hodd obviously thinks so, he has announced his retirement.
So, silverware for Yorkshire this season? The only chance would seem to be in the Bash and that is something of a long shot. A more modest target would be avoiding relegation: not a greatly ambitious one but, given the uncertainty around, a realistic one.
This & That
I must start out by confessing that the only world cup match that I saw was the last hour of the Croatia game, in which I have to admit that the much-vaunted England side were less than impressive. This suggests a reappraisal of their overall performance. They kicked off by beating two third division sides, one convincingly and one only just. They then lost to Belgium followed by a draw which they won on a penalty shootout. Their only victory of substance was against Sweden and this was followed by two more defeats against Croatia and Belgium. So, their overall performance was won three, drawn one and lost three. This is hardly fabulous stuff. Why does the population so need the national team to do well? At best it was an improvement on the appalling efforts of its predecessors. The Premiership is generally regarded as the best league in the world even though its teams seem to have stopped winning major competitions. If you take a selection of players from this league they should be expected to beat most sides in the world. Their performance in Russia was at best mediocre.
There have been some fabulous T20 matches this season. It seems that there are new standards being set and that what used to be considered extreme is now ordinary. For example a personal scoring rate of 150 was once considered exceptional but now that plaudit has moved up to the 200 plus performances.
I caught the Old Trafford Roses clash on Sky which was reduced to 14 overs a side. Yorkshire put Lancashire in and Liam Livingstone made 79 from 37 balls. Lilley and Clark both also scored at 200 plus and Yorkshire were left needing an unlikely 177 from their 14 overs. Adam Lyth has become one of the best openers in domestic T20 cricket and he goes after it from the start. He was out in the seventh over for 60 after hitting 6 sixes from 26 balls. Yorkshire would probably have won if David Willey hadn’t had a nightmare in which he couldn’t miss the fielders or get out. Joe Root made 51 off 22 balls and Yorkshire fell 1 run short of their target.
On the same night The Northants Steelbacks and Birmingham tied, each scoring 231 for 5. Ian Bell scored 131 at a scoring rate of 211 in the chase and was out in the final over when only nine were required. Meanwhile, whilst at the Old Danes Gathering, I caught out of the corner of my eye the beginning of the Yorkshire innings against the Steelbacks which was on the large TV screen in the pavilion. Adam Lyth was out in the fifth over for 40 from 16 balls whilst his opening partner Kohler-Cadmore made 73 from 30 balls with 7 sixes.
It can’t be much fun bowling or fielding for the Steelbacks at present. After they had made a respectable 187 for 9 against the Worcester Rapids the visitors lived up to their name by knocking them off with seven overs to spare for the loss of just one wicket. Martin Gupthill made 102 from 38 balls.
Surrey racked up 250 for 6 against Kent only for weather to intervene. Aaron Finch made 83 from 38 deliveries to form the springboard for their innings.
I quite like the idea of the womens’ matches taking place at the same venue before the mens’ matches and I saw an abbreviated six over match at Taunton between Western Storm and Loughborough Lightning. The Women’s franchises now have overseas stars in their lineups and Smriti Mandhana, the Indian, opened and scored a spectacular 52 from 19 deliveries as the Storm reached an impregnable 85 for 2 from their six overs. In reply the Lightning scored a creditable but insufficient 67 for 0. It was interesting to see the boundary ropes about twenty yards in from the those in place for the Somerset/ Middlesex match later in the day. About that event the only time Middlesex featured was in Tom Barber’s opening over in which he took three wickets. Middlesex were awful and lived up to Michael Atherton’s description of “perennial underperformers”.
The TMS commentators always have plenty of time to chat about stuff and it was interesting to hear Boycott and Agnew talking about county bowlers they most feared and who would feature in their Fantasy Elevens. They both opted for Sylvester Clarke and Malcolm Marshall over Thompson and Lillee.
However, an irritating feature is the statistical nonsense that is given air time following the recording on computers of all the historical data. To hear that Cook has been out LBW only 25 times in 300 test innings may be of interest, and that Trent Boult is responsible for five of these could be enlightening even if odd that this information is readily available. But to hear that it is noteworthy that Geoff Pullar was out for 26 on his 26th birthday is ridiculous particularly as anyone having a birthday on the day of the match is then monitored to see if they can match their age with their score.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan was in place for the only Championship match at Lord’s in July
Compared to the last (disastrous) Championship match against Kent, Middlesex brought in Nick Gubbins, Paul Stirling, Ollie Rayner and Eoin Morgan for Sam Robson, Hilton Cartwright, Ravi Patel and George Scott for the Second Division Championship match against league leaders Warwickshire which started at Lord’s on Sunday July 22 in astonishingly hot weather.
Dawid Malan won the toss for Middlesex and chose to bat first and well before lunch they had lost 7 wickets for 76, with Nick Gubbins's 26 looking like a success story. Fortunately, 20 year old Max Holden was still there and when he was joined by James Fuller a handy stand of 86 developed quickly for the eighth wicket. When Holden fell for a praiseworthy 48 off 62 balls with 9 fours, another useful stand of 51 followed between Fuller and Ollie Rayner (28). Fuller himself went on to an entertaining 71 off 71 balls with 7 fours and a six, much the best innings most of us had seen him play, as the innings closed on a disappointing 236. For Warwicks, Ryan Sidebottom took 3 for 34, Oliver Hannon-Dalby 3 for 41 and ex-Middlesex man Chris Wright 3 for 48.
Ex-Yorkshire opener Will Rhodes was the rock on which the Warwicks reply was based, but they had fallen to 29 for 2 before he received some good support from Jon Trott, calling on the experience of 52 caps for England, who made 47 (from 59 balls with 7 fours) out of a stand of 85 for the third wicket. Rhodes continued in his own steady fashion, but no one else was able to contribute more than 16. As the wickets continued to fall at the other end, Rhodes became more dominant until he was finally last man out for an excellent 118 from 239 deliveries with 17 fours and he was almost totally responsible for Warwicks gaining a first innings lead of 40. Jimmy Harris took 4 for 84, Tim Murtagh 3 for 43 and there were 3 catches for keeper John Simpson.
Stevie Eskinazi (73 off 103 balls with 9 fours) and Gubbins (47 off 102 balls with 9 fours) starred in the best stand of the match (101 for the second wicket) as Middlesex responded strongly in their second innings. Malan made 28 and Simpson 33, but otherwise it was a disappointing effort from the rest of the team and Middlesex could manage only 242 all out, with skipper Jetan Patel claiming 5 for 56 with his offspin.
This set Warwicks a less than formidable target of 203 to win with the best part of 2 days to get them. However, Murtagh got Middlesex off to a brilliant start by sending Dom Sibley and Ian Bell straight back to the hutch for ducks with only one run on the board. Things got even better when Rhodes also departed with the total on only 21. Although Trott (32) and Sam Hain (37) started a fightback, Warwicks slumped again to 64 for 5 and it needed a determined 41 (from 64 balls with 6 fours) from keeper Tim Ambrose to keep Warwicks in with a chance. Some tailenders hung on gallantly, but Fuller took 3 good wickets including the final one of Wright who had batted defiantly, to ensure that Middx were the victors by 18 runs. Murtagh's figures were 4 for 54 and Fuller's 3 for 40. Middx (20 points) had beaten Warwickshire (5 points) by 18 runs. Warwicks stay on top of the table, while Middx are fifth.
An Unexpected Visit to Lord’s
When I came to London for the Old Danes Gathering I stayed, as usual, in Hampstead with my friend, Sue. She takes me to visit the big art exhibitions and we soak up the culture. Sue has lived in the vicinity of Lord’s all her life but never visited the Mecca of cricket. Over breakfast on Thursday I noticed that there was a T20 match at Lord’s that evening which I tentatively suggested we might attend. To my amazement she took me up on the offer and our artistic pursuits had to be abbreviated to accommodate this unlikely addition to our itinerary.
We arrived in comfortable time and after collecting our tickets strolled around the Nursey End taking in the atmosphere and collecting our pink Middlesex headdresses to ensure that we entered fully into the spirit of the event. When we ascended onto the Compton Stand the most astounding thing was the total greenness of the playing field following the eight-week long drought. Presumably Lord’s isn’t paying for metered water?
The ground rapidly filled up as the start of play approached and a young courting couple sat in front of us. He seemed to be pushing the boat out with a bottle of what seemed to be champagne but he may have queered his post-match chances when it turned out subsequently to just be Prosecco. This was my first visit to a Lord’s T20 since Tim Murtagh took 6 for 24 against Middlesex in 2007 and the irritating interruptions to the proceedings seem to be confined to a sort of compere who has a roving camera team who pick out members of the audience to interview and/or embarrass. This presumably panders to the fifteen minutes of fame culture.
Sue in her pink headdress
During the Hampshire innings spectators were invited on the big screens to participate in the Floss Slam. This seemed to require participants to move their arms and legs together from side to side in a flossing motion. Lucky dancers had their performances shown on the big screen. One middle aged man joined in and lowered the tone by flossing his crotch from back to front.
On the pitch Paul Stirling alone of the Middlesex batsmen showed any application and once Colin Monroe had started to treat the Middlesex attack as he had the England one in the winter Hampshire were odds on to win at the half way point in the Hampshire innings. However, they then started to bat like a Middlesex side and contrived a collapse which left Middlesex the unlikely winners by the flattering margin of 22 runs. By the end the floodlights had taken full effect and the ground looked magnificent.
We were blessed with a fabulous warm evening and a match which held interest till the end both of which may have contributed to Sue saying that she thoroughly enjoyed it and wanted to go again….
The Morgan Diary
We are treated to anecdotes from the Great Man’s musings
Middlesex head coach Richard Scott has left the club with immediate effect, Richard Johnson takes over for the rest of the season. Is this Angus's way of deflecting attention away from his own dismal performance: letting Podmore go was just one of a number of baffling decisions in recent times.
It seems that Hales is likely to be dropped, unfairly, for the 1st ODI at TB to accommodate Stokes. Even if Stokes were fully fit, which he does not appear to be as he is hardly bowling at all, I do not think Hales should be the one to go because others (eg Root and Morgan) are far less reliable. India won in comfort with 8 wkts and 10 overs to spare. Stokes made 50, but a startlingly slow one off 103 balls with only 2 fours, cf Buttler's 53 off 51 balls, but the batting as a whole was below par; as was the bowling (Stokes managed 4-0-27-0), but it was strange that the two most economical bowlers (Willey and Plunkett) were given only 11 overs between them. Perhaps it is time for Eoin to step aside? I now read that Hales turned out to be unfit anyway.
In the second XI three dayer at Uxbridge, Middlesex fielded a much more experienced team than Essex, yet were outplayed for all but the first 3 or 4 hours. Players like Jimmy Harris, Jamie Fuller, Ollie Rayner, Ravi Patel and Tim Murtagh have vast first team experience, while for the visitors, Nick Browne was the only one of whom anyone had heard. Rob White made 116 from 187 balls and captain George Scott made 105 from 119 balls, but Middlesex then slumped alarmingly from 233-2 to 297 all out, slow left armer Nijjar taking 5-83. For the visitors, R Patel (not Ravi) made 117, keeper M Pepper 93 and C Benjamin 63 out of their 444; Tom Barber was the best of the home bowlers with 3-76, Murtagh took 0-83. Middlesex struggled again in their second innings with only White (51) and Harris (65*) applying themselves as Middlesex clung on for a draw on 253-9, with the excellent Nijjar claiming 5-77 and 10-160 in the match.
Well, my criticism of Eoin M and Joe R worked like a dream! At Lord's, Roy, Bairstow, Root (113), Morgan and Willey took Eng up to 322-7 and Plunkett (4-46) and the spinners ensured that Ind could not match it. Stokes (5 runs and no wickets) still looks way below par though: is it wise to persevere with him? I would give someone else a go while Ben returns to form with Durham.
Headingley: India did not bat very well to reach only 256-8 or was it due to the excellence of Wood, Willey and Rashid? or was it all MS Dhoni's fault? Plenty blamed MSD for the Lord's defeat and he did poorly again here. Plunkett and Stokes went for 84 off 11 between them. Bairstow and Vince gave Eng a decent start and then there was no stopping Root (100* off 120) and Morgan (88* off 108) as England strolled it by 8 wkts with 5 and a half overs to spare. It does not seem long ago that someone was suggesting that Root and Morgan might need a rest!
Basil d'Oliveira has been awarded the freedom of the city of Worcester. He will be absolutely delighted about this because he died in 2011!
Middlesex lost at the Rose Bowl by 21, an unremarkable game except that J Fuller took 6-28 for Middlesex.
It seems that the Test ground in Galle (SL), where I watched a Test in 2001, is going to be demolished.
JT Murray has died aged 83.
Not sure how Malan gets in on current form. M Vaughan says the selection of Rashid is “ridiculous”. I am surprised that it has taken them so long to pick J Porter. Quite a lot is being said about England playing two spinners (or 3 counting JR) in the Test and many are in favour, mainly because they did OK in the ODIs, but Tests are completely different: batters do not have to chase runs off (almost) every ball, they can wait for the bad ball, tuck that one away and defend against decent balls... and this is India we are talking about, where they have expert players of spin and they practise against the best spinners in the world on a regular basis. I am not against spinners, but I do not think it should be our main method of attack... especially against India.
L Plunkett will join Surrey next season.
Blimey! Middlesex in T20 win sensation: P Stirling 60, A Agar 3-17, S Finn 3-21. Hants must be dreadful.
Blimey! Six pages of cricket in today's O, wow! S Broad has a record 27 ducks in Tests for England.
Cheltenham Matters
George moved to Cheltenham last year and invited me to join him this season for a day at the Cheltenham Festival. We decided on the second day of the Sussex match. Neither of us had visited the ground before and so we strolled around until we located a position with a little elevation which turned out to be on the shorter mid-wicket boundary. This is not a vantage point that I would normally select and I was surprised that I found it difficult to see the ball in flight when the quicker bowlers were in action. This was particularly true of Jofre Archer although ironically I was able to see the ball when he returned at the end of the day for what turned out to be his devastating but apparently slower spell.
Gloucester started the day at 42 for 0 and their progress was sedate throughout. Chris Dent And Miles Hammond seemed content to take singles interrupted by the odd cleanly struck boundary. They were not parted until the afternoon session when Dent lobbed a reverse sweep tamely to square leg with the score on 192. The TV commentators constantly describe this stroke as part of the modern players armoury but it seems that all too often it gets even so called expert exponents out. Hammond having completed a maiden Championship century was promptly dismissed by Wiese, one of the many Africans participating in this match.
Gloucester’s progress continued in its desultory way and George left for more pressing matters. Most of the spectators close to us seemed to be Sussex supporters and even they could not get too excited by Archer’s three wicket over which left Glouceter’ s score on a par with Sussex’s effort on the first day.
George looking soporific at his new adopted county
I was writing the above when the following dropped into my inbox
It is our 2nd year in Cheltenham and this time I was in the UK for some of the cricket week. Jim accepted the invite and came to stay. We set off at about 10-15 to park the car, as Jim didn’t want to get too crushed in the crowds. The ground is utterly charming and we settled in on the Pavilion side.
Overnight, Sussex had been all out for 286 and Gloucester were about 42-0. Gloucester progressed slowly but safely, putting on 182 for the 1st wicket. They lost a 2nd shortly after, Hammond, who had made a maiden 100. Bracey and Roderick settled in, and when I had to leave at about 5pm the score was 255-2
Much of the cricket was very pleasantly soporific. Even though the boundary was very short on our side, about 50 yards, nobody cleared it, or, with few exceptions, seem to try to reach it. We did have trouble seeing the ball through the air, though, at different times of the day. Jim is firmly of the view that most of these folk did not want to be playing or at least didn’t want to do any more (such as bowl) than absolutely necessary
We found ourselves chatting about cricket we had seen together, most of it over 50 years ago. A few examples:
“Middlesex reducing Australia to about 90-5 at Lords. Then Slasher McKay making about 168 as Australia reached over 300. I think this was 1961, so a mere 57 years ago. I have a particular memory of a phenomenal catch by Peter Parfitt to dismiss Neil Harvey. It was a different world and Harvey actually applauded Parfitt. Amazingly it was Don Bennett’s day and he took 5 wickets.”
“Watching Fred Truman bowl at the Oval. A fairly normal game until Truman starting to get serious bowling from the Pavilion end and reduced a powerful Surrey team to 61-7 overnight. “
“Middlesex setting Derby a challenging 4th innings target of about 270. Charlie Lee made 82 and Derby got them for 3 wickets, I think.”
“A 1 day game at Lords in 1980 when England beat West Indies. Those were the days when you took Martinis and Port to drink before and after the wine and it’s a little surprising that we remember much of it. But we do remember Boycott bowling with his hat on back to front. Holding bowled frighteningly quickly. (And, yes, we did have the bowler’s Holding the batsman’s Willey. Then, with England floundering about 6 or 7 wickets down Botham hit Andy Roberts through the covers for 4 3 times in an over and the game was won.”
My departure was the signal for great activity in the game. In the hour or so I missed, Gloucester lost 6 wickets for 48 runs and finished the day on 303-8. The game ebbed and flowed after that, though I was back in France by then. Sussex won by 28 runs despite a 4th innings partnership of 135 by Roderick and Bracey.
I’d go again next year.
In memoriam
I heard from Gwen Cozens that Ross Chiese who played at Stanmore has died, he was 67.
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 188
August 2018
Caption Competition
- Nick Compton: How can I get back in the England team?
- Jonathan Agnew: How many different deliveries do you have?
Jonathan Agnew: I know you have the leg break and the googly, what are the others?
Adil Rashid: I also bowl lots of full tosses and long hops.
- Jonny Bairstow: Now Jos is in the side why don’t you let him do the keeping to the spinners?
- Jonathan Agnew: Do you think Middlesex will do any better in August?
Out and About with the Professor
So what to make of Yorkshire’s season thus far?
After a slightly scratchy start they did pretty well in the Royal London Cup before running into James Vince in stunning form at the Aegeas Bowl. They have flirted with top spot and with relegation in the Championship and seem capable of winning and losing easily in the T20 Blast. Consistent it ain’t. On top of that we have lost a captain and a chairman less than half way through the season and there is much talk of some senior players moving on.
So, unusually for Yorkshire, there is some discord about.
It is not quite true to say that the County Championship is all the members are interested in...it is true to say that it is all some of the members are interested in.
There have been good wins against Notts, Essex and It is not quite true to say that the County Championship is all the members are interested in...it is true to say that it is all some of the members are interested (most importantly) Lancashire but also very sound defeats (twice) against Surrey. There is still a fair bit of Championship cricket to go of course, given the bizarre fixture list, but Surrey already seem likely winners.
So that leaves the “Blast”. The performance against Derbyshire at Headingley was dire (all out for 100 in 14 overs) but dominant, two days’ later, against Leicester. The problem last year was identified as lack of runs. And the year before that? Lack of runs. The solution for this season was the recruitment of Pujara and Williamson. We were told at the AGM that Yorkshire would have three of the world’s top five batsmen. Well...Root obviously has played very little and Pujara has not been a success. His first five scores were: 2, 18, 7, 6, and 9. Things did improve a bit thereafter, most especially in the RL Cup, but by nowhere near enough. He left Headingley with a first class average of 14 from a dozen innings, only a touch above that of Jack Brooks...who would not feature in anybody’s list of the world’s best five batsmen. Many years’ ago The Great Jack Morgan sent me a football “White Elephants XI” - a team of the worst transfer buys in the then Football League. I can’t now recall who was selected but I think the name Tony Hateley was there somewhere. I wonder if he could do the same for county cricket and if Pujara’s name might feature.
To add to the woes, Gary Ballance added his name to the long list of cricketers who have succumbed to stress-related illness, giving up the captaincy after a trial break from the game. Steven Patterson thus became a rather (to me at least) unlikely captain. Then the Board Chairman, Steve Denison, stepped down, having being involved, in some unspecified way, in the fall out of the financial collapse of British Home Stores. Having, reportedly, been fined for his auditor role, he then failed the “fit and proper person” test to sit on the Board. He resigned in order, as they say, not to be a “distraction”. I’m not sure that what goes on at Board level is much of a distraction (or of any interest at all) for the players...but I guess it doesn’t help. More important must be the players who are unavailable due to fitness, reluctance, or England duty or, in the case of Rashid, all three.
There is, however, good news. Kane Williamson has arrived and, judging from his innings yesterday (MoM for 77 against Leicester), is in very fine form. And, Yorkshire look to have found a wicket keeper. Jonathan Tattersall is a local lad, born in Harrogate. He was a precocious talent and played a first team game some four years’ ago. But his batting and leg-breaks were not thought good enough and he was let go. Some minor county and overseas stuff and he has re-invented himself as a wicketkeeper. And very useful he looks indeed. His spectacular catch to dismiss the tubby and dangerous Cosgrove was probably the turning point of the match against Leicestershire and every thing else looked nice and tidy. It is early days, and he is very young, but I have seen him a couple of times now and, given that he can bat as well, he looks a real prospect. Andrew Hodd obviously thinks so, he has announced his retirement.
So, silverware for Yorkshire this season? The only chance would seem to be in the Bash and that is something of a long shot. A more modest target would be avoiding relegation: not a greatly ambitious one but, given the uncertainty around, a realistic one.
This & That
I must start out by confessing that the only world cup match that I saw was the last hour of the Croatia game, in which I have to admit that the much-vaunted England side were less than impressive. This suggests a reappraisal of their overall performance. They kicked off by beating two third division sides, one convincingly and one only just. They then lost to Belgium followed by a draw which they won on a penalty shootout. Their only victory of substance was against Sweden and this was followed by two more defeats against Croatia and Belgium. So, their overall performance was won three, drawn one and lost three. This is hardly fabulous stuff. Why does the population so need the national team to do well? At best it was an improvement on the appalling efforts of its predecessors. The Premiership is generally regarded as the best league in the world even though its teams seem to have stopped winning major competitions. If you take a selection of players from this league they should be expected to beat most sides in the world. Their performance in Russia was at best mediocre.
There have been some fabulous T20 matches this season. It seems that there are new standards being set and that what used to be considered extreme is now ordinary. For example a personal scoring rate of 150 was once considered exceptional but now that plaudit has moved up to the 200 plus performances.
I caught the Old Trafford Roses clash on Sky which was reduced to 14 overs a side. Yorkshire put Lancashire in and Liam Livingstone made 79 from 37 balls. Lilley and Clark both also scored at 200 plus and Yorkshire were left needing an unlikely 177 from their 14 overs. Adam Lyth has become one of the best openers in domestic T20 cricket and he goes after it from the start. He was out in the seventh over for 60 after hitting 6 sixes from 26 balls. Yorkshire would probably have won if David Willey hadn’t had a nightmare in which he couldn’t miss the fielders or get out. Joe Root made 51 off 22 balls and Yorkshire fell 1 run short of their target.
On the same night The Northants Steelbacks and Birmingham tied, each scoring 231 for 5. Ian Bell scored 131 at a scoring rate of 211 in the chase and was out in the final over when only nine were required. Meanwhile, whilst at the Old Danes Gathering, I caught out of the corner of my eye the beginning of the Yorkshire innings against the Steelbacks which was on the large TV screen in the pavilion. Adam Lyth was out in the fifth over for 40 from 16 balls whilst his opening partner Kohler-Cadmore made 73 from 30 balls with 7 sixes.
It can’t be much fun bowling or fielding for the Steelbacks at present. After they had made a respectable 187 for 9 against the Worcester Rapids the visitors lived up to their name by knocking them off with seven overs to spare for the loss of just one wicket. Martin Gupthill made 102 from 38 balls.
Surrey racked up 250 for 6 against Kent only for weather to intervene. Aaron Finch made 83 from 38 deliveries to form the springboard for their innings.
I quite like the idea of the womens’ matches taking place at the same venue before the mens’ matches and I saw an abbreviated six over match at Taunton between Western Storm and Loughborough Lightning. The Women’s franchises now have overseas stars in their lineups and Smriti Mandhana, the Indian, opened and scored a spectacular 52 from 19 deliveries as the Storm reached an impregnable 85 for 2 from their six overs. In reply the Lightning scored a creditable but insufficient 67 for 0. It was interesting to see the boundary ropes about twenty yards in from the those in place for the Somerset/ Middlesex match later in the day. About that event the only time Middlesex featured was in Tom Barber’s opening over in which he took three wickets. Middlesex were awful and lived up to Michael Atherton’s description of “perennial underperformers”.
The TMS commentators always have plenty of time to chat about stuff and it was interesting to hear Boycott and Agnew talking about county bowlers they most feared and who would feature in their Fantasy Elevens. They both opted for Sylvester Clarke and Malcolm Marshall over Thompson and Lillee.
However, an irritating feature is the statistical nonsense that is given air time following the recording on computers of all the historical data. To hear that Cook has been out LBW only 25 times in 300 test innings may be of interest, and that Trent Boult is responsible for five of these could be enlightening even if odd that this information is readily available. But to hear that it is noteworthy that Geoff Pullar was out for 26 on his 26th birthday is ridiculous particularly as anyone having a birthday on the day of the match is then monitored to see if they can match their age with their score.
Middlesex Matters
The Great Jack Morgan was in place for the only Championship match at Lord’s in July
Compared to the last (disastrous) Championship match against Kent, Middlesex brought in Nick Gubbins, Paul Stirling, Ollie Rayner and Eoin Morgan for Sam Robson, Hilton Cartwright, Ravi Patel and George Scott for the Second Division Championship match against league leaders Warwickshire which started at Lord’s on Sunday July 22 in astonishingly hot weather.
Dawid Malan won the toss for Middlesex and chose to bat first and well before lunch they had lost 7 wickets for 76, with Nick Gubbins's 26 looking like a success story. Fortunately, 20 year old Max Holden was still there and when he was joined by James Fuller a handy stand of 86 developed quickly for the eighth wicket. When Holden fell for a praiseworthy 48 off 62 balls with 9 fours, another useful stand of 51 followed between Fuller and Ollie Rayner (28). Fuller himself went on to an entertaining 71 off 71 balls with 7 fours and a six, much the best innings most of us had seen him play, as the innings closed on a disappointing 236. For Warwicks, Ryan Sidebottom took 3 for 34, Oliver Hannon-Dalby 3 for 41 and ex-Middlesex man Chris Wright 3 for 48.
Ex-Yorkshire opener Will Rhodes was the rock on which the Warwicks reply was based, but they had fallen to 29 for 2 before he received some good support from Jon Trott, calling on the experience of 52 caps for England, who made 47 (from 59 balls with 7 fours) out of a stand of 85 for the third wicket. Rhodes continued in his own steady fashion, but no one else was able to contribute more than 16. As the wickets continued to fall at the other end, Rhodes became more dominant until he was finally last man out for an excellent 118 from 239 deliveries with 17 fours and he was almost totally responsible for Warwicks gaining a first innings lead of 40. Jimmy Harris took 4 for 84, Tim Murtagh 3 for 43 and there were 3 catches for keeper John Simpson.
Stevie Eskinazi (73 off 103 balls with 9 fours) and Gubbins (47 off 102 balls with 9 fours) starred in the best stand of the match (101 for the second wicket) as Middlesex responded strongly in their second innings. Malan made 28 and Simpson 33, but otherwise it was a disappointing effort from the rest of the team and Middlesex could manage only 242 all out, with skipper Jetan Patel claiming 5 for 56 with his offspin.
This set Warwicks a less than formidable target of 203 to win with the best part of 2 days to get them. However, Murtagh got Middlesex off to a brilliant start by sending Dom Sibley and Ian Bell straight back to the hutch for ducks with only one run on the board. Things got even better when Rhodes also departed with the total on only 21. Although Trott (32) and Sam Hain (37) started a fightback, Warwicks slumped again to 64 for 5 and it needed a determined 41 (from 64 balls with 6 fours) from keeper Tim Ambrose to keep Warwicks in with a chance. Some tailenders hung on gallantly, but Fuller took 3 good wickets including the final one of Wright who had batted defiantly, to ensure that Middx were the victors by 18 runs. Murtagh's figures were 4 for 54 and Fuller's 3 for 40. Middx (20 points) had beaten Warwickshire (5 points) by 18 runs. Warwicks stay on top of the table, while Middx are fifth.
An Unexpected Visit to Lord’s
When I came to London for the Old Danes Gathering I stayed, as usual, in Hampstead with my friend, Sue. She takes me to visit the big art exhibitions and we soak up the culture. Sue has lived in the vicinity of Lord’s all her life but never visited the Mecca of cricket. Over breakfast on Thursday I noticed that there was a T20 match at Lord’s that evening which I tentatively suggested we might attend. To my amazement she took me up on the offer and our artistic pursuits had to be abbreviated to accommodate this unlikely addition to our itinerary.
We arrived in comfortable time and after collecting our tickets strolled around the Nursey End taking in the atmosphere and collecting our pink Middlesex headdresses to ensure that we entered fully into the spirit of the event. When we ascended onto the Compton Stand the most astounding thing was the total greenness of the playing field following the eight-week long drought. Presumably Lord’s isn’t paying for metered water?
The ground rapidly filled up as the start of play approached and a young courting couple sat in front of us. He seemed to be pushing the boat out with a bottle of what seemed to be champagne but he may have queered his post-match chances when it turned out subsequently to just be Prosecco. This was my first visit to a Lord’s T20 since Tim Murtagh took 6 for 24 against Middlesex in 2007 and the irritating interruptions to the proceedings seem to be confined to a sort of compere who has a roving camera team who pick out members of the audience to interview and/or embarrass. This presumably panders to the fifteen minutes of fame culture.
Sue in her pink headdress
During the Hampshire innings spectators were invited on the big screens to participate in the Floss Slam. This seemed to require participants to move their arms and legs together from side to side in a flossing motion. Lucky dancers had their performances shown on the big screen. One middle aged man joined in and lowered the tone by flossing his crotch from back to front.
On the pitch Paul Stirling alone of the Middlesex batsmen showed any application and once Colin Monroe had started to treat the Middlesex attack as he had the England one in the winter Hampshire were odds on to win at the half way point in the Hampshire innings. However, they then started to bat like a Middlesex side and contrived a collapse which left Middlesex the unlikely winners by the flattering margin of 22 runs. By the end the floodlights had taken full effect and the ground looked magnificent.
We were blessed with a fabulous warm evening and a match which held interest till the end both of which may have contributed to Sue saying that she thoroughly enjoyed it and wanted to go again….
The Morgan Diary
We are treated to anecdotes from the Great Man’s musings
Middlesex head coach Richard Scott has left the club with immediate effect, Richard Johnson takes over for the rest of the season. Is this Angus's way of deflecting attention away from his own dismal performance: letting Podmore go was just one of a number of baffling decisions in recent times.
It seems that Hales is likely to be dropped, unfairly, for the 1st ODI at TB to accommodate Stokes. Even if Stokes were fully fit, which he does not appear to be as he is hardly bowling at all, I do not think Hales should be the one to go because others (eg Root and Morgan) are far less reliable. India won in comfort with 8 wkts and 10 overs to spare. Stokes made 50, but a startlingly slow one off 103 balls with only 2 fours, cf Buttler's 53 off 51 balls, but the batting as a whole was below par; as was the bowling (Stokes managed 4-0-27-0), but it was strange that the two most economical bowlers (Willey and Plunkett) were given only 11 overs between them. Perhaps it is time for Eoin to step aside? I now read that Hales turned out to be unfit anyway.
In the second XI three dayer at Uxbridge, Middlesex fielded a much more experienced team than Essex, yet were outplayed for all but the first 3 or 4 hours. Players like Jimmy Harris, Jamie Fuller, Ollie Rayner, Ravi Patel and Tim Murtagh have vast first team experience, while for the visitors, Nick Browne was the only one of whom anyone had heard. Rob White made 116 from 187 balls and captain George Scott made 105 from 119 balls, but Middlesex then slumped alarmingly from 233-2 to 297 all out, slow left armer Nijjar taking 5-83. For the visitors, R Patel (not Ravi) made 117, keeper M Pepper 93 and C Benjamin 63 out of their 444; Tom Barber was the best of the home bowlers with 3-76, Murtagh took 0-83. Middlesex struggled again in their second innings with only White (51) and Harris (65*) applying themselves as Middlesex clung on for a draw on 253-9, with the excellent Nijjar claiming 5-77 and 10-160 in the match.
Well, my criticism of Eoin M and Joe R worked like a dream! At Lord's, Roy, Bairstow, Root (113), Morgan and Willey took Eng up to 322-7 and Plunkett (4-46) and the spinners ensured that Ind could not match it. Stokes (5 runs and no wickets) still looks way below par though: is it wise to persevere with him? I would give someone else a go while Ben returns to form with Durham.
Headingley: India did not bat very well to reach only 256-8 or was it due to the excellence of Wood, Willey and Rashid? or was it all MS Dhoni's fault? Plenty blamed MSD for the Lord's defeat and he did poorly again here. Plunkett and Stokes went for 84 off 11 between them. Bairstow and Vince gave Eng a decent start and then there was no stopping Root (100* off 120) and Morgan (88* off 108) as England strolled it by 8 wkts with 5 and a half overs to spare. It does not seem long ago that someone was suggesting that Root and Morgan might need a rest!
Basil d'Oliveira has been awarded the freedom of the city of Worcester. He will be absolutely delighted about this because he died in 2011!
Middlesex lost at the Rose Bowl by 21, an unremarkable game except that J Fuller took 6-28 for Middlesex.
It seems that the Test ground in Galle (SL), where I watched a Test in 2001, is going to be demolished.
JT Murray has died aged 83.
Not sure how Malan gets in on current form. M Vaughan says the selection of Rashid is “ridiculous”. I am surprised that it has taken them so long to pick J Porter. Quite a lot is being said about England playing two spinners (or 3 counting JR) in the Test and many are in favour, mainly because they did OK in the ODIs, but Tests are completely different: batters do not have to chase runs off (almost) every ball, they can wait for the bad ball, tuck that one away and defend against decent balls... and this is India we are talking about, where they have expert players of spin and they practise against the best spinners in the world on a regular basis. I am not against spinners, but I do not think it should be our main method of attack... especially against India.
L Plunkett will join Surrey next season.
Blimey! Middlesex in T20 win sensation: P Stirling 60, A Agar 3-17, S Finn 3-21. Hants must be dreadful.
Blimey! Six pages of cricket in today's O, wow! S Broad has a record 27 ducks in Tests for England.
Cheltenham Matters
George moved to Cheltenham last year and invited me to join him this season for a day at the Cheltenham Festival. We decided on the second day of the Sussex match. Neither of us had visited the ground before and so we strolled around until we located a position with a little elevation which turned out to be on the shorter mid-wicket boundary. This is not a vantage point that I would normally select and I was surprised that I found it difficult to see the ball in flight when the quicker bowlers were in action. This was particularly true of Jofre Archer although ironically I was able to see the ball when he returned at the end of the day for what turned out to be his devastating but apparently slower spell.
Gloucester started the day at 42 for 0 and their progress was sedate throughout. Chris Dent And Miles Hammond seemed content to take singles interrupted by the odd cleanly struck boundary. They were not parted until the afternoon session when Dent lobbed a reverse sweep tamely to square leg with the score on 192. The TV commentators constantly describe this stroke as part of the modern players armoury but it seems that all too often it gets even so called expert exponents out. Hammond having completed a maiden Championship century was promptly dismissed by Wiese, one of the many Africans participating in this match.
Gloucester’s progress continued in its desultory way and George left for more pressing matters. Most of the spectators close to us seemed to be Sussex supporters and even they could not get too excited by Archer’s three wicket over which left Glouceter’ s score on a par with Sussex’s effort on the first day.
George looking soporific at his new adopted county
I was writing the above when the following dropped into my inbox
It is our 2nd year in Cheltenham and this time I was in the UK for some of the cricket week. Jim accepted the invite and came to stay. We set off at about 10-15 to park the car, as Jim didn’t want to get too crushed in the crowds. The ground is utterly charming and we settled in on the Pavilion side.
Overnight, Sussex had been all out for 286 and Gloucester were about 42-0. Gloucester progressed slowly but safely, putting on 182 for the 1st wicket. They lost a 2nd shortly after, Hammond, who had made a maiden 100. Bracey and Roderick settled in, and when I had to leave at about 5pm the score was 255-2
Much of the cricket was very pleasantly soporific. Even though the boundary was very short on our side, about 50 yards, nobody cleared it, or, with few exceptions, seem to try to reach it. We did have trouble seeing the ball through the air, though, at different times of the day. Jim is firmly of the view that most of these folk did not want to be playing or at least didn’t want to do any more (such as bowl) than absolutely necessary
We found ourselves chatting about cricket we had seen together, most of it over 50 years ago. A few examples:
“Middlesex reducing Australia to about 90-5 at Lords. Then Slasher McKay making about 168 as Australia reached over 300. I think this was 1961, so a mere 57 years ago. I have a particular memory of a phenomenal catch by Peter Parfitt to dismiss Neil Harvey. It was a different world and Harvey actually applauded Parfitt. Amazingly it was Don Bennett’s day and he took 5 wickets.”
“Watching Fred Truman bowl at the Oval. A fairly normal game until Truman starting to get serious bowling from the Pavilion end and reduced a powerful Surrey team to 61-7 overnight. “
“Middlesex setting Derby a challenging 4th innings target of about 270. Charlie Lee made 82 and Derby got them for 3 wickets, I think.”
“A 1 day game at Lords in 1980 when England beat West Indies. Those were the days when you took Martinis and Port to drink before and after the wine and it’s a little surprising that we remember much of it. But we do remember Boycott bowling with his hat on back to front. Holding bowled frighteningly quickly. (And, yes, we did have the bowler’s Holding the batsman’s Willey. Then, with England floundering about 6 or 7 wickets down Botham hit Andy Roberts through the covers for 4 3 times in an over and the game was won.”
My departure was the signal for great activity in the game. In the hour or so I missed, Gloucester lost 6 wickets for 48 runs and finished the day on 303-8. The game ebbed and flowed after that, though I was back in France by then. Sussex won by 28 runs despite a 4th innings partnership of 135 by Roderick and Bracey.
I’d go again next year.
In memoriam
I heard from Gwen Cozens that Ross Chiese who played at Stanmore has died, he was 67.
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