G&C 262
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 262
October 2024
Spot the Ball
On the Professor’s Shit List
Last month due to jetlag or senility I only published half of the Professor’s contribution and so if you can go back to sunny August here is the rest
du Ploy playing gently, on the up, into the hands of short extra – the only wicket for a seam bowler at Headingley on Day 3
Meanwhile, at the Home of Cricket (southern branch) the greatest ever Yorkshire batter (give or take Sir Leonard) was doing what he likes best, scoring hundreds. His much-discussed overtaking of Cook now gives him an innings/hundreds ratio of just under 13%. Better than Cook or Dravid but still well behind Sangakkara or Kallis (16.3% and 16%...Bradman’s is a distant 36%). 64 fifties doesn’t look too scruffy either, and rather better than most of the others in the “top ten”. In effect, well over a third of the times he goes to the crease he scores fifty or more.
Watching Root go to work on the first day of the Lord’s Test was a delight. The Edrich Stand (lower) was in the sunshine all day and you were (for Lord’s) comparatively close to the action. There was a bit of a green tinge to the pitch but I think we all interpreted the decision to insert as a defensive move which, at 216-6, didn’t seem too misguided. But then there was Root and, of course, Atkinson. Root’s first scoring shot was a work off the legs for 4 through mid-wicket. I wonder how many of his 12,000+ runs have been scored with that shot. For anyone interested in cricket you only have to describe it to be able to see it. I wonder if that shot beats the run down to third man (another stroke that you only have to say to see) as his most productive. Either way, it has generated a huge number of runs.
As for Atkinson’s not out 74 (soon to be a maiden hundred) the point was, obviously, the surprise. Surprise both in the fact that he did it and the manner in which he did it. A very different No.8 from some in the recent past.
So now to the Oval or to Grace Road (now bearing the ridiculous name of Uptonsteel County Ground) for the Leicestershire match. Unless, of course, you fancy some “t’white ball rubbish”…there’s still plenty of that about.
This & That
September has produced a real ragbag of cricket in the full gamut of its forms. In the UK we have had test and ODI cricket back-to-back which has precluded most participants in the former playing in the latter. No-one seems to recall when players would finish a test match on the Tuesday, then travel overnight and turn out for their county on the Wednesday. You would have thought that most of them get enough rest while they spend prolonged periods out injured. The current list of English fast bowlers on the dole is Josh Hull, Mark Wood, Josh Tongue, Dillon Pennington and Ben Stoles whilst Jamie Overton and Jofra Archer are currently only playing white-ball cricket.
The T20 finals were played out at Edgbaston where for the second year running the four participating counties were all from the south of the country. This is the only “first class” T20 cricket played in England and has become a showcase for non-England players. For some inexplicable reason the Hundred continues in its unique format. Just imagine how it would be deplored by all if it was the brainchild of another country, such as Australia or the USA.
The T20 finals day continues to be taken incredibly seriously (understandably) by the players but in the stands it is a cross between a football match at Old Trafford with absurdly biased fans and a circus with dressing up and drunken behaviour, but everyone had a good time as long as they came from Gloucestershire. Here is a quiz question for Steve Thompson’s Pub Quiz team: Both Somerset and Gloucester fielded former Middlesex players in their finals side. Who were they? Answer at end of this.
The final of the Metro Bank 50 over competition was played as a 20 over match on the Monday after the Sunday had been washed out at Trent Bridge. Another all-southern encounter was won by Glamorgan who proved too wily for Somerset. During the Gloucester innings the Glamorgan bowler Ben Kellaway bowled both right arm and left arm in the same over.
The English white ball champions were, therefore, the unfashionable Glamorgan and Gloucester who in the red ball stuff both finished towards the bottom of the second division.
Overseas, South Africa took a fairly strong side to the UAE where they were beaten by Afghanistan in an ODI three match series. Bangladesh beat Pakistan 2-0 for their first ever test series win against them. In the second match they had a remarkable comeback after being 26 for 6 in their first innings.
In the Caribbean Premier League, the Trinbago Knight Riders clocked up a formidable 250 for 4 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots with Nicholas Pooran scoring 97 from 43 balls. The Patriots took another pounding a few days later when Guyana Amazon Warriors scored 266 for 7 with Shimron Hetmyer scoring 91 from 39 balls with 11 sixes and no fours. Pooran repeated his feat in a return match against the Patriots with 93 not out from 43 balls. In this year’s CPL centuries have been scored by Evin Lewis and Quinton de Kock.
Before travelling south for the white ball encounters in England, Australia played three T20 matches in Scotland, winning them all. In the second Josh Inglis scored 103 from 49 balls, having reached his 100 from a record 43 balls. In the third Travis Head scored 83 from 23 balls, which included fourteen consecutive boundary hits. He scored 73 in the Powerplay which beat Paul Stirling’s previous record of 67. His 17 ball fifty equalled Marcus Stoinis’ record for the fastest in T20Is for Australia.
But this was just a warmup for the T20s and ODIs against England. In the first T20 at the “whatever it is called this year Bowl” he scored 59 from 23 balls, including a 30 run (3 sixes, 3 fours) over off Sam Curran. Then 154 not out from 129 balls in the first ODI at Trent Bridge.
Jamie Overton played in both these T20Is but didn’t bowl in either despite Brook using seven other bowlers. Surely there are better batsmen to fill the number 7 slot?
In the IPL and other franchise tournaments the beginning of each match features a countdown on the big screen accompanied by an excited announcer reading out the numbers. The crowd joins in and goes wild at this unnecessary but popular feature. Somebody at the ECB must have thought that this would be a good innovation for the series against Australia. The countdown was met with complete silence and no doubt some bewilderment. It will be interesting to see what the MCC members make of it at Lord’s.
Lancashire must have wished that they hadn’t bothered to travel up to the Riverside where South Africans David Bedingham (279) and Colin Ackerman (186) took them to the cleaners. They added 425 which becomes the highest partnership for any wicket by Durham. In Lancashire’s second innings in this match Mathew Potts took 9 for 68.
The excitement in the promotion race from Division 2 in the County Championship has been almost unbearable. Sussex romped away but Middlesex and Yorkshire have been in a close fought fight for second place. After the high scoring stalemate at Headingley. Middlesex needed victories but lost to Gloucestershire at Lord’s after a second innings batting collapse. But they went on to beat Derbyshire by an innings with T R-J taking his third five wicket haul in these two matches.
In your playing days how often did you check the size of your bat and did you know that there are bat gauges that enable you to do so? When Essex beat Notts in April by 254 runs and gained 20 points, their opening batsman Khushi failed an on-field bat dimensions check, and the Cricket Discipline Commission have now docked Essex 12 points. Feroze Khushi scored 18 and 32 with his illegal bat and claims that he assumed that Gray Nicholls would only supply him with legally dimensioned willows.
I thought that I was the only one who found international matches and in particular the international breaks in the domestic football season irritating but then I read George Mills writing on the BBC Football Extra podcast: “The Premier League returns (thank goodness, no more international football. Until next month...) and with it, a brilliant slate of fixtures featuring some intriguing contests.”
Gloucester -Tom Smith; Somerset – Josh Davey.
Out & About with the Professor
Well, in the end it turned out to be a very successful season. Not, one might say, a golden summer of cricket, (“summer” being the description given in north Yorkshire to those three sunny days in August), but successful none the less. The club that I support was promoted, the county that I have chosen to support since moving to the frozen north was promoted, and even the country that I support had a good season: five out of six Tests won and a reasonable share of success in the white ball matches.
My club returned to the Hertfordshire Premiership, after a season at the lower level, in a play-off (they finished second) which proved to be about the most exciting game of the season with the best part of 650 runs scored and victory by 10. Yorkshire also finished second in the lower division with the possibility of being overtaken by Middlesex in the last match. A combination of two days’ of rain and some excellent bowling by Ben Coad pretty much saw off Middlesex. Coad is now seemingly back to his best after a year or so off through injury which appears, these days, to be compulsory for young quick bowlers. Any doubt about the result of the Headingley game was buried by a big hundred from Lyth and twice as many from James Wharton.
It seemed only right to look in on the last day and the morning session of Wharton and Bairstow’s partnership was well worth the visit. Northants do not, quite possibly, have the most threatening attack in county cricket. The captain Procter used eight bowlers, and only one (Fateh Singh) had anything like decent figures…and he went for 193 runs. Wharton’s 285 could hardly fail to be impressive – in one over from Gus Miller, he alternated sixes and fours with admirable even handedness. The scoreboard showed the balls per fifty runs for each fifty scored, and the tenth (I think it was the tenth) fifty came from 16 balls. It was a freezing cold day but it would be fair to say that the Yorkshire folk enjoyed themselves. Every now and again Bairstow or Wharton played a defensive shot and a supporter in a nearby seat called out: “Get on with it”…which is as close as you can come to irony on the North East Terrace (Upper). While Wharton’s innings gained much applause, the biggest cheer, the day before was, inevitably, when the public address gave out the news of Lancashire’s relegation. As the car park attendant said, when I arrived: “Us up and them down…perfect”. Pipping Middlesex to promotion is also not regarded, up here, as too bad an outcome.
Wharton and Bairstow at lunch
James Wharton, by the way, is a 23 year-old, in his second season in the main squad. He’s a tall right-handed bat who, as in the modern style, belts the ball down the ground and pulls very well in front of square and quite often into the stands. It would be fair to say he cut loose after 200 and didn’t exactly block it before then. He’s had a decent season, averaging over 60, but then a 285 helps the average just a touch. He could be pushing the opener, Finlay Bean, for a place next year. It will be interesting to see how he manages with Division 1 bowling.
So, a successful outcome for Yorkshire, the Club now needs to avoid a see-saw relegation and, rather more importantly, to show that the undertakings given following the racism scandal will be honoured…it would be nice to be more optimistic about that.
Thompson Matters
Steve takes the train to Lord’s
As neither I, nor by default, my wife had ever watched a live day/nighter before the fourth match in the series at Lord’s was eagerly anticipated. Our four hour, partially delayed, train journey from a very wet Hereford to an even wetter London did not dampen our spirits as the local forecast looked more than hopeful. As we took our seats in the now beautifully refurbed Warner stand, Heather said, ‘I’m going to concentrate on everything about the game this time ... now what are we watching? Is it Cricket?’ Her tongue was firmly in her cheek but, as they say, out of the mouths of the uninitiated.
The delayed start meant a time to focus on the big screen and a re-run of the Brook hundred earlier in the week but then, of arguably more interest, the 2005 equivalent fixture. We both made a comment. I reflected on the fact that the one-day sides in that match were almost man for man the same as the Test teams who had produced such a memorable Ashes contest and that certainly things have changed in that regard these days for England. I’m not sure that particular reflection was fully acknowledged by her; in fact I think it was pretty much ignored. She on the other hand said that she had forgotten just how tall Andrew Flintoff was/is, stating that she remembered he was 6 foot 4. At the risk of entering a period of mansplaining, I hesitated to suggest that he was certainly no more than 6 foot 2. She googled it. Andrew Flintoff is 6 foot 4.
As the umpires appeared for the first inspection, Heather reflected on remembering Dickie Bird umpiring on one of her much earlier visits to Lords. ‘He must be very early 90s now’, she said. I suggested that he wasn’t that old as I seemed to recall he was pretty much a contemporary of Boycott and therefore he would be in his early 80’s.
Another Google. Dickie Bird is 91. A ball had not been bowled but Heather was on a hat-trick.
In passing England won the 2005 re-run with a disputed leg bye/not given lbw. The closing screen image was of Glenn McGraw verbally abusing Billy Bowden - plus ca change?
To the cricket. Australia win the toss and bowl. ‘This will be a tough first hour’ I said. ‘But won’t it be harder to bat later when the lights are on?’ came the reply. Uninitiated? Time would tell.
The most impressive aspect of the modern white ball batsman is not merely their ability to tee off in the way that they do but also how they take the pace of the quicks and find the gaps; Duckett is a master of this. Of course at 5’ 7’’ he is short but in many ways he looks shorter than he is, almost certainly a function of comparison with the height possessed by most other professional cricketers these days, but the advantage this differential offers him and the likes of Crawley (who may well be a thought for the 50-over side once Baz takes over) and his other six foot plus batting partners in terms of whatever these days constitutes a good length can’t be overestimated. Left-hand short and right-hand tall rotating the strike with the odd boundary means eight an over could be fairly risk-free post first power-play.
Self-evidently England batted very well. Brook’s placement on the drive was particularly impressive as on several occasions he found a fairly narrow gap between deep extra and deep backward cover even when they were adjusted ball by ball. Inevitably though it will be the memory of the last Stark over that remains. Debates about shortened boundaries are irrelevant when you are in danger of having your pint of Pedigree spilt in the top tier of the Tavern. It was the first time I’ve seen Livingstone bat in the flesh and who knows it may be the last but it’s an abiding memory for sure.
Lord’s is obviously very different on these occasions and a few drinks before ball one, as a result of the delayed start added to the need for an England win meant that the inevitable anti-Aussie rhetoric was never far from ear-shot, even in the Warner. What Inglis thought he was doing claiming a catch on the half-volley goodness knows but the chorus of boos and ‘Same old Aussies, always cheating’ rang out and stewards seated in front of the Grandstand must have been expecting a call to the Long Room.
Apart from that brief fling by the Australian openers, it was a pretty efficient demolition. Smith who looked disinterested in the field (although I suppose hands in pockets may have been warming on a device) batted in a similarly detached manner.
When the umpires gave a reviewed stumping not out when from the grainy image available the back foot was pretty clearly on the line, the uninitiated voice from my right remarked, ‘Is that the best quality image they can get? And why don’t they zoom in?’ It mattered not of course as it was all over soon afterwards. Jofra was back to his pre-pandemic best and Carse and Potts achieved more movement than their more experienced counterparts earlier in the day.
‘So, it was harder to bat under the lights’, said the uninitiated.
There briefly followed a discussion about any fundamental difference between the constitution of a red and white ball. Were they the same? ‘Yes, of course.’ I said. What is the middle of the ball made from? Isn’t it balsa wood? I sensed a Google coming on. I was 2-0 down but this time I was pretty confident.
Championship team of the Season
The BBC Cricket website ran a survey of readers to identify its team of the season
1.RORY BURNS (SURREY) - selected by 54% of users who voted
1,057 runs, average 55.63, three centuries
Leading Surrey to a third consecutive Division One title will undoubtedly go down as the biggest achievement of the season for Rory Burns. But the 34-year-old - who won 32 England Test caps between 2018 and 2022 - played his part with the bat too, hitting a career-best 227 in a resounding win over Lancashire at The Oval in August and averaging an impressive 55.63.
2. ALEX DAVIES (WARWICKSHIRE) - 37%
1,110 runs, average 52.85, four centuries
The captaincy of a club often weighs heavy on a new incumbent but Davies has risen to the occasion this season. The keeper-batter became the first man to reach 1,000 runs in Division One this season in a soggy draw against Worcestershire at New Road this month. It had looked an inevitability since the opening weeks of the season when he amassed a career-best 256 from 311 balls in a run-fest against Durham at Edgbaston in April.
3. COLIN INGRAM (GLAMORGAN) - 61%
1,267 runs, average 90.5, five centuries
The man they call the King at Sophia Gardens. While Sam Northeast may have stole the limelight early in the season, not least with his record-breaking 335* at Lord’s in April, veteran South African Colin Ingram eclipsed his skipper, and everyone else in Division Two, with a stellar season. At the age of 39 his career-best unbeaten 257 against Leicestershire last month was his fifth century of the campaign and will live long in the memory, though he passed 50 in four of Glamorgan’s past five matches too to become the leading run-scorer across both divisions.
4. DAVID BEDINGHAM (DURHAM) - 75%
1,265 runs, average 79.06, six centuries
Division One’s leading run-scorer was comfortably the most popular pick this year, fresh off the back of a huge career-best knock of 279 - and the highest score in Durham’s first-class history - against Lancashire earlier this month. The 30-year-old South Africa international consistently produced every time he came to the crease, including a remarkable run of four consecutive centuries in May. He topped the batting charts by more than 150 runs despite playing at least three fewer matches than every other player who made the top 10, as well as hitting the highest number of boundaries and making the most centuries with six.
5. JORDAN COX (ESSEX) - 52%
918 runs, average 65.57, four centuries
It has been quite the year for Jordan Cox, who earned his first England international Test squad call-up for the series against Sri Lanka in August thanks to his excellent domestic form. The 23-year-old racked up more than 900 runs at an average of 65.57 - the second highest of any player in Division One, behind only leading run-scorer Bedingham. Cox has enjoyed an impressive first season with Essex after joining from Kent, scoring four hundreds, including a double century on his return to the St Lawrence Ground on the way to a comprehensive victory in May.
6. JAMES BRACEY (GLOUCESTERSHIRE) - 34%
1,040 runs, average 61.17, four centuries, 58 dismissals
Perhaps appropriately for a wicketkeeper, James Bracey edged out Sussex rival John Simpson for the lone spot behind the timbers in the tightest battle of all, winning the vote by just 2%. The 27-year-old, another lefty in our line-up who won two Test caps in 2021, emulated Ingram by posting a career-best score against Leicestershire last month, making an unbeaten 207, his fourth century of the summer. He also posted an unbeaten double ton at Glamorgan in July, a match possibly best remembered for Bracey’s stunning one-handed, gloveless catch, off the final ball of the final day, which secured an unlikely tie.
7. LIAM DAWSON (HAMPSHIRE) - 57%
907 runs, average 60.46, three centuries, 54 wickets, average 24.55
We are now eight years removed from Liam Dawson's three-match Test career, a fact which still leaves many scratching their heads. Now 34, Dawson is ageing like a fine wine. He scored two centuries in his past three matches and took three five-wicket hauls – two of those coming in either innings at Old Trafford a month ago as he posted match figures of 10-99 - and he made an unbeaten century to boot. Only Jamie Porter took more wickets across both divisions than the left-arm spinner’s 54 (at the close of play on 26 September) and it is no surprise he received more votes than all the other all-rounder candidates combined.
8. JACK CARSON (SUSSEX) - 47%
47 wickets, average 22.91, three five-wicket hauls
Sussex off-spinner Jack Carson helped his side win promotion from Division Two, and with the title likely to follow - the biggest reward possible for his excellent bowling this season. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland was the third-highest wicket-taker in the division with 47 wickets. He claimed a career best both with the bat and ball against Derbyshire in August, scoring 97 runs and taking 6-67 on the way to victory.
9. DAN WORRALL (SURREY) – 59%
52 wickets, average 16.15, two five-wicket hauls
One of just two members of Surrey’s title-winning sides to make the cut, but Dan Worrall was one of the first names on most of your teamsheets. The 33-year-old Australian picked up 12 wickets in his past two matches to help his side seal their third consecutive Division One crown – it is surely no coincidence they have all come since he joined the club in 2022. His frightening average was boosted by a stellar showing at home to Worcestershire in May when he took 6-22 in the first innings and followed with 4-35 for outrageous match figures of 10-57.
10. JAMIE PORTER (ESSEX) - 46%
55 wickets, average 19.29, four five-wicket hauls
Division One’s leading-wicket taker makes the team of the year for the second successive season. Jamie Porter once again put on a display of fantastic seam bowling in 2024, taking 55 wickets at an average of just 19.29. The 31-year-old showcased his phenomenal consistency, recording four five-wicket hauls in his tenth year at the club.
11. BEN COAD (YORKSHIRE) - 44%
52 wickets, average 16.03, three five-wicket hauls
Nobody picked up more wickets in Division Two than Ben Coad, while his stingy average and economy rate of 2.64 were by far the best of anyone to bowl at least 150 overs this season. The 30-year-old right-armer finished the campaign strongly with 24 scalps in his last seven innings, but it was a fierce 15-over spell at Chesterfield in June which was undoubtedly the highlight as he picked up 6-30 - the second-best figures of his career - to help Yorkshire claim a thumping win over Derbyshire.
Molloy Matters
Ken sent me these wise words with which we, no doubt, all concur
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