SAM MORSHEAD, HUW TURBERVILL, JAMES COYNE AND SAM DALLING look back on the second round of action in the County Championship
If you haven’t searched out Matt Parkinson’s wizard ball to dismiss Adam Rossington, you must make it of the utmost urgency to correct that right now.
Parkinson evoked memories of Shane Warne’s so-called 'Ball of the Century' from 1993 when he tossed a ripping leg break outside Adam Rossington’s leg stump and got it to jag back viciously, with steepling bounce, to take the top of off.
Even more extraordinarily, the delivery did not even pitch in the rough by Rossington’s feet, while the strip was less than two days old at the time. This was leg-spinning artistry at its most pleasing - unless you happen to be a Northamptonshire fan.
Warne chimed up on social media to offer a half-hearted message of congratulations to Parkinson, emphasising that he dismissed Mike Gatting with his first ball of the summer. It is to Parkinson’s eternal shame that, having had to wait an entire winter in a bio-secure bubble without any game time, he took 19 overs to conjure up this particular piece of cricketing magic.
Classy, Shane. Sam Morshead
Matt Parkinson has just done this 👀pic.twitter.com/jKGBG0RZVk
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) April 16, 2021
There was quite a blast from the past at the Kia Oval for Surrey’s match against Leicestershire: seeing batsmen walk back to the pavilion. Usually, the players return to the dressing rooms in the Bedser Stand, to the left of the pavilion as you look out. But because of Covid, the pavilion was brought back into use as it would have been 'in the day', with Surrey in the Montpelier Club and Leicestershire in the Long Room. Huw Turbervill
By whatever metric used, James Bracey had a stellar west country derby.
His match tally of 201 runs included a fine first-innings century and he followed-up with unbeaten 83 to guide his team home. They say it’s not just about the runs you make but how you make them too: his 118 came off 234 balls, and he spent a dozen minutes shy of six hours at the crease. Second time around, he was out in the middle for two and a half hours, soaking up 122 deliveries. Somerset coach Jason Kerr spoke afterwards of his admiration for the tempo of Bracey’s knocks.
Facing up to an attack containing full internationals (Craig Overton, Marchant de Lange, Lewis Gregory, Jack Leach and Josh Davey) on their home patch, at no point was there fluster of fanfare. Rarely was there a false stroke, he left with supreme confidence and the closest he came to trouble was when his bat face and splice came clean apart after a ferocious de Lange delivery.
When scoring opportunities presented themselves, Bracey tucked in, punching merrily through the covers and tickling anything straying leg side. In the second innings he toyed with Leach, deploying a trio of sweeps – paddle, orthodox, reverse – before fittingly hitting the winning runs of his bio-bubble buddy.
Don’t forget either that he is a 'keeper. Like good refereeing, sometimes glovework should go unnoticed: Bracey was bye-less and grabbed a couple of catches.
With Rory Burns' Test average perilously close to 30, Ben Stokes missing the first part of the summer through injury and Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow potentially absent on IPL duty, the England selectors have a game of Test Tetris ahead. That James Taylor was at Taunton to bear witness to Bracey’s hundred sure will help.
For 12 months or so, Bracey has been a Test player in waiting; on this week’s evidence he may not have to wait much longer. Sam Dalling
Gloucestershire's Ryan Higgins successfully appeals for a wicket on day two against Somerset
It was appropriate to see a decent smattering of journalists and new media types present for the opening day of the County Championship match between Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, as in many ways pride of place in the Trent Bridge press box goes to the Cricket Writers’ Club honours board – the list of its chairmen, secretaries and treasurers over its 74 years.
Its presence might surprise those who detect more than a hint of southern bias to English cricket journalism and might have assumed such a roll-call to be located at Lord’s or The Oval.
It was said of the club’s founding chairman, EW Swanton, that he barely ventured further north than Oxford or Cambridge to watch cricket, and to Leicester and Northampton just once in his long career, and even then, they "had to be treated like state visits". So, the fact the CWC was formalised at Trent Bridge in 1947 does at least give Swanton some credentials north of Watford Gap. He must have gone to the north and midlands for Test matches at the very least.
Indeed, the CWC has, certainly in my decade as a member, done its utmost for members spread around the country, hosting its AGMs at central locations such as Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. The current pandemic has forced such meetings online, but I assume most members will still be pining for a return to the end-of-season annual lunch (which admittedly is in London).
Swanton’s power in the game was rammed home to me in the last 10 days while watching archive footage of Don Bradman speaking at the CWC’s 1948 dinner to celebrate the arrival of that summer’s touring Australians, who would become the Invincibles (and yes, this was in the Lord’s Long Room).
There he was on the top table, the recently liberated Swanton (CWC chairman, alongside his very influential positions at the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, and later The Cricketer), sat between Australia captain Bradman and the guest of honour Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The BBC even postponed the Nine O’Clock News to see Bradman’s speech to CWC members, so important was the event deemed to be in British life.
'Pomponius Ego' is how Rowland Bowen nicknamed Swanton, and plenty back up the sentiment. But I’d recommend seeking out Stephen Fay and David Kynaston’s excellent book Arlott and Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket, which goes some way to repudiating some of the more lazy assumptions about Swanton and his views.
Some of his old-school tie associations haven’t aged as well as Arlott’s glittering reputation, but anyone who actually studies the historical record might discover a little more light and shade than they thought. James Coyne
When is a batsman playing a shot and when is he not?
It’s a tricky conundrum for umpires, who have to make split-second decisions under plenty of pressure in the middle.
But one particular lbw decision - in the Lancashire-Northamptonshire clash at Emirates Old Trafford - has caused particular consternation among the professional players’ circles.
Saif Zaib was adjudged lbw to Matt Parkinson despite being so far outside his off stump that most of another wicket could feasibly have been constructed in between.
Initial viewing suggested he was attempting a shot and even watching the replay back in ultra-slow motion, it is very hard to distinguish for sure that he is either deliberately playing a different line or coming down late on the ball on purpose.
There are good arguments for making cricket less of a batsman’s game, but this one is testing that theory’s elasticity a little too much. SM
Sussex’s Tom Clark very nearly enjoyed the perfect start to life with the ball in first-class cricket.
Clark, the 19-year-old right-arm seamer, had played six first-class matches prior to his side’s clash with Glamorgan but never before had he been given a chance to turn his arm over.
Here, with Sussex chasing the wicket of Kiran Carlson on day one, Ben Brown offered the Haywards Heath youngster the opportunity and, from his very first delivery, he ought to have claimed his first wicket.
As it was, the chance was dropped by George Garton, who coincidentally claimed a wicket with his first ball in first-class cricket. SM
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