County Championship 2014: England Watch Vol 4.0

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Dan in First Class

 

With England away to the frozen tundra of Aberdeen to play a spectacularly frivolous ODI next week (we suspect that Peter Moores actually plans to take the squad orienteering as part of a bout of self-challenging exercises), this round of County Championship fixtures represented the last chance for some of our England hopefuls to show their mettle in red ball cricket. Except for the ones who are too rubbish or don’t buy into Moores’ blue sky thinking enough to get picked.

Gloucestershire 134 & 251/2 dec vs Essex 305/8 dec

TS Mills 6-4-7-0 & 17-5-44-1
RS Bopara 4-1-12-0 & 13-0-58-0
MS Panesar DNB & 18-4-54-0

AN Cook 4
RS Bopara 14

Nothing much on show at Bristol, other than the rumoured sight of Graham Gooch skulking around the players’ entrance muttering something about revenge. Both Alastair Cook (last seen looking nervously over his shoulder and checking the underside of his car) and Ravi Bopara failed with the bat but both are indelibly inked into England’s one day team. Monty Panesar continues to underwhelm more than M People’s much anticipated follow up to Elegant Slumming. These may not be spin friendly conditions but little he’s produced thus far in an Essex shirt – or indeed any shirt over the last few years, be it Sussex, Essex, England or smart casual – suggests that he is the answer to England’s current gaping spin vacancy.

Hampshire 400/6 dec vs Surrey 99/2

MA Carberry 35
JHK Adams 65
JM Vince 159

JW Dernbach 22-7-74-0
SC Meaker 26-7-72-2

Another big score for the palpably in nick James Vince, albeit in yet another Hampshire innings that was Kevin Pietersen-esque in its needless self-aggrandisement. We thought he perhaps had an outside chance of being on the plane or National Express coach to Scotland, but it hasn’t come to pass. We’d only ever want Jade Dernbach on that trip if he were invited to go outside and check for a noise coming from the back of the vehicle while it’s passing through Cumbria, and were then summarily left behind. We’d also prefer it to be a plane in those circumstances.

Leicestershire 500 & 179/8 vs Glamorgan 359 & 250/7

Nothing to see here other than Glamorgan’s Will Owen embracing his inner Dernbach with match figures of 31.3-6-176-1. Against Leicestershire as well.

Yorkshire 178 & 416 vs Middlesex 123 & 472/3

AZ Lees 2 & 33
JE Root 0 & 63
GS Ballance 20 & 130
AU Rashid 6 & 43
LE Plunkett 56* & 0

JAR Harris 15-4-42-3 & 25-7-62-0
ST Finn 17-5-50-4 & 22-3-89-4
OP Rayner 3-0-11-0 & 26-1-108-2

SD Robson 7 & 77
EJG Morgan 33 & 27
OP Rayner 15
JAR Harris 7*
ST Finn 7

LE Plunkett 9-2-16-2 & 13-2-57-0
JE Root DNB & 3-0-11-0
AU Rashid DNB & 18-0-69-0

It’s not often that County Championship games can be legitimately held up to be classics; for every Different Class there are dozens, nay hundreds of Northern Uproars, Love Is Heres and Onka’s Big Mokas. But this game, with its insane first innings to second innings differential, healthy smattering of England candidates and incredible run chase had the lot. We’ve already covered it in further detail here; the wider picture is that Sam Robson and Gary Ballance are now as good as certainties to play the first Test of the summer, fitness permitting. Fortunately for Big Gary, we mean fitness in the loosest possible sense.

Lancashire 119 & 284 vs Northamptonshire 164 & 179

JC Buttler 1 & 72
SC Kerrigan 11* & 8
JM Anderson 28 & 0*

JM Anderson 25-8-48-5 & 24-8-41-5
SC Kerrigan 8-1-11-1 & 8-2-19-0

After last season’s unexpected success, Northamptonshire are fast becoming what Adam Ay of Live and Kicking was in the late 90s: the sprout faced little runt that everyone was queuing up to give a hefty shoeing. Their batting looks woefully short of the quality required against Division One attacks, especially when they contain probably the world’s best bowler in English, seamer-friendly conditions. Jimmy Anderson’s ten wickets were the deciding factor here as Lancashire got away with some extremely iffy batting of their own to eventually canter home by 60 runs. England’s management of him has been inconsistent in recent times, sometimes he’s rested from entire ODI series, sometimes he has to play in every single one. We now see that he’s being taken to Scotland for this one off game. It’s a balance they have to get right because Anderson’s continued well being is kind of important.

Somerset 372 vs Sussex 142 & 219

NRD Compton 41
JC Hildreth 18
C Kieswetter 5
J Overton 1

CJ Jordan 27.3-7-76-5

CJ Jordan 5 & 7

J Overton 11-1-35-2 & 16-3-50-2

Leaving aside the manful but ultimately fruitless efforts of Chris Jordan – absolutely certain to be involved in the ODI team, probable to be involved in at least some of the Tests this summer – this game was more about those who can no longer play for England and those who can, but were unable to further their claims. Marcus Trescothick made his first century since 2012 and Ireland/England/Ireland’s Ed Joyce added a further knock of 93 to his already hefty collection of early season runs. Matt Prior once again took no part for Sussex which must be a concern to the England management; even allowing for there being over a month between now and the first Test, they would be looking for significant and sustained evidence that The Flying Beard has remembered how to hold a bat before then. As it is they have a solitary knock of 125 in the opening round of fixtures to work from. Meanwhile his potential challenger Craig Kieswetter managed to succumb early on in proceedings to what we’re informed was a bout of gutrot, and hence had no opportunity to prove that what England need is a square faced man slogging the ball straight up in the air.

Derbyshire 219 & 149 vs Worcestershire 432/9 dec

MM Ali 99

MM Ali 1-0-4-0 & 4-1-6-0

With England severely lacking in spin options – we’re sorry to keep banging on about it like Geoffrey Boycott rambling on about uncovered pitches or the greatest hits of Whitney Houston – Moeen Ali has leapfrogged to somewhere near the front of the queue. The theory being that in the sort of seam-friendly conditions that England are able to produce at home, having Moeen (and Joe Root) operate in the role of holding bowler(s) will do for now in the absence of any quality specialist. It’s as good a strategy as we can really think of, although it was slightly compromised here by Moeen bowling a whole five overs in Derbyshire’s two innings, thanks to the newly arrived presence of Saeed Ajmal in Worcestershire’s colours. His 99 should have given them a nudge that he can bat, if nothing else.

Warwickshire 263 & 152 vs Nottinghamshire 116 & 201

V Chopra 2 & 0
IR Bell 122 & 5
CR Woakes 27 & 9

HF Gurney 18-3-60-2 & 9.3-3-42-3
SR Patel 4-2-10-0 & DNB

MJ Lumb 1 & 40
JWA Taylor 6 & 19
SR Patel 54 & 9
HF Gurney 0 & 0

CR Woakes 5-1-13-3 & 9-1-29-2

Ian Bell continues to be in wonderful form; Harry Gurney and Chris Woakes both took five wickets and can set up some kind of budding medium pace bromance up in Scotland next week. Michael Lumb’s non selection for that game indicates that his will be one of the briefest and most statistically curious ODI careers when youthful cricket bloggers examine it in a decade or so’s time.

And with that, off pop Messrs Cook, Moeen Ali, Anderson, Ballance, Bell, Buttler, Bopara, Gurney, Jordan, Morgan, Root, Tredwell and Woakes to the land of shortbread, rampant heroin abuse, even more rampant gingerness, Archie Gemmill and Deacon Blue. They’re so ruddy bloody brave.