The Race for England
If big runs were the tale of Division Two (and they were), it was typical April fare in Division One - only two innings out of nineteen crossed the 300 mark - Surrey’s first-innings 442 against Lancashire, and Warwickshire’s only innings of 392 in their draw at Taunton.
Nottinghamshire suffered defeat on their return to the top flight as they fell victim to Hampshire’s overseas bowlers - the evergreen Mohammed Abbas claimed nine wickets in the match, while Kyle Abbot chipped in with four as Notts were bowled out for 177 in their second innings. Ben Duckett made a quick-fire fifty while England quick Olly Stone claimed three-fer in his first bowl of the year. Stone will start the season behind the likes of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in the ranks of England’s out-and-out quicks, but will hold out hope of a return to Ashes cricket should England’s fast-bowler curse strike again.
Rory Burns had no interest in quick scoring for Surrey against Lancashire in an early battle of the pre-season favourites, but keeper Ben Foakes showed his Bazball-ing credentials as he struck 103 off just 95 deliveries in his bid to retain the Test gloves ahead of Jonny Bairstow, who is expected to feature for Yorkshire in the coming weeks.
Hover-cover engines were the biggest story as Warwickshire drew at Taunton, with no play on the first day. Sam Hain, who is surely the next cab off the rank for England, batted for more than six hours for his hundred, with opener Alex Davies also making a ton. While both Duckett and Crawley (who made 91 and 3 for Kent in their opening game) seem safe under the stewardship of Stokes and McCullum for now, a heavy-scoring opener in the first few rounds could force himself into contention should either incumbent fail consistently. Speaking of, Ben Compton picked up where he left off from 2022 with an unbeaten second innings hundred as Kent chased 227 to defeat Northants comfortably.
Finally from the top flight, Essex hoped to put their own recent failings behind them as they crushed Middlesex, who were making their return to Division One. Dan Lawrence re-stated his England claim with a superb 105 before Middlesex were reduced to 4-4 (with no runs off the bat as their top four all bagged ducks) and then 20-5 in reply. Conceding a first-innings lead of 90, Middlesex were again in trouble early at 15-3 and were eventually dismissed for 210 as they went down by 97 runs.
Runs? In April? Groundbreaking.
1910. That was the last time Yorkshire were beaten by Leicestershire at Headingley. They have lost at home since, in matches played at out grounds, but it was the manner of the defeat that will worry Yorkshire fans (like me!) the most. They were pretty good with the bat, securing a healthy first-innings lead, and managed to put together a decent second innings under time pressure to make a declaration that really, really should have been safe against the whipping-boys of county cricket in the last few seasons. Yes, there’s international quality in the Leicestershire lineup. Both Peter Handscomb and Rehan Ahmed will hope to play many more games for their respective countries in the coming years.
The Headingley pitch is flat, yes - there have been some marvellous fourth-innings chases there in the last five years or so. But Yorkshire’s attack lacked the penetration I expected from it at the start of the season. To have your spinner finish with five-fer in April is not so much praise of Bess (he conceded 150 runs in the process) as it is an indictment of an attack (Revis, Thompson, Coad and Milnes) that really should have done much better. Yorkshire will be relieved to have managed a big first innings and seen runs for all their key players bar Lyth, but should be worried about their bowling. A much sterner test awaits against fellow relegated side Gloucestershire.
Elsewhere, Sussex beat Durham courtesy of a brilliant hundred from their overseas captain, Cheteshwar Pujara. Sussex will add Steve Smith to their lineup later in the season for a top-order that would give most international attacks pause - capitalise on that opportunity before Smith is called to Ashes duty and their promotion chances will be significantly boosted. Matt Potts claimed a couple of wickets, and Alex Lees struck a brisk 79 from 85 deliveries in their first innings. He will hope that big county runs will see him return to international duty should England finally lose faith in Zak Crawley.
There was a fabulous unbeaten hundred for Root (Billy, that is, not Joe) in Glamorgan’s draw against Gloucestershire. Another Australian, Marcus Harris, staked his Ashes claim in some style in the second innings, compiling 148 as his side battled back from a deficit of 239 to put themselves in a position to win on the final day, before some Welsh resistance halted that victory push. Worcestershire beat Derbyshire in the final Division Two fixture, as a run-drenched opening round finished with the Pears putting together 193 for the loss of just two wickets in the fourth innings. Mickey Arthur’s side will rue the fact that none of their set batsmen went on to score big runs, where Matthew Waite and Jake Libby scored hundreds for Worcs. In Waite’s case, it was a deserved maiden hundred for an allrounder whose Yorkshire career had stuttered and stalled in recent years and yet another frustrating example for the county of a player going on to be successful after leaving God’s Own County (see Pujara, Ollie Robinson, Alex Lees et al.).
On another note, it was fantastic to see counties post photos of such healthy crowds on social media this weekend. Starting the championship on Easter weekend is a great idea - most of us can’t take time off work to watch a whole day’s cricket (and those of us who can, with all the love in the world to the county game, would probably choose to use that time off on a Test match, especially in an Ashes year). T20 and the Hundred can be played in the evenings, and interest in the one-day cup is lower than in the Championship. For all the talk of the calendar - and with full recognition of the fact that constantly switching between red- and white-ball cricket is challenging for the players - administrators would do well to focus on maximising the number of games scheduled around bank holidays, half-terms and the like.
On Commentary, and Tactics
I will confess, I’ve not seen much of this year’s IPL live. Taking place as it does in the middle of the English afternoon, my employer has taken precedence over cricket’s most expensive carnival. I did manage to catch the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s run-chase against Kolkata on Maundy Thursday, and was struck by the truly poor standard of commentary. It’s not that the commentators are boring, or that they lack the verbal gymnastic exercises that can elevate a passage of play into the televisual stratosphere. As pure descriptors of the game, actually, I’ve come to rather enjoy the talents of Simon Doull et al.
No, what staggers me is how the commentators on cricket’s premier domestic competition, which has been at the forefront of such dramatic change in the game and the birthing-ground for brilliant tactical innovation, should call the state of the game so appallingly badly. Take, for example, criticism of batsmen for their wickets. To hear batsmen criticised, with half their twenty overs gone and the asking rate pushing 12 an over, for playing attacking shots rather than getting themselves settled, is astonishing. I’m sure many of these players would do better if they took five or six balls to play themselves in - but in a chase of over 200, playing out five balls for one run uses up almost 5% of the deliveries available to make 0.5% progress in the chase. They may now be ‘in’ but if you’re a middle-order batsman whose team needs 140 runs off 70 balls against a bowling attack containing Tim Southee and Sunil Narine, time is a luxury you can’t afford.
T20 is already about playing the percentages. From 61-5 with a required rate of 12 per over, an individual batsman may be more likely to make a decent score by getting himself in, but he also makes it more likely that his team will ultimately lose the match. To put it another way, better to get out chasing a 5% chance of a team victory than reduce that chance to 4% but increase your odds of a red-inker. How this still escapes the commentators at the IPL is beyond me.