1) No hatred towards Hain
When the T20 Blast came back to life in the second half of the group stage, it felt a bit like restarting after the rain stopped. The batsmen want to get on top of the bowling early and the fielding captain knows this is a good opportunity to take a wicket or two.
Sam Hain’s 98 not out was a key contribution in Birmingham Bears’ narrow win over Yorkshire at Headingley. This is a new type of white-ball game. Hayne played a dominant role in the game – he was at the crease from the sixth over to the end while five partners fell at the other end – and he also hit eight sixes and five fours The ball was split, pushing the target to 215, but those five balls proved to be too many. He scored an unbeaten 52 points to help the Bears defeat Derby County and advance to the quarter-finals.
Hayne, who turns 29 this week, has extensive experience both at home and abroad, averaging 58 in the A-list and 39 in T20s. It’s still some time before England’s next white-ball cricket match, and with the first T20I against Australia scheduled for the day after the Test against Sri Lanka (great, isn’t it?), the selectors must Will take him into consideration. That is, assuming their attention isn’t drawn to a hot, lively, fast-moving 40-something in The Hundred.
2) Wood burned in Worcestershire
Lancashire need a win from their remaining two games to secure the second qualifying spot in the North Group and avoid the possibility of the dreaded net run rate calculation. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say “give up the game” as three of their four scheduled games since the red-ball breakout have been inconclusive, including Friday night’s showdown with the Roses, which is always a question mark. Exciting night – obviously, if Manchester co-operates.
In this match, Lancashire needed 53 runs from the last four overs but fell 5 runs short of the all-rounder. Tom Hartley’s consecutive sixes in the 18th over tipped the game in favor of the Red Roses, but Matthew Waite’s consecutive wickets in the 19th over tipped the game to Woods Special County tilt. Tom Bruce scored 48 and batted, surely it was up to him to get the runs? He could not reach the boundary and Luke Wood faced his second ball with six runs remaining from two balls. He hit six runs, which in baseball terms is a walk-off home run.
Wood ticks many boxes for England – quick, left-handed, able to break defensive boundaries and has plenty of franchise experience. It’s a sign of how quickly the game is moving as he last played for England 10 months ago. He has barely broken out this season but he has had time to catch the selectors’ eye.
3) Short and long hits
It was a matter of life and death in Northamptonshire’s eight-shot penalty shootout at home to Durham. After limiting the visitors to 90 runs in five innings, knowing how to control the tempo of the innings, finishing second felt like an advantage.
But maybe that’s not the case. In such a short game, nine times out of ten it feels like winning the boundary count is enough to win the game (in which case things have to go seriously off the rails to see nine, ten, jack at the crease). Durham hit six fours and five sixes; Northerners hit eight fours and six sixes – and they were not going to lose because of it. The fate of the Northerners is in their own hands; Durham need snooker.
4) Who will be next in line for Surrey?
Surrey travel to Chelmsford missing a host of first-choice players but knowing a win will seal a knockout spot. Two of the only three specialist batsmen (Dom Sibley and Rory Burns, also retained) were batting in their weakest form, while Essex’s attack was as experienced and capable as ever Diversification requires a good start.
Will Jacks (who must be wondering if he will add to his two Test matches) assumes that an 86 in an hour would mean it would only take a few hits from the big boys to set a 190 ‘s standard goal on this fast-scoring pitch. Adam Rossington did the same at the top for Essex but when Cameron Steel grabbed the crucial wicket of Michael Pepper , only Luc Benkenstein scored in double figures, and the home team chased the game in vain.
Sarri will take part in the knockout stages, but who knows what lineup will be used. Essex may also make it, I can name at least nine of their eleven at the moment. Fun old game.
5) Sussex’s sluggers keep them in the game
If you want to watch the running, follow Sussex. Since the Blast resumed, they have scored 190 runs in eight matches (18 overs chase), 200 runs in seven matches, 203 runs in four matches and 207 runs in two sets. Unsurprisingly, that was enough to get them two wins and into the quarter-finals.
The front four have always been the backbone of batting success, and like a unit, if someone else gets out relatively early, there is someone on the bench, which is a key aspect of T20 batting. Against Glamorgan, Daniel Hughes scored 74 and Tom Clark scored 30; against Hampshire, Harrison Ward scored 39 and Clark scored 37 points, Tom Alsop scored 35 points; against Kent, Alsop shot 87 from No. 6; against Essex, Hughes scored 81 and Clark scored 72.
As last week’s results showed, high-order consistency doesn’t always win T20 matches, but it usually gives you chances.
6) Are Somerset ready for finals day?
Defeats to Surrey and Hampshire would all but guarantee Somerset a place in the quarter-finals, putting them within striking distance of the finals. I’m sure some fans have already booked a bus along the M5 to Edgbaston for 14th September.
If that turns out to be the case – and it would be a brave one to do otherwise – the county game’s most partisan fans could prove bittersweet in Birmingham. Finals day should have been an event in itself, a festival of white-ball county cricket that showed it could stand on its own two feet (unlike this, it must be said, some of the spectators came only in the final hours) .
Spectators need to cheer for all the players, stay and watch all three games and appreciate how lucky they are that a day like this is still on the calendar. All counties have one-eyed fans, so maybe it’s YouTube live streaming or confirmation bias, but the home fans seemed either very loud or very quiet when their beloved Somerset played Surrey last week. On county cricket’s biggest day, bring the noise, but don’t be quiet.
