First goal: kick off
The big musical opens with a big number that introduces the main characters and keeps us glued to our seats for the next few hours.
“My name is Alexander Hamilton
There’s a million things I haven’t done yet
But just wait, just wait.”
“Swing your razor, Sweeney
Hold on to heaven!
The blood of those who moralize flows freely”.
The County Championship surfaced to no cheers, barely announced and full of apologies. The brave ones take the initiative to meet new people and reflect on those who didn’t make it this summer. There were one or two new faces in the line, but not as many as those behind the scarves, and maybe even a balaclava or two outside the boundary, clutching a bottle of chicken soup. Is there a better way to start the season? Surely it’s worth trying something new to kick off the most prestigious competition in our nation’s summer sport?
Second ball: Young man, don’t go west
Somerset will be delighted to travel to Kent, with the east of England being a better place to play cricket in April than the west. But even Canterbury couldn’t get a positive result, with damp springs causing high water tables in the outfield and high blood pressure in the groundskeeper’s shed.
The visitors had their best performance on the first two days, with Louis Gregory leading the attack with four wickets and Matt Renshaw, Tom Lamonby, James Rue and Casey Aldridge all hitting half-centuries. . The performance of Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denley in Kent’s second innings was not crucial in the distribution of bonus points, so Gregory’s men collected seven points plus the eight earned from the draw this season, A very handy 15 points were scored, putting Somerset in second place in the freshmen table.
Ball 3: Hough’s dark days
Even if the underlying product of county cricket is so strong that it almost forces its players and managers to make the right choices, someone might find a way to shoot themselves in the foot.
The home side’s attack came after Tom Haines’ century-score and some excellent late-order play from Jack Carson put Sussex ahead by over 100 runs in the first innings over Northamptonshire Soon the visitors were nine points behind and had only scored 63 points, so the Bad Lights stopped playing.
Apparently Sussex will not use Hove’s floodlights for any Championship matches this season, citing the £150-an-hour cost as a contributing factor. Surely someone could pass a bucket of water around?
Ball 4: Cuckoo in the nest
Graham Clinton knew how Zain Hassan felt. The age difference between the two left-handers is 34 years, the width of the Thames is different, and the scores are 8 points and 15 points, 5 points and 2 points respectively. Anyway – it’s early in the season and it’s an occupational hazard for openers to learn to take some low scores in stride.
The context suggests otherwise. Clinton’s scores at the Oval were 707/9d, 863 and 80/1, while Zain-ul-Hasan’s scores were 620/3d, 655 and 31/2. Neil Fairbrother (366) faced Sam Northeast (335 not out) and Ian Greig (291) faced Ryan Higgins (221).
It’s been very interesting so far for Staatsland’s future Zaltz, but for those of us unfortunate enough to have watched two games in one day, the parallels are less comfortable. In both cases, the ECB, in its infinite wisdom, requires that pitchers must strive to hit a near-seamless ball after the ball has aged for about 45 minutes. At headquarters, I felt the same feeling I had under the scoreboard in the Old Peter May Stand a third of a century ago: “Nothing’s happening here.” Early in the season, his defense was a bit tattered and his hands and feet were cold. Under the jersey, NorthEast might still be batting now if he hadn’t announced that his 1,000 runs in April were guaranteed.
The Kookaburra Ball will not be used in all tournament rounds this season. It should not be used anywhere.
Ball 5: Pitcher of the Week – Sam Cooke
One of the reasons for trying to seam the ball with a narrow seamer is to enhance the X-factor of true speed in the bowling unit. It’s probably not as crude as saying: “Australia use this ball, they always have terrible fast men, so we’ll do the same thing and we’ll get some balls of our own”, but sometimes people can forgive that Think so.
With Stuart Broad retiring and Jimmy Anderson turning 42 in July, is it time to forget the El Dorado of the gritty, sustained 90-mph man and embrace the middle of the pack? After all, most of the pair’s 1,304 Test wickets came at a pace closer to 80 mph than 90 mph.
If so, Sam Cook was reminded of his credentials with a 10-wicket performance that included a hat-trick as Essex swept Nottinghamshire by 80 in a dismal second innings Won the first victory of the new season. The Chelmsford lad knows how to get batsmen out, showing with 275 wickets in just under 20 in first-class matches that pace can get the batsmen out, both in the air and at the seam Staying honest, along with consistent lines and lengths, is a formula that works.
England will certainly have to give players like Cook a chance in a low-key summer of Tests. At 26 years old, he has little left to learn in the domestic game. Let’s see if he can join them in the Test arena.
Ball 6: Batsman of the Week – Kasif Ali
Cricket fans always get excited when a new talent gets his name announced at the start of the season. Worcestershire returned to League One with a trio of 360 and 295 against local rivals Warwickshire. The standout performer was 26-year-old Kashif Ali, who was playing only his ninth first-class match and hit double tons (110 and 133).
The South Asian Cricket Academy has given Kashif the opportunity to start in the tournament and so deserves due recognition, but it is equally important not to saddle the batsman with an uninvited role as a representative of the community.
He’s a hitter who’s coming up in the game and showing a lot of potential — which is tricky enough without the projections from others. This game once again kicks off a season that needs good news stories about inclusivity, but that’s not one man’s or one woman’s job. This is the job of all of us.
