Ball one: Bears find sealing the win no picnic
Sometimes winning cricket matches looks easy, as if there is a recipe or formula to be followed, but it’s seldom as straightforward as it appears. Invited to bat by Kent captain Sam Billings and mindful of a grubby day on Friday, the Warwickshire top order piled up the runs on day one, stayed warm on day two and raced to a declaration early on day three, bonus points secured. Sam Hain (165*), Rob Yates (128) and Dan Mousley (94) handed over to the bowlers, who pawed at the ground with Zak Crawley in their sights.
The England opener was in, out, in and out again (LBW Rushworth twice) on the same day after the follow-on was enforced, allowing the home side three whole sessions to secure the nine wickets they needed. But batters are seldom as obliging second time round and, as soon as Ben Compton found a partner in Jordan Cox, the bowlers felt the miles in their legs and the chill in their fingers. Joey Evison, an all-rounder with plenty about him, and Conor McKerr, on loan from Surrey and a handy No 10, resisted for two hours but, deep in the last session of the match, Hasan Ali induced an edge in fading light to snare Evison for 99 and send Warwickshire top of Division One.
The Bears breathed a sigh of relief and another nail went into the coffin of that outdated cliche about soft cricket.
Ball two: Pope immaculate against Hampshire
The 2021 champions lead for now, with 2022 champions Surrey looming large in their rear-view mirror. For some observers, the visit of Hampshire felt like a showdown, even this early in the campaign. Spookily, the match played out like a mirror of the Warwickshire v Kent arm-wrestle.
Both first innings had a similar shape. Ben Brown forged a partnership for the seventh wicket with the estimable Keith Barker to get Hants up to a respectable 254 on a pitch that offered enough movement for bats to be beaten regularly. Then Ollie Pope turned the same trick with his No 8, Sean Abbott, and we had a two-innings match on our hands.
After a fivefer for Dan Worrall (what an acquisition he has proved to be), Rory Burns walked to the crease knowing his side needed 243 with time only a problem if they got bogged down and needed to consolidate. But Pope simply slaughtered one of the best attacks in the country, registering a fifth century at home against Hampshire as he bazballed over the line.
The return fixture will close the season in late September and Pope will miss the majority of matches between now and then as a contracted England player, but this was an emphatic statement of intent from the most savvy club in the land.
Ball three: Bazball according to Jennings
Essex and Lancashire, two more of the fancied clubs, faced off at Chelmsford in another match that became a two-innings shootout. While many readers will object to the term Bazball, it does its job in identifying a philosophy to the game that embraces more than simply biffing the bowling, as Lancashire’s curious approach to the fourth day illustrated.
At the start of the day, the visitors were four down with a handy, if not yet decisive, lead of 179. Both overnight batters (impressive young keeper George Bell and skipper Keaton Jennings) were gone in the first hour, but it wasn’t long before Colin de Grandhomme had unsheathed the long handle and then Tom Hartley and Tom Bailey joined in, despatching 10 sixes between them.
Ben Stokes would have set about scoring 137 runs in 15.2 overs – except that he wouldn’t exactly. He would have denied himself about half those deliveries with an aggressive declaration. Bazball is unlikely to ever embrace batting on to lunch to set 340 in two sessions, especially with Jimmy Anderson fit and firing. Once Anderson snared old pal Alastair Cook, Essex shut up shop. Five of the seven wickets that fell on the last day were LBW with another bowled, which speaks to the nature of the pitch.
Had Jennings set Anderson free for half an hour before the interval, he would have been adhering to the strategy (another part of Bazball) to do what your opponent least wants and Tom Westley might have been tempted by a two-sessions target of 250. The Essex man will be the happier of the captains with the draw, having won last week at Lord’s. Lancashire have drawn their first two matches and are in danger of finding themselves adrift of the big boys in a season that promised much.
Ball four: Cruel, cruel summer ahead for Somerset?
Nottinghamshire got off the mark, breezing past a disappointing Somerset team even though Lewis Gregory took 11 wickets in the match. There was little sign of the carnage to come as Ben Duckett (another England man carrying his Test game into domestic cricket – though he pretty much did the reverse journey on his recall to the colours) and Haseeb Hameed added 125 for the first wicket of the match. No subsequent partnership added as much as 50, as the seamers partied like it was 1981 at Trent Bridge.
That said, no Somerset batter in the top eight made more than Cameron Bancroft’s first-innings 27, No 9 Josh Davey embarrassing the specialists with 77 runs for once out. That speaks to a long season ahead, with Tom Lammonby’s 66 in the first match the only half-decent score from the full-time batters in four innings to date.
Ball five: Hill climbs to the summit of Division Two
Two days were lost to rain at Grace Road, but there was enough time for skipper Lewis Hill (162*) and Colin Ackermann (114) to secure the bonus points that take Leicestershire to the unlikely position of leading Division Two. Bonus points are always a contentious issue (and I’m never quite sure if they make that much difference in deciding the Division One title, though they do affect promotion and relegation) and this match offered a bit of a petri dish for the new allocations.
The home side certainly took the bait to bat positively and posted the full allocation of batting points on declaring at 451 for nine inside 110 overs. But when the match finished with Derbyshire 254 for seven, did the two points differential reflect the balance of the match? Then again, would the visitors have thrashed away at almost a run a ball without the carrot of that first batting point at 250?
Which leaves the question hanging: if bonus points promote white-ball style target-chasing and do not reflect the balance of a match at its close, are they veering into “more trouble than they’re worth” territory? I expect this one will run and run this season.
If Keaton Jennings went half-Bazball, Scott Borthwick embraced it fully, perhaps appropriately since he is captain of Ben Stokes’ county. After a deluge of runs in the first three innings, a third declaration of the match came after he had posted his own century, setting Worcestershire 314 in 70 overs. Perhaps Borthwick knew he had a card in his hand denied to Lancashire: Test spinner Matthew Kuhnemann.
The slow left-armer took advantage of Mitchell Swepson’s unavailability and Ashton Agar’s lack of form to make a surprise debut for Australia in the recent series against India and he has carried his form and confidence into the county game, despite the drop in temperature. His five wickets (three clean bowled) were enough to justify his captain’s enterprise and, with six wickets in each of his first two matches, his coach’s investment.
Many cricket fans would like to see Durham return to the top flight. This might just be their season, 10 years on from their last championship.