County cricket: the ever-entertaining OneDay Cup deserves more respect
1) The spirit of cricket?
Cricket fans are getting used to the nature of One-Day Cup: there is an enticing mix of youth and experience in the teams; players and fans enjoy a camaraderie that is promoted by a shared outsider status; and there are some fine matches played at the most cricket-friendly time of the year. Last year’s final was hardly a revisit to the heady days of the Gillette Cup in the 1970s, but it was a tremendous match that spawned homespun heroes and not a person lucky enough to be there will ever forget it.
But then this statement arrives: “Keaton Jennings has been selected by London Spirit as a replacement player for the remainder of The Hundred.”
Why should another competition treat this one with such contempt? Jennings is the Lancashire captain and he had led the side in their first two matches, but has now been swept up by a wholly different entity to which he has no connection and is gone. Imagine if that was your club’s Saturday skipper and multiply it by 1,000.
He is, of course, blameless and one can surmise the attitude of his employer by the terseness of the statement above. If London Spirit have selection problems, they should solve them by themselves.
2) Golden boy Brown Lancashire stifles
It’s not often that Derbyshire feature at the top of any table but, with a 100% record after three matches, they are sitting pretty at the peak of Group A.
The latest of those victories was a walk in the park against Lancashire, the match done in less than 40 overs as the Red Rose’s 100 all out proved every bit as inadequate as it looked. The star of that bowling effort was Pat Brown, who was once the future of England’s whiteball bowling but, since being capped in 2019, has suffered from injuries and lack of form. It’s hard to believe that he’s still only 25.
Five for 37 was his reward from his first 50-over match of the season. It’s not a bad time to be catching the whiteball selectors’ eye again.
3) Worcestershire punching hard
Though they have only played two matches, Worcestershire are the form team of the early exchanges, two thumping wins putting them second in Group A.
It might be easy to look at their opening win at home to Middlesex and think that the visitors were as affected by absences as their fellow Londoners,
Surrey. But there were some experienced pros like Mark Stoneman and Sam Robson in the visitors’ lineup, even if the bowling looked a little ripe for the working-over handed out by Gareth Roderick and Ed Pollock, whose opening stand of 259 in 35 overs must have demoralised the visitors.
Will Worcestershire push on from a dream start? On Friday, they face off against the other county with an immaculate record, Derbyshire, and something will have to give.
4) The Gnoll turns out nice
Glamorgan, the 2021 champions, have won their first three games and lead Group B.
Their latest win came courtesy of three fine individual performances: Andy Gorvin’s five for 56, and a pair of centuries for Eddie Byrom and Colin Ingram. Nottinghamshire may have thought they were in with a chance at the halfway mark after posting 274 for nine, but that score was probably 50 or so under par on a small playing area.
Though known more for rugby, The Gnoll has staged cricket in Neath since 1848 and will host two One-Day Cup matches this season, Sussex’s turn to stare at the satnav for Friday’s match. Though laudable to take a couple of matches away from Cardiff, it’s disappointing that the only Welsh county will not play a fixture at Swansea or Colwyn Bay this season, grounds steeped in history.
Though financial and other constraints have limited most counties’ willingness to play at outgrounds, it still feels like a missed opportunity to take the game and the players to the fans.
5) Batter of the week
Everyone loves a low-scoring thriller, with the possible exception of those in the middle.
That was an unfamiliar place for Jake Lintott to find himself, certainly with the pads on, as he looked up to see Warwickshire 149 for six, still needing 25 to beat Sussex. There was all the time in the world to get them, but that invites consideration of multiple strategies, the obvious option of swinging for the bleachers probably the worst. He must have thought back to his only innings of the month, lbw first ball.
Without the addition of a run, he lost the set Will Rhodes and became the senior pro, his team’s remaining resources Michael Booth and Tazeem Chaudry Ali (12 appearances between them) and a man who had not scored a run for two months, Oliver HannonDalby.
Lintott went old-school, making 11 off 28 balls, running the winning two after Hannon-Dalby edged Jack
Carson’s delivery. Sometimes it’s not how many, it’s when. And, sometimes, it’s also how.
6) Bowler of the week
Jack Leach’s England career is not over, but he would not be human if he didn’t look at Shoaib Bashir’s bowling and the plaudits it is attracting and wonder if, in reality, it probably is.
Swallowing that disappointment and coming off the back of an early season in which he has found wickets hard to come by, the left-armer took the ball for the 12th over with Durham 47 for two in pursuit of 242. Finding some assistance from the surface, Leach snared two wickets in his first over and another two in his fourth, eviscerating the home team’s middle order, Somerset running out easy winners.
His captain, supporters at Taunton and, I’d venture, cricket followers around the country will be hoping that Leach’s six for 26 marks the start of a strong second half of the season for one of the county game’s most popular figures.
• This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog• Follow Gary Naylor on X