Key events
Another email drops â good morning, Jonathan May!
âAn interesting article by Ali re the PCAâs concerns about the volume of domestic cricket being played.
âTo an extent the concerns make sense, given that, after the championship phase, the schedule becomes incredibly messy, due to the ECBâs mother of all disasters in adding a fourth format to the season. You often get the impression that players are unsure which format theyâre playing mid-way through.
âSome complaints donât wash though. Journey times in England arenât much of an issue (compare US NBA basketball road trips!). And how about travelling around in team buses, not their cars, as itâs safer and more environment-friendly? Most sports teams seem to.
âAbove all, 78 daysâ cricket for a county (the number Ali quotes) doesnât seem too much over six months. That includes all the championship days theoretically getting played on (which they never do) and the one-day cup, which is nowadays full of second-team players grateful for the chance to shine. Very few players, if any, play all the matches.
âCome on guys, itâs a professional sport and a nice life too. Iâd swap it for an office job any day.â
Hartley and Lyon are wheeling away, not quite into the dust, the slightly less damp soil. Kentâs target has shrunk to 84 â make that 80 with that boundary from Compton, who is slightly less snail-like this morning.
Good morning, Tim Maitland!
âJust chewing the cud over Joe Rootâs 156 against Glamorgan and the 119 he scored in the last match versus Derbyshire and I canât help thinking it might be really good news for England.
âOf course these arenât test calibre attacks, but Iâd argue Root was the one person who didnât need to be influenced by whatever Brendon McCullum wants the âBazballâ philosophy to be called. He was already scoring at a rate that would get under the skin of any test captain and, more importantly, was doing it in a relatively risk free manner: the nurdling of ones and twos off good balls and the exquisitely timed despatching of the bad ones. Relieved of the captaincy and given the freer reign of the Ben Stokes era, Iâd argue Root became less effective. It wasnât that his novelty shots were getting him out that often, but he seemed to be getting out more often pushing to score at a higher rate than he needed to.
âThe beauty of yesterdayâs innings (foreshadowed by the more pedestrian one against Derbyshire), was that while scoring at almost a run a ball – his century came pleasingly in exactly 100 balls, Root wasnât pressing to manufacture runs. The scoop seems to have been largely shelved and the reverse sweep has been returned to its role as a surprise weapon.
âIf this is part of a plan to get himself back to what made him such a successful test batsman in the first place, he could be about to enjoy a real Indian summer as he enters the later stages of his career.â
Players express concern about the congested domestic fixture list:
Sunday’s round up
In radiant evening sunlight at Old Trafford, Nathan Lyon was causing chaos. With the ball spitting and ripping, and four men close to the bat, squatting on top of their long shadows, Kentâs Daniel Bell-Drummond and Ben Compton dug into their task of survival, and digging out the 164 Lancashire had set them to win.
Lyon, sunglasses characteristically attached to his shaved head, appealed vigorously, but neither he nor Tom Hartley could make the breakthrough. Kent, despite losing Zak Crawley to the second over of the innings, lbw for one, need another 93. Earlier, Matt Parkinson and Wes Agar finished with three wickets each, despite some plucky innings from Lancashireâs young batters, Georges Balderson and Bell and Matty Hurst.
A reverse-swinging masterclass from a zinging Jayden Seales careered through Derbyshireâs second innings, sending them flying like Smarties at a childrenâs party, and to defeat by an innings and 124 runs.
Seales, who was twice on a hat-trick, finished with a career-best five for 29, and warm words from his head coach at Sussex, Paul Farbrace, who said: âIn the four games heâs played for us, every single spell heâs run in hard. Heâs never cantered in, heâs never taken it easy and never not wanted to bowl.â
Derbyshireâs New Zealand fast bowler Blair Tickner did not bat, and announced that his wife Sarah is suffering from leukaemia and is receiving treatment in the UK. Sussex lost a point due to a slow over rate.
Yorkshire flayed Glamorgan to all corners of Headingley, cantering to maximum batting points with bags of overs to spare. Joe Root cruised to 156, his second hundred in consecutive games, Finlay Bean an aggressive 173, his highest first-class score, while Harry Brook and Jonny Tattersall contributed funky fifties. Mason Crane, who took a tonking, finished with five for 152. Glamorgan lost three wickets â including Kiran Carlson unlucky to be run out off Rootâs shin pad at silly point â before Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram dug in.
Hundreds for Sam Robson and Leus du Plooy helped Middlesex past 400 at Lordâs, with a couple of wickets for Leicestershireâs Rehan Ahmed.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Old Trafford: Lancashire 92 and 332 v Kent 261 and 71-1
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 and 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Lordâs: Middlesex 407-8 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 519-7dec v Glamorgan 221 and 171-3
Preamble
Good bank holiday morning! Itâs a beautiful day here in Manchester â where Kent must garner another 93 runs for their first win at Old Trafford in the Championship this millenium. Elsewhere, Yorkshire are on the charge and things look fair for a merry draw at Lordâs.
