Ball one: a match for the ages
Tell 20,000 nailbiters streaming the denouement on YouTube that county cricket is outdated. Tell the grandparents, explaining to their grandkids why they have tears in their eyes, that county cricket doesn’t matter. Tell a 36-Test veteran and a wide-eyed teenager that county cricket doesn’t matter.
If (and after waiting 77 years for ours, a Lancashire fan knows the power of that word) Somerset do earn the right to fly the champions’ pennant for the first time in their history, this match will go down in legend, the one in which a kid, an old pro and a man on crutches downed Surrey, Division One leaders, hitherto swaggering their way to a third triumph in three seasons.
The details seem almost incidental to the drama, the match won in the last ten minutes amid tension only first-class cricket can provide. Legend will tell of Tom Banton making 132 in the first dig before Long John Silvering his way to a crucial 46 from No 11 second time round; of Jack Leach celebrating his return to the Test Squad with 4 for 105 and 5 for 37; and of Archie Vaughan, not 19 until December, whose remarkable feat of concentration brought him 6 for 102 and 5 for 38 off a total of 69 overs in only his second first-class match.
With eight points in hand and two games left, Surrey are still favourites to win the Championship, but the dream is very much alive for Somerset fans and romantics everywhere. Make sure you have a little cloth ready for your glasses Jack.
Ball two: Lanky standing small
Whither Lancashire, as their season withers further in the early Autumn mists? The glib answer would be “Division Two, duh”, but even after a hat-trick of innings defeats, they’re only 11 points off safety. But high-flying Somerset are next and surely another shellacking is more likely than part one of a Houdini act?
The latest humiliation – no hyperbole in that descriptor – came at the hands of Durham, who really only needed four players to see off 11 in as dismal a defeat as the Red Rose can have suffered. Ben Raine (5 for 44), Matty Potts (3 for 58 and 9 for 68) bagged 17 wickets and David Bedingham (279) and Colin Ackermann (186) scored only 20 runs fewer than all the Lancashire team with two gos each.
The inquest can’t start soon enough, even if Nottinghamshire slide into Division Two instead.
And Lanky the Giraffe, ante-post favourite, couldn’t win the mascot race on Saturday either.
Ball three: Fisher in the swim again
Whatever you think of events past in the dressing room and events present in the boardroom, one has to salute Yorkshire’s current playing squad who have kept their eye on the ball to deliver two draws and four wins in six division two matches, enough to lift them to the second promotion spot, enjoying a 15-point cushion with two matches to play.
The latest win came courtesy of a seam attack that shared 20 Leicestershire wickets between them, a five-fer for Ben Coad and six-fer for George Hill, and a century for the newly appointed captain, Jonny Tattersall, whose 126 was 38 more than any other knock in the match.
The owner of that 88-run innings caught the eye and not just because he also picked up six wickets of his own. Matthew Fisher has played only 42 first class and 80 white ball matches since his debut 11 long years ago. The erstwhile wunderkind is still only 26 (a couple of weeks older than Gus Atkinson) so has time on his side. Could this be his springboard for the Tykes and, just maybe, for England?
Ball four: another sunny day for Somerset
Busy outside the ground, busy in the Media Centre and busy in fancy dress shops yesterday if the Hollies Stand is any indication. Finals Day may not be the carnival it once was (scheduling it into a sandwich of England v Australia matches was a contemptuous stab in its back), but this is still event cricket and, with a hush around the outer, the stakes clear for all involved.
The first semi-final turned on a Finals Day record partnership of 144 between course and distance specialist, Sean Dickson (78), who top-scored in the semi and the final last year, and Blast debutant James Rew, in for the injured Tom Banton. Despite arriving at the crease after Dan Worrall had bowled beautifully to reduce the holders to 7 for 3, the young keeper-batter showed the cool head developed in 50 overs and four-day cricket to cruise in Dickson’s slipstream.
Surrey had no answer to the bat speed of the Somerset pair and had to suck up a big match defeat against the West Countrymen for the second time in three days. As was the case at Taunton, this was very much a match won and not a match lost.
Ball five: Sussex all at sea
At 66 for 1 at the start of the 10th over, the Sussex field was spread, singles available inside the ring, men out, no close catchers. The question is, did Gloucestershire, one down, need fewer than four an over to win, or more than 10?
That you cannot guess the balance of a match from a look at the field (or, as in this case, would guess incorrectly) is an indication that it’s probably wrong. Surely Sussex’s one hope was to bowl Gloucestershire out, so why no slip, no short leg, no gully? Even if you don’t think that there’s a catch going there, you have to make it look like you do, pushing the batter out of their comfort zone?
Sure enough, aided by a very lacklustre Sussex performance in all three departments of the game, Gloucestershire strolled into the final, still outsiders, but any XI that includes Cameron Bancroft, James Bracey and David Payne has a puncher’s chance.
Ball Six: Hammond pulls out all the stops
The outsiders of the Edgbaston quartet delivered a second eight-wicket win on cricket’s longest day to take the Vitality Blast trophy down the M5 to Bristol. On a pitch that favoured their bowlers, they did the hardest thing to do in sport – perform at peak under pressure – a testament to Mark Alleyne’s coaching and Jack Taylor’s leadership.
Only Lewis Gregory with 53 could make much of the bowling, led by the skill, control and variety of David Payne and Matt Taylor’s swing and seam, the lefties sharing six wickets at less than a run a ball. If you can get a decent start chasing 125, the game can feel secure quite quickly and that’s what Cameron Bancroft and Miles Hammond provided, 82 for 0 at the halfway mark – game over – both openers notching half centuries.
Somerset fans turned their attention to the Championship and Gloucestershire fans to celebrations with, perhaps, one man in mind. David “Syd” Lawrence, president of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and immensely popular figure throughout the game, announced his diagnosis of motor neurone disease in June and there’s not a cricket supporter anywhere who would deny him the joy and pride this day brought him. Sure it’s only a game, but the The Cricketers’ Trust is supporting him and he stands on the shoulders of everyone who loves cricket.
