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1 week ago
12
Ball one: summertime and the batting is easy
Walking through the warm, not even watery, sunshine of St John’s Wood with only the still leafless trees to betray the date, I suspected there would be runs in the first round of the County Championship – and so it proved.
Even in 2025, you will still hear of April greentops, spinners being ostracised from the first-class game by its scheduling and few opportunities for batters to find the form they need to nudge the selectors. But, as a super set of opening matches proves, cricket in the English spring needs only a bit of prep time for the groundstaff (and they got it in the dry March), a reliable ball (Duke’s to start this season, with the Kookaburra held back) and, crucially, a positive mindset for all involved.
That last point extends to the fans too, but there’s nothing like a fortnight or two of the IPL to have county cricket followers reaching for the beanies and Bovril and stepping out for some time.
Ball two: Baker to go on a roll?
Yorkshire, back in Division One and looking to consolidate after so much turmoil over the last few years, appeared to be stocked with a fine top five – three Test veterans past 35 and two young thrusters not yet 25. By lunch on the first day, Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan, new captain Jonny Bairstow, Finlay Bean and James Wharton were back in the hutch as reality bit.
Hampshire needed only to play well from there and, with their three veterans (Ben Brown, Kyle Abbott and Liam Dawson), doing what they’ve done for years now, victory was theirs inside three days.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the home side came with the three wickets taken by Sonny Baker, the young speedster acquired from Somerset over the winter arriving with the praise of Lions coach, Andrew Flintoff, ringing in his ears. It might just suit England, and Hampshire, if he can learn about the game and his body away from the glare of the Test arena. If so, a shilling each way on Hampshire, even without Mohammad Abbas and James Vince, may prove a better investment than that ISA you were looking at last week.
Ball three: talking about Tongue again
Though it’s less eye-catching, it’s much tougher to score twin tons than it is to score a double century – there’s the getting started again, the changed pitch conditions, the refreshed bowlers. But, just as it’s important to push on from 100 to 200, it’s important to go from 0 to 100 second time round, even if you’ve banked a century in the first innings, as form is too precious to waste.
Colin Ackermann cashed in on his decent nick with 116 and 124 for Durham, so he can be aggrieved that his colleagues could find only two half-centuries between them (Alex Lees’ 52 and Graham Clark’s 62). That opened the door to Nottinghamshire, whose 579 was built on solid contributions down the card led by Lyndon James’s 125 from No 8. That’s only half the job of course, and it won’t have escaped selectors’ eyes that Josh Tongue, having missed the whole of 2024, took seven wickets from his 40 overs, chipping in with a nice little 50 to boot.
Ball four: Champs challenged at Chelmsford
Surrey at Chelmsford seemed a mighty clash to arrive so early in the season and the expected four days of tough cricket was duly delivered. Essex skipper Tom Westley won the toss, elected to bat and, a day and a half later, declared on 582 for six, throwing down the gauntlet to opponents possibly a little shellshocked after so rude an awakening.
Though Surrey have produced a few unlikely chases in the last few seasons, saving the follow-on was their primary target and batting out seven and a bit sessions their secondary, as the best routes to getting anything out of the game. They missed the first of those, but delivered on the second, largely thanks to three ex-England men playing at a very old-England tempo.
In the first dig, Rory Burns spent 55 overs compiling 73 and Ben Foakes 76 to finish undefeated on 92. Following on, Dom Sibley took on the Burns role with 66 spread across 76 overs, with Foakes all but securing the draw with a painstaking 50. Surrey may be one of the more Bazballing counties, but they have too much nous to know that one size does not fit all if you’re playing from early April to late September.
Ball five: where there’s a Will there’s a way
Like the England captain, this column has little time for stalemates – just as they don’t win five Test series, they don’t win 14-match (for now at least) championships. But sometimes you just have to take your hat off and salute the unique nature of the first-class draw.
Thousands agree with me, or else they wouldn’t have been streaming the matches on Monday evening, first from a tense Taunton and then switching across to an almost as nervy Lord’s.
In the West Country, Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan sent down 65 and 50 overs respectively as they sought to back up Tom Banton’s record-breaking 371 with the 20 wickets it deserved. Brett D’Oliveira and an heroic Matthew Waite led an extraordinary 200 overs second innings effort to secure the draw, nine down.
In London, a topsy-turvy match looked first like Lancashire were favourites chasing 309 on a decent pitch with a short Grandstand boundary, then after two mini-collapses, Middlesex looked likely before George Balderson’s pragmatism and Will Williams’ experience got the visitors a share of the spoils, eight down. Who says county cricket is soft?
Ball six: stream channels controversy
Adjudged is an interesting word. It seems to be used almost solely in the context of dubious decisions delivered in sport. It’s a word you’ll find often if you search online for “Brett D’Oliveira” as he got what the Aussies call a rough one and we call a shocker, LBW padding up miles outside off stump to Archie Vaughan.
Or did he? Streaming services are very good indeed these days, but they’re not quite what we get for international cricket and it’s hard to tell if the ball hit the Worcestershire captain’s thrusting front leg or static back right leg – reports are equivocal. Either way, it was the kind of decision Sir Humphrey Appleby would have described as “brave”. Darrell Hair will be pleased.
This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog
