Thursday 23rd Match: County Cricket Review
Today marked the first day with good coverage of County Cricket Pre-Season Matches. So what happened?
Somerset vs Cardiff UCCE
Matches against the Universities are traditional season openers in England but this match is petering out after no play was possible on Day 2. Yesterday Somerset were reduced to 37-3 with Lammonby, Umeed and Goldsworthy all fell in quick succession but new signing Sean Dickson showed the quality he has hitting 80 off 81 and was ably supported by George Bartlett who hit 28 off of 43 before they declared to try and give their bowlers some practice but they only got 5 balls before Rain and Bad Light has curtailed at least 4 sessions of play.
Northamptonshire vs Worcestershire
The first of the County vs County matches today was at Wantage Road as the Division 1 Home side inserted their Division 2 visitors and it paid immediate dividends reducing Worcestershire to 0-3, 19-4 and 33-5 with some stumps cartwheeling:
Things looked better after Gareth Roderick got into his work although Jake Libby had a second bite of the cherry after being the first man out he returned at Number 7 to score 33 off 65 and then Ed Pollock returned as well and he also hit a not out 31. Roderick however was the only man to have some resistance scoring 59 off 119 deliveries but when he fell Tom Haynes returned only to get 2 ducks in 1 innings lasting just 2 balls. Northants have put out several clips of their wickets which I have linked here for you perusal:
Worcestershire finished on 185/8 after bad light and rain ended play after only 59.2 but with both teams having had a substantial bat and bowl I expect the roles to be reversed tomorrow.
Derbyshire vs Nottinghamshire
This match was originally scheduled to be played at the Incora County Ground but this was changed a couple of days ago with concerns about being able to prepare a pitch with the rain around. It was also agreed that Derbyshire’s first innings would be 60 overs to allow for play for both aspects for both sides.
Derbyshire started off like a house on fire with Billy Godleman playing some Bazball. He sits in an interesting position as the former captain who is in danger of his Professional career ending if he doesn’t perform for the third year in a row but he hit a brisk 48 off 37 before he finally mishit one.
Goldeman Pulls a 6 , Hutton has Goldeman nicked off
His partner Luis Reece was struggling for timing and new batter Brooke guest was also struggling but they stayed put with the wicket of Reece finally falling at 99-2 after he made 36 off 90. Guest was joined by the new Derbyshire captain and £125k man Leus Du Plooy but he received a low full toss he missed from Jake Ball while only on 7. Joining Guest then was new signing Matt Lamb and he looked to put pressure back on the bowling but Guest fell charging a short ball from Luke Fletcher who had taken some tap from Goldeman.
Matthew Lamb and Harry Came then built a 75 run partnership until the end of the 60 overs with Lamb smacking a 6 off the last over to take the score to 203/4
Nottinghamshire came out and immediately started quickly with former Derbyshire man hitting 28 off 33 and Haseeb Hameed hitting an unbeaten 19 off 26 before Zak Chappell took his first wicket for Derbyshire nicking off Ben Slater to Brooke Guest before Bad Light and then Rain curtailed the day but both teams had a very good run at it and will hope to continue it tomorrow.
Essex vs Essex Eagles
Essex played themselves today in an Inter-Squad friendly with first team players on both sides. Browne and Khushi went out and then came back quickly with them falling for a combined run. Dan Lawrence looked to rebuild hitting 27 off 46 before falling to the excellent Shane Snater.
Then the carnage came as Matt Critchley and Adam Rossington shared a partnership of 191 runs before both retired not out after hitting centuries. Browne and Khushi returned but oddly Browne scored 9 and the retired not out while Khushi scored 30. Rymell and Buttleman then joined together to shared a 27 run stand but when Rymell was out he just stayed put and started from 0 again. Obviously it had been decided that no-one else wanted a bat today and they closed after only 57 overs on 334/4.
I will hopefully be doing these recaps as often as possible throughout the season so your support through Free Subscriptions or Pledges (when I work out what I would offer for any paid content) would be greatly appreciated.