Key events
Good morning Tim Maitland!
“Salutations Tanya,
”May your trip to Grace Road bring you joy. It brings back memories of a very young version of me wasting tape and the time of one David Gower esq. for the sheer delight of hearing him speak.
“However my mind is dawdling over Headingley, another of my old haunts. Where if Yorkshire are going to have any against Nottinghamshire, it’s about time someone other than Adam Lyth stepped up, isn’t it? They’re just not getting the kind of match winning, or even innings winning performances with the bat.
”Lyth, who made 106 against Hampshire in early April and what should have been a victory defining 185 at Essex earlier this month, and Dom Bess, with 107 in the win over Worcestershire, are their only centurions. Lyth, with 682 runs to his name sits behind only Nottinghamshire skipper Haseeb Hameed in the Division One run scoring table. Next best? Dawid Malan’s 98 (also against Worcestershire) and the even-lesser spotted Joe Root’s 90 in his only appearance this year.
”But what strikes me as interesting, considering Young Jonny Bairstow’s role as captain and jilted lover (in the England sense), is how slowly they’re scoring when you’d expect a Bairstow side to be Bazballesque in their approach. With the exception of YJB’s 79 at a strike rate of 106 when he was pushing for the declaration at Chelmsford, and his contributions at Surrey (89 at 78 and 77 at 74) most of the knocks of any note this season have been closer to 50.00 than.
”Perhaps that’s an indication that most of the time they’ve been struggling to hold innings together rather than grabbing games by the throat?”
I think you’re right. The Yorkshire young guns haven’t really pushed on so far this season – almost the opposite of Bazball’s hit yourself out of trouble mentality.
England and Zimbabwe are about to get underway at Trent Bridge, you can follow its’ bish-bash-bosh progress with Jim Wallace and Daniel Gallan.
We’ve started a minute before eleven, three slips standing boot to boot, as Holland charges in.
Round the grounds, some ins and outs. Ben Kellaway has exams so misses Glamorgan’s game, but Matt Kuhnemmann plays. No Jimmy as Lancs “manage his return to competitive cricket’. Surrey add Sam Curran (torn away from watching brother Ben at Trent Bridge), Jamie Overton and Dan Worrall, Paul Walter returns for Essex, David Bedingham for Durham.
No Jimmy Anderson for Lancs
Both teams are warming up on the dry Leicestershire grass. Warm sunshine, a few fluffy clouds, lots of lovely places to sit under a tree and read a book. In the middle, Peter Handscomb is wearing his leaf green Leicestershire blazer and has won the toss and having a bowl. No Jimmy today for Lancs – a management of workload thing.
Division Two table
1 Leicestershire 115
2 Derbyshire 85
3 Glamorgan 75
4 Gloucestershire 75
5 Middlesex 68
6 Kent 63
7 Lancashire 63
8 Northants 59
Division One table
1 Notts 96
2 Surrey 93
3 Warwickshire 82
4 Durham 80
5 Hampshire 79
6 Sussex 75
7 Somerset 73
8 Essex 64
9 Yorkshire 56
10 Worcestershire 43
Fixtures
Division One
Chester-le-Street: Durham v Somerset
Southampton: Hampshire v Sussex
The Oval: Surrey v Essex
New Road: Worcestershire v Warwickshire
Headingley: Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire
Division Two
Derby: Derbyshire v Kent
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan v Middlesex
Grace Road: Leicestershire v Lancashire
County Ground: Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire
Preamble
Good morning from Cross Country trains, chugging through high spring, the Midlands countryside all elderflower and ash saplings, and green, green, green all around.
I’m on my way to Grace Road to see the runaway leaders of Division Two play feeling-a-little-less -queasy-than-they-did-last-week Lancashire. Loads more to look forward to round the grounds. Play starts at 11am, do join us!
