v Lancashire @ Taunton CC2 20 May 2005

Scorecard

Flintoff and Anderson can but Marcus Trescothick can't it seems...the strangeness of the mind of Duncan Fletcher!  Ah well we have to make the best of it, and in Banger's present form we may not be that sorry.  He will be however, if it means he is watching from the sidelines rather than actually participating.

So in comes Matt Wood, probably to partner Sanath Jayasuriya, who is keen to break the worst run of form he has ever experienced it seems.  John Francis is the obvious number 3 now (at least until Mr Smith graces us with his presence) but the number 4 slot is up for grabs.  Will Mike Burns be replaced by Keith Parsons, both to bolster the bowling and the batting?  Unlikely, but my choice I have to say.

As usual, at the moment 5, James Hildreth. 6, Ian Blackwell and 7 Aaron Laraman pick themselves with Rob Turner at 8.  Then it becomes tricky.

One of the last three will be Richard Johnson but then it depends on the wicket and whether to go for experience against youth with 'Freddy' on the opposing side (alongside Mr Cork etc who gave us a drubbing in Manchester).  Nixon McLean would be one choice on the right pitch, but Taunton may not be it...but if not him then we have to go with two youngsters.  If the pitch is not a Nixon one then expect to see Burns batting and KP in as the extra allrounder.  If it is then McLean will play.

But who else?  To play Gareth Andrew puts a reliance on three allrounders to carry the weight of the bowling, he can take wickets but he is untried in a four day game.  This isn't the one for that.  I would plump for Michael Parsons, he's been here before, we are told he'll put it where you want him to and he can take stumps out.

My line-up if it's damp and 'orrible (looks that way at the moment).  Wood, Jayasuriya, Francis, Burns, Hildreth, Blackwell, Laraman, Turner, Parsons K, Johnson, McLean.

If it is decided that Nixon is too much of a gamble then both Parsons will play with Mike coming in at 11.

This is a real important game.  We have to get some points.  We have to win.  This will mark the quarter stage and we may not see Smith until the end of May.  Two more losses will put us out of the running and make his appointment academic for this year.  Lancashire must go down in the next four days and Northants have to follow them in 9 days time!!

The Game

Day 1

So I get it wrong to start with.  It seems the plan was to play Gareth Andrew (so they obviously think he's ready for a four day workout) and Keith Parsons in the bowling spots and trust Burnsy to put something up at number 4.  Matt Wood does get his run out.

However, plans don't always work the right way and KP injures himself in the nets and Garaway goes to Mike Parsons.  There is speculation about Nixon McLean.  Tractor doesn't think he was 100% the last time he played and there are rumours (unsubstantiated) that he is injured and so would not have been considered anyway.

It's overcast and damp so Chilton puts us in.  Wood and Francis open, probably because we don't want SJ exposed too early and also because he knows Murali and can probably play him better than any of our side could hope to.  It workd for them as Matt's luck continues to elude him and he is ajudged (harshly it seems) to be LBW after only 2 minutes and 1 scoring shot for 4.  So, Francis and Burns settle down to accumulating a target on a moving pitch and do quite well, a 44 run partnership looks promising when Frank flips one back to Chappell and is C&B at 48.

So Sanath arrives to a beautiful May day, wet, cold, overcast and 2 down before 50.  He takes it easy and helps move on to 79 before the heaven's open and all play ends for the day.  The partnership looks solid enough but it's going to be a stop and start game if the weathermen are to be believed.  One nice little event though happened before they left the field.  SJ trying to smack the cover off the ball was wuite surprised to find himself holding the handle with the rest of the bat lying some distance away...the moistures is even getting to the glue on the willow!!  Will nothing go right for the little man?

Day 2

Beautiful sunshine at home at 12:00.  A rain delayed start...mostly overnight water needing to be cleared.  There seemed to have been a damp patch 'on a length'.  I arrive in a rain shower to meet Mr Marks and others in the press box trying to decide who's 'length' it was on!

The umpires have a look about 1 and some of the covers start to come off.  Frosty gets the mower out and mows the strip and they start to mark out the creases...promising. Then Frosty looks up, tells the boys to put the covers back and retreats from the field.  We all look around, it's dark on three sides but there's some sun over the square.  Well, there was when we last looked.  But now we've got hail and wind and thunder and lightening, puddels on the outfield and no prospect at all of play!!

But, almost as soon as it arrived, it goes...just in time for the Cup Final.  So while the groundstaff troll about the pitch clearing surface water and covers, we all repair to the CA bar and settle down for the first half and to await the announcement that the match will re-commence tomorrow.

Nil - nil and an inspection at 4 determines that there will be an inspection at 5.  The Lancashire team arrive in the bar for part of the second half.  They want to get out there because of the dampness on the pitch, we are happy to stay indoors because of the likelyhood of losing wickets.  We both need bonus points and that suggests there won't be any first innings declaration unless there is no alternative (we need the win more).  Full time ends and extra time starts.  The umpires announce we will have at least 13 overs and 3 balls commencing at 5:40.

Hurried activity.  Fielding practice for the Lancs blokes...we play football on the outfield for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile penalities start and we're hoping they'll bowl in between.  Flintoff and Chappell get the game underway again and Somerset settle down to see off the required overs without loss.  Burnsy returns to the crease in the mid 40's and is quite happy for his Sri Lankan partner to see as much of the bowling as possible.  Sanath seems happy to oblige and starts to open his shoulders a little, although nothing is really streaking to the boundary on a very wet outfield.  But he gets the score moving while Burnsy nurdles towards 50 (a score he really really needs).  On comes Murali and Burnsy is even more keen to allow SJ to farm the strike.  Jayasuriya seems unphased and is happy to late cut his international team mate...giving Law and Cork a bit of fielding practice in the semi deep as he keeps peppering them with balls.  Burns finally reaches a well earned, grafting 50 as we pass 100 and in the very very cold wind (is it really mid May).  We draw the day to a close on a creditable 127.

A long drawn out and inconclusive day but we haven't lost wickets and they have had to wait around with no joy as well (Manchester didn't even win!).  We come back tomorrow with promises of more of the same and some interesting decisions possible in order to make a game of this one.  Wind rain and constructive declarations in store!!

Day 3

Dawns with more of the same.  A late start because of overnight stuff and then 6 overs on and a bit of time off then 6 overs on etc until we've hit 20 and the floods start again, turning the outfield into a water park and closing procedures for the day.  Sanath goes past 50 and looks in charge, especially when facing Cork, who he probably faced last in 1998 in a one off test and where he mad over 200 in a Sri Lankan win.  There's gonna be no win here.  Most supporters are upset about the fact that we stop 5 runs short of a bonus point...but there's always tomorrow!!

Day 4

So we get prolonged play, but not prolonged time at the wicket for our batsmen.  Hildreth  returns to the CA before we get to 200 and Sanath doesn't hang about either.  As we get our point, we lose our 5th batsman and the rest is an inevitable and all too familiar train of events.  195 for 3 becomes 205 for 7 as both Blackwell and Laraman don't hang about.  Whenever the ball moves about on any kind of surface we are like a bunch of rabbits caught in the headlights.  Put Murali in the driving seat and we are splattered all over the road!

There's some fight as Rob Turner and Gareth Andrew drop anchor but it's only a respite as a partnership of 56 is broken by the little man from SL.  Rob  tries again with Mike Parsons and they put on 33 before we are ignominiously dismissed for 294 - a loss of 7 wickets for 99 runs and when you think Turner and Andrew made 77 of them you can see how absolute a collapse it was.  We were lucky to get 3 points.

Lancashire are a side in a hurry then, they want to add to their bonus points by getting a biggish score on the board.  We look insipid and ineffectual as we allow them to get over 100 before Jayasuriya 'strikes' to get Chilton.  He also gets Loye 22 runs later - no sign of his slow bowling team mate though - Blackwell who doesn't bowl a ball in anger.  Instead we try Parsons M ( 9 overs for 47 - fair), Johnson R (9 overs for 43 - also fair), Laraman (8 for 54 - not so good) and Mr Andrew in his first four dayer who gets the real hammer with 14.1 overs for 106.  BUt he did get the other wicket before they called it off.  Sutcliffe and Hodge put on 161 in 98 minutes during this mayhem.  Between them they scored 260 runs off 251 Somerset balls and Flintoff finished it off with a quickfire 29 off 21.  351 the final score - outscored and outbowled in a rain soaked half a game.  We can't even draw in a draw these days!!

Good points?  We didn't lose!  Jayasuiya looked at home with the bat for the first time.  Burns got some important and confidence building runs and the tail wagged a little when the middle went belly up!

Not so good?  No penetration once again.  No Blackwell on a pitch giving something to slower men.  Poor returns from the seam on, admittedly a slow flat pitch and very poor returns from the debutant who got some runs and then got some stick.  He took a wicket and it isn't over for him but if his fans see him as the replacement for Nixon McLean then he's going to have to be a hell of a lot better than this.  Gareth has to be given some time but it won't be much because we cannot afford it!

Someone needs to give Smiffy a ring and see if he can bring some backbone with him from SA...-preferably for the Northants game.

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