Crucial Wickets

By Harringay Racer
August 1 2011

Harringay Racer describes an entertaining day that gives Middx the initiative. He also makes reference to the major happening elsewhere against " the spirit of cricket" , aswell as what happened just before tea at Trent Bridge. A good read ahead.

Arriving at Lord’s after an uneventful journey (unless you count realising 100 yards down the road that I’d left my pills at home and turning back to get them) the topic of conversation wasn’t whether or not Middlesex should declare or how many runs we’d be comfortable chasing. No, the sole topic was Mark Ramprakash’s amusing dismissal the previous afternoon. A Surrey Committee member was a bit slow to take his seat and was asked to “sit down you’re obstructing the field”.

To nobody’s surprise, Middlesex batted on, Collymore and Finn each hitting a four (Collymore a bottom edge into the ground and over the slips, Finn a textbook cover drive) before the fun was brought to a halt by a brilliant catch by Whiteley at mid wicket from a Finn pickup that appeared headed for the boundary. 405 all out and a lead of 153.

Derbyshire reversed their openers:  Madsen (on a pair) taking first strike, presumably to take a bit of pressure off Guptill (on a king pair) who had opened in the first knock. Incidentally a friend commented to me on Friday that he was looking forward to seeing Guptill bat. Unfortunately he lingered slightly too long over his pre-match cigarette and was halfway up the Warner Stand staircase when the first ball was bowled. The switch didn’t really help as Madsen was lbw to Murtagh off the final ball of the opening over for 2 and Guptill, having edged the fifth ball of the second (from Finn) just short of, and past, third slip for four, was bowled next ball by one that came back down the hill and may have kept a touch low. Seven for two after two overs was not quite the start they would have hoped for. When your openers last a total of 16 balls and score six runs between them in four innings you’re effectively playing nine against eleven.

Wes Durston soon followed. He had already survived a huge lbw shout off Finn before he was caught by Dalrymple at second slip off Murtagh, or as Perambulator Man announced it “caught DAHL-rymple bowled Mur-TAHR”. The dismissal owed something to the previous ball which moved in and only just cleared off stump as Durston shouldered arms. This one drew him into the shot and moved away to find the edge. Seven overs gone and Derbyshire 20 for three. Marginally better than 14 for three on day one, but only marginally.

Chesney Hughes made his first class debut at Lord’s last season scoring an impressive 41 and 59 not out from no 7 after his colleagues had collapsed. Now at number three he found himself in a similar position. In the 14^th over he survived a run out appeal: Tim Murtagh fielded the ball at mid-on: his throw to the bowler’s end was wide, tempting the batsmen into an extra run. Newman’s throw to Simpson seemed to have beaten Hughes but Neil Bainton gave him the benefit of the doubt. Hughes played and missed several times but in between showed a solid defensive bat against the seamers.

Corey Collymore replaced Tim Murtagh at the Nursery End and Greg Smith almost immediately miscued a shot which cleared Collymore and dropped short of mid-off. Next over Jamie Dalrymple fooled the scoreboard operator, Perambulator Man and, I admit, myself by feigning to replace Steve Finn at the Pavilion End. Connoisseurs would have loved the announcement “we have a change of bowling at the Pavilion End, in fact we don’t”. Tom Smith then took over from Collymore who in turn switched to the Pavilion End. Hughes survived an lbw appeal from Smith – he was outside off stump but had his bat tucked behind his pad. A couple of balls later he repeated the non-shot, ran a quick single and collided with umpire Bainton at the bowler’s end. After extricating himself from the resultant bear hug Bainton disallowed the leg-bye making it quite clear that Hughes would continue to block the ball in that manner at his own risk.

Jamie Dalrymple bowled the final over before lunch and his first ball drifted past Smith’s outside edge.

At lunch Derbyshire were 87 for three, still 66 behind, and I had the honour of being introduced to Mrs Barmy Kev by Mr Barmy Kev.

After lunch the bowling was shared by Smith and Finn. Hughes played and missed at Finn and gave his stumps an angry swipe of the bat. Smith was troubling both batsmen: Hughes trying to play from the crease and looking vulnerable to a back foot lbw, and Greg Smith giving his namesake the charge with varying degrees of failure. It came as no surprise when Smith drove Smith straight to Malan at mid-off for 45. 98 for four.

Hughes was continuing to give the bowlers hope of a wicket. There were several plays and misses, a ball squirted along the ground to slip off the toe of the bat, an inside edge off Smith just wide of short leg , an edge off Finn just short of second slip and a scramble to avoid a stumping when he came down the track and Smith fired the ball through. All in the space of half a dozen overs.

JD returned at the Pavilion End and immediately beat the outside of Whiteley’s bat as he played back to a full length ball. We now had off spin and slow left arm in tandem. Not quite “my Titmus and my Edmonds long ago”, perhaps, but still a welcome sight. In the second over of his spell JD had an lbw shout against Hughes turned down, then bowled him through the gate next ball with one that appeared to go straight on with the arm. 118 for five; Hughes out for 44. Smith meanwhile spun a couple past Luke Sutton’s outside edge and had an lbw shout from a quicker ball turned down.  Sutton then did well to block a beautifully flighted yorker from Smith.

Finn replaced JD and was soon the victim of one of the very few fielding blemishes in the innings as a strong drive from Whiteley, on 28, went straight into and out of the hands of Newman, fielding at shortish point for precisely that shot. That would have been 145 for six. Finn was now bowling a very good line giving the batsmen very little that they could leave alone. The few slightly wider balls drew Whiteley into a couple of wild swings outside off stump but he and Sutton survived although not without some near misses. Dawid Malan replaced Tom Smith shortly before tea in an event to fiddle a wicket but in the event his three overs were uneventful in terms of either runs or wickets and the tea interval came with the score 157 for five from 60 overs, a lead of four runs.

There was only one subject of conversation at tea. Yes, you’ve guessed it, the Ian Bell run out.

After tea the bowling was taken up by Smith (Nursery End) and Murtagh. In the 66^th over Whiteley edged to JD at slip who almost spilled the catch but held on at the second attempt. 169 for six; Whiteley 41. Viewers of the CB40 match on Sky will have noted the close friendship between Finn and Murtagh. Murtagh put some strain on the friendship by doing a perfect impression of Finn, falling over in his follow through as the ball was driven for four by Clare. After 76 overs Dexter replaced Smith and next over JD replaced Murtagh. If the aim was to fire through four quick overs prior to the new ball JD gave the skipper food for thought by removing Sutton (27), caught at short leg off the face of the bat by Newman to atone for his earlier drop, and Clare (37), bowled as he shuffled across his stumps, in the space of three balls. 217 for eight and the new ball imminent against two new batsmen.

At the start of the 80^th over a meeting of the skipper and senior pros saw Smith, rather than Collymore, called up to bowl with the old ball. Whatever the reason was the new ball was taken by Finn for the 81^st and Collymore replaced Smith for the 82^nd which saw a confident appeal for lbw against Palladino turned down followed by an edge between slip and gully. At this point Corey could be excused if he decided it wasn’t to be the luckiest match of his career. Palldino then flashed at a ball from Finn. Simpson collected the ball, the appeal appeared tentative but Palladino walked before umpire Kettleborough finally raised the finger. At this point there was a chance that Middlesex would have to face an over or two before the close but the last pair managed to survive long enough to prevent this before Turner edged Finn to Malan at first slip to end the innings at 243 all out.

So Middlesex will start day 4 needing 91 to win. I won’t tempt fate by mentioning words such as “formality”.