INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in my “100 cricketers” series, with the spotlight on the allrounders from the eighth XI. The introductory post to the whole series can be seen here, the post in which I introduce the eighth XI can be seen here and the most recent post in the series is here. Before I get into the main meat of the post it is time for…
COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
All matches are now underway, Somerset v Kent having finally started at 1:10PM today. Here is a match by match update:
- Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire – Nottinghamshire 408, Yorkshire 136-2
Joe Clarke reached the first championship hundred of the new season yesterday, but not go on long today, being out for 112. Duanne Olivier, Yorkshire’s somewhat controversial new signing collected five wickets and Stephen Patterson four. Adam Lyth is on 70 not out for the tykes. - Hampshire v Essex – Hampshired 525-8 declared, Essex 24-1
Only bad light yesterday evening prevented Sam Northeast from being the first to three figures in this years championship, and today he went to 169. There were solid contributions all the way down the Hampshire order, and no Essex bowler distinguished themselves. For Essex Nick Browne is already out, but Sir Alastair Cook is still there, in the company of Tom Westley. The sole wicket has gone to West Indian fast bowler Fidel Edwards. - Somerset v Kent – Somerset 147-8
Somerset have struggled badly in this delayed match, with only Tom Abell (49) doing anything remotely significant with the bat. 24 year-old Matt Milnes who has struggled for first-team opportunities thus far in his career has 3-36 (prior to this match he was paying almost 43 a piece for his wickets) , while veteran ex-Yorkshire seamer Mitchell Claydon has 4-30. - Derbyshire v Durham – Derbyshire 197 and 45-2, Durham 171
Two promising young bowlers, Ben Raine and James Weighell took three wickets each in the Derbyshire first innings, a 28-year old who has played little first-class cricket by the name of Luis Reece bagged five in the Durham reply, and Raine and Matt Salisbury, a 25 year-old who has done little previously to suggest stellar quality have each picked up a wicket in the Derbyshire second innings. - Northampstonshire v Middlesex – Northamptonshire 445, Middlesex 79-3
No centuries in the big Northamptonshire total, just solid contributions all the way down the order. Ireland star Tim Murtagh took 6-80 for Middlesex, while former and possibly future England quick Steven Finn bagged three. The top three in the Middlesex order have been dislodged, two to West Indian all-rounder Jason Holder and one to Nathan Buck, a 27-year old seamer who has pulled up few trees in his career. - Sussex v Leicestershire – Sussex 173 and 140-2, Leciestershire 252
At one point it looked like Sussex may have a first innings lead, but stout lower-middle order resistance led by wicket-keeper Hill (67) and also featuring Harry Dearden (40) and Tom Taylor who had already taken six cheap wickets (33) reversed this. Ollie Robinson finished with 4-46. For Sussex in their second innings Philip Salt made 80, but has just recently lost his wicket. Maybe if he can go on and make some centuries he could claim on opening spot for England (there are vacancies at the top of the England order as I have pointed out in previous posts, including this one where I make a radical suggestion). Now to the main business of the post starting with…
+ANDREW FLOWER
63 Test matches for Zimbabwe brought him 4,794 runs at 51.94, with a best of 232 not out, and 151 catches and nine stumpings. For most of those 63 matches he was carrying a very weak batting line-up and captaining as well as keeping wicket. His international playing career ended when he joine Henry Olonga in a protest against ‘the death of democracy’ in Zimbabwe, the two players turning up in symbolic black armbands. He went on to become one of the world’s leading coaches, guiding England to number one in the world test rankings. He and his brother Grant hold the test record for the highest partnership between a pair of brothers.
He played county cricket for Essex, which is where he first encountered Alastair Cook who subsequently flourished when he was England coach.
RICHARD HADLEE
86 Test matches yielded him 3,124 runs at 27.16 and 431 wickets (all-time record back in the day) at 22.29. The West Indies lost one series in the whole decade of the 1980s – to New Zealand spearheaded by Hadlee. Hadlee also starred in New Zealand’s first series victories over England (in NZ in 1983-4 and in England in 1986), and took 34 wickets in the three match series that saw their first triumph over Australia. In 1984, for Nottinghamshire who her served as overseas player for many years, he achieved one of only two season doubles of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in English first-class cricket since the reduction of first-class cricket in 1969 (the other was by Franklyn Stephenson in 1990). With the season now reduced to a mere 14 games it will take someone extraordinary to achieve the feat now (although W G Grace scored over 1,000 runs and took over 100 wickets in his last 11 first-class fixtures of the 1874 season and George Hirst topped 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in 28 matches in 1906), although one should never be over-dogmatic about stating that something is impossible. The performance that made him favourite to complete his coveted double in 1984 was against Middlesex when he scored a career best 210 not out to take his season’s aggregate up to 880, and thereafter it was never in any great doubt. He subsequently wrote an account of that season titled “At The Double” (yes, I have read it, although I do not own a copy – I had it out of the library once).
Richard Hadlee was a quite magnificent bowler and a useful lower-middle order batter, and in this XI he is part of a varied and strong bowling attack. Next in this series the spotlight is on the specialist bowlers from this XI and the ninth XI is introduced in batting order.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I conclude this post in my usual fashion.
aspiblog 
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