INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest in my “100 cricketers” series. This post features the bowlers from my eighth XI and introduces the ninth XI in batting order. The introductory post to the series can be found here, the post in which I Introduce the eighth XI is here and the most recent post in the series is here. Before I get to the main meat of my post it is time for a quick…

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE

There has been play in all matches today, and the current situations as I type are:

• Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire – Nottinghamshire 408 and 160-2, Yorkshire 291
  Nottinghamshire are in the box seat in this one – their plan should be to score as many as they can in the final session of today and give themselves a full day to bowl Yorkshire out again. Chris Nash is current;ly 60 not out and Joe Clarke following his first innings ton has 28 not out, while Ben Coad and Duanne Olivier have a wicket a piece. Stuart Broad, Luke Fletcher and Samit Patel each bagged three Yorkshire wickets.
• Hampshire v Essex – Hampshire 525-8 declared, Essex 164 and 15-1
  Only bad weather (of which there has been some in this game) can now deny Hampshire, especially given that Adam Wheater did not bat in the Essex first dig, and woiuld presumably only do so in the second if there is a serious chance to save the match. Sir Alastair Cook made exactly 50 in the Essex first innings, but had little support. Nick Browne has already had his second failure of the match, and Cook and Tom Westley are currently batting together. West Indian quick Fidel Edwards picked up a five-wicket haul in the Essex first innings.
• Somerset v Kent – Somerset 171 and 53-4, Kent 209
  After a poor batting effort yesterday Somerset needed to bowl Kent out quickly today, and did a fairly decent job of doing so, Lewis Gregory and Craig Overton (who already has some England experience) each taking three wickets. However, they are struggling once again with the bat, with Tom Abell once again digging in but finding little support. Somerset somehow need to conjure up another 200 runs from somewhere to give themselves a serious chance.
• Derbyshire v Durham – Derbyshire 197 and 308-8, Durham 171
  Derbyshire have taken control of this one, with wicketkeeper-batter Hosein contributing his second fifty of the match, and Tom Lace scoring 62 as well. Matt Critchley, a bits and pieces player who would appear from his record to not be quite good enough in either department made 51. A 19 year old slow left arm orthodox bowler, Liam Trevaskis, has taken one of the wickets – and April is not usually a great month for slow bowlers, so I am going to take a punt and say “watch this space”.
• Northamptonshire v Middlesex – Northamptonshire 445, Middlesex 271 and 45-2
  My congratulations to Northamptonshire on enforcing the follow-on even though they only just had the requisite lead – many teams would have taken the cowards option of batting again, but as far I am concerned going for the quick kill is the right thing to do. They may yet be baulked by the weather, which his halted this game for the moment. Nathan Buck took five wickets in the first Middlesex innings, and also has both the second innings wicket to fall so far. James Harris with 61 not out was the only Middlesex batter to make a major contribution.
• Sussex v Leicestershire – Sussex 173 and 308, Leicestershire 252 and 99-1
  If the rain eases off (play is currently suspended there as well) it would seem that Leicestershire have a fairly straightforward route to victory – 131 with nine wickets in hand should not be too difficult. In the second Sussex innings Tom Taylor picked up four wickets, giving him ten in the match, while Colin Ackerman, a South African who is mainly a batter picked up five. Paul Horton has 53 not out for Leicestershire. 

Now to the main business of the post, starting with…

THE FAST BOWLERS

In addition to Richard Hadlee, featured in my previous post in this series I have two other quicks, and of those I see one as third seamer, and one sharing the new ball with Hadlee. I will start with Hadlee’s new ball partner…

TERRY ALDERMAN

The only bowler to have taken 40 or more wickets in a test series on two separate occasions (both in England, 42 in 1981 in a losing cause and 41 in 1989 in a winning one). He is also unique in my 100 cricketers, in being the only one of my selections to have been on a rebel tour to South Africa. In general, since I reckon that players who participated in such tours should have been banned for life I have refused to include them, but Alderman would have been worth a pick purely for his 1981 efforts, so I have made am exception for him. He took a longish run-up, but was no more than medium-fast in pace. However, he was exceedingly accurate, and in English conditions he swung it significantly. Had he been available for the 1985 Ashes (he was banned for his South African excursion) it is likely that Shane Warne would not have been the first take 100 test wickets in a country other than his own, and that series would almost certainly have been much closer than it was. 

STUART BROAD

The third seamer in this XI, he is second in the all-time list of England test wicket takers behind James Anderson. He, Alderman and Hadlee are three different types of pace bowler, which gives this XIs attack lots of variety, especially when one factors in…

THE SLOW BOWLERS

I have two of these in the XI, plus Chanderpaul’s occasional legspin (see this post for more details). I will start with the offspinner…

GRAEME SWANN

255 test wickets at 29.96 (he also averaged 22 with the bat by the way) from 60 matches is a fine record. Even on occasions when he did not take many wickets, such as Australia 2010-11, he bowled economically – and his 15 wickets at 39.80 in that series looks magnificent when put alongside the truly beastly combined analysis of 5-666 recorded in the same series by Australia’s spinners. Among England slow bowlers only Derek Underwood took more test wickets. Swann was a genuine spinner who gave the ball a real rip. We finish our eighth XI with a slow left-armer…

LINSEY SMITH

She has recently turned 24, and her international experience is limited to eight T20Is, but her record in those stands at 11 wickets at 15.09 a piece, with a best of 3-18. England Women are currently very well stocked with young spin bowlers (there are at least four aged 24 or younger who have shown signs of serious skill), but she should continue to get opportunities, and is definitely young enough to still be improving.

INTRODUCING THE NINTH XI

Here is my ninth XI in batting order:

1. Danielle Wyatt
2. Andrew Strauss
3. *Stephen Fleming
4. Martin Crowe
5. Tony Cottey
6. Ash Gardner
7. Mitchell Johnson
8. +Colin Metson
9. Ian Bishop
10. Sandeep Lamichhane
11. Poonam Yadav

I will be tackling this XI in a slightly different way from they way I have tackled previous XIs due to the nature of some of my picks. Also shrewd observers will have noted that 9 x 11 = 99, and I have called this series “100 cricketers”. I am not prone to basic mathematical howlers, and I will be finishing the series with a stand alone post about a cricketer who completed quite a few hundreds in their playing days – if you fancy a guessing game see if you can identify the mystery 100th player.

A LINK AND SOME PHOTOGRAPHS

Before my usual sign-off I include a link to a piece in whyevolutionistrue titled “A 43 million-year-old transitional form: an amphibious whale” – I have included a picture from the piece as an appetiser: