Tag: Butterflies

All Time XIs – England Every Decade

A quirky all time XI and some photographs.

Welcome to another quirky take on the all time XIs theme. This time I pick an England XI (plus twelfthy) in which every decade of test history is represented at least once.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Jack Hobbs (right handed opening batter, 1900s-1930s). At the time of his retirement he was the leading run scorer in test history, and he still holds the England records for Ashes runs (3,636) and centuries (12).
  2. Herbert Sutcliffe (right handed opening batter, 1920s-30s). The only England batter to finish a career that spanned at least 20 test matches with an average above 60 (60.73).
  3. *WG Grace (right handed batter, right arm bowler of various types through bhis career, captain, 1880s-1890s). Made his debut for England in the first ever test match on English soil in 1880, and although he was already 32 by then he remained a formidable opponent for the next 19 years.
  4. Ken Barrington (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner, 1950s-60s). Averaged just short of 59 with the bat, including a career best of 256 against Australia.
  5. Wally Hammond (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, ace slip fielder, 1920s-1940s). The first ever to score as many as 7,000 test runs. In the 1928-9 Ashes he scored 905 runs at 113.125, four years later he was joint leading run scorer for the series with 440 at 55.00, a performance followed up by scoring 227 and then 336* in two tests in New Zealand.
  6. +Les Ames (wicket keeper, right handed batter, 1930s). He averaged over 40 with the bat in test cricket and was also a top notch wicket keeper. Late in his career lumbago prevented him from keeping wicket, but he played on for Kent as a specialist batter, with Godfrey Evans maintaining the succession of great Kent keepers, going back to Tylecote in the 1880s.
  7. Ian Botham (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, ace slip fielder, 1970s-1990s). I have placed him in the position from which he scored both of his legendary centuries in the 1981 Ashes. His last bow at international level was the 1992 World Cup – he retired from all competitive cricket part way through the 1993 home season when he realized that England would not be picking him again.
  8. Jim Laker (off spinner, right handed lower order batter, 1940s-50s). Perhaps the greatest of all orthodox off spinners, most famous for his destruction of the 1956 Australians. It is also noteworthy, especially in view of the generally awful record of English off spinners down under, that he took 15 economical wickets for a thoroughly beaten England in 1958-9.
  9. Syd Barnes (right arm fast-medium bowler , right handed lower order batter, 1900s-1910s). 189 wickets at 16.43 in just 27 test matches makes its own case for his inclusion.
  10. Hedley Verity (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed lower order batter, 1930s). Even in a decade of doped pitches and Bradman’s batting he claimed 144 test wickets at 24 each, while in FC cricket he was an absolute destroyer, paying less than 15 a piece for his wickets.
  11. James Anderson (right arm fast medium bowler, left handed lower order batter, 2000s-2020s). England’s all time leading test wicket taker.
  12. George Ulyett (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, 1870s-1880s). The fast bowling all rounder was part of the earliest period of England’s international cricket history and could replace anyone save Ames without massively weakening the side – he once scored 149 in a test match, opening the batting, while his best bowling figures at that level were 7-36.

This side has a powerful batting line up, and a strong and well varied bowling attack. There is no front line leg spinner, and no left arm quick bowler, and no genuinely fast bowler, but nonetheless it is a pretty good side.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A two part photo gallery today…

We start with some images from work yesterday – lots 638-43 inclusive in the October auction.
We finish with pictures I have taken while out and about yesterday and today.

From The Archives – U to X

A look back at the all time XIs I produced for the letters U, V, W and X last year, the last of them OTD last year, with some extra comments and one change. Also a fine photo gallery.

One of the things I have been doing on this blog lately is looking back at the cricketing trip through the alphabet that I took this time last year. In this post I look back at four of the posts on that journey.

THE LETTER U

In retrospect I should have mentioned left arm medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat. His very ordinary international record means he deserves no more than an honourable mention, but he deserves that much. I did give Andrew Umeed, an opening batter and occasional leg spinner, an honourable mention, and although Somerset as a whole struggled in the One Day Cup, never coming close to qualifying for a knockout slot, he had a quite superb tournament, scoring 613 runs with the bat. If he gets a county championship place in the strength of this and delivers in that competition as well he will represent a genuine threat to Imam Ul-Haq or Taufeeq Umar, but for the moment he has justified my giving him a mention. The XI in batting order remains: Taufeeq Umar, G Ulyett, Imam Ul-Haq, Inzamam Ul-Haq, *Misbah Ul-Haq, PR Umrigar, +Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Umran Malik, DL Underwood, M Ur Rahman. Please read the full post before commenting on my selections.

THE LETTER V

No new information has come to light relating to this letter, and I remain happy with my selections. I admit that the batting looks precarious with Vaas at seven, but point out that while sides who are powerful in bowling and not quite so strong in batting have been big winners (1930s Yorkshire, 1950s Surrey etc) very few sides have been big winners with batting but a lack of bowling. This XI in batting order is: M Vandort, J Vine, *MP Vaughan, GR Viswanath, DB Vengsarkar, +K Verreynne, C Vaas, AE Vogler, H Verity, W Voce, V Van der Bijl. The full post can be viewed here.

THE LETTER W

I regard the 2023 Ashes, yet another away series in which D Warner did not deliver with the bat, as full vindication of my decision not to pick. I should have given Chris Woakes an honourable mention, but I still prefer Woods in the number seven slot. Everyone I selected deserved their places, though Willis and Walsh are a toss up for the no11 slot – I wanted Bill Whitty with his left arm to give the attack extra variation. The XI in batting order remains: FE Woolley, *FMM Worrell, E de C Weekes, CL Walcott, SR Waugh, +BJ Watling, SMJ Woods, SK Warne, JH Wardle, WJ Whitty, RGD Willis. The full post can be viewed here.
Footnote: Wasim Akram was in the As XI, and the Ys had greater need than the Ws, so Waqar Younis was held back for that letter.

THE LETTER X

This XI has changed since I created it OTD last year – Kiwi off spinner Xara Jetly has emerged in no uncertain terms, and she replaces MaX Waller in the number slot. The XI thus reads: MaX O’Dowd, MaX Holden, ER DeXter, *AF KippaX, SJE LoXton, AXar Patel, XC Balaskas, RK OXenham, +T BoX, MaX Walker, XC Jetly. The original post can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

This is one of a large number of Hornby and other railway models that will be going under the hammer in James & Sons October sale.

England Women’s Squads For Upcoming Series Against Sri Lanka

A look at the England Women’s squads for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and a huge photo gallery.

This post looks at the England Women’s Squads for the ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka.

THE SQUADS

These are the squads courtesy of the cricket section of the BBC website:

T20: Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt.

ODI: Heather Knight (captain) Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Nat Sciver-Brunt.

THOUGHTS ON THE SQUADS

Sophie Ecclestone is being rested for these series on grounds of workload management, which is also why Nat Sciver-Brunt is only playing the ODI series. Beaumont in spite of her recent record breaking innings in The Hundred remains out of favour in T20Is. Among the inclusions the biggest news is the presence in both squads of Mahika Gaur, a 17 year old pace bowler. The T20I squad offers the possibility of all three of Gaur, Lauren Filer and Issy Wong playing together which would be quite something. There is also a maiden call up for Bess Heath, a 21 year old wicket keeper who will be second in line behind Amy Jones. I am not a fan of this particular selection – I would have preferred to see Rhianna Southby or Eleanor Threlkeld got this spot. Overall I am happy enough with these selections, and I am confident that England can win both series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a large photo gallery to finish with…

This sequence of pictures illustrate amply why I have dubbed this structure “Cormorant Platform”.

Two From The Archives

A look back at my all time R and S XIs, with some comments mentioning developments in the year since they were produced that might lead to alterations, a brief comment on Stokes’ ODI ‘unretirement’ and a large photo gallery.

This post looks back at the two posts I created on the 15th and 16th of August last year, with comments bringing them up to date, with a sidelight on a recent development.

THE LETTER R

On August 15th 2022 I published my all time XI of players with surnames beginning with R. I see no need to change this XI just yet. Please visit the full post, but for the record the XI is C Rogers (Australia), BA Richards (South Africa), IVA Richards (WI), JE Root (Eng), KS Ranjitsinhji (Eng), *RWV Robins (Eng), +RC Russell (Eng), AME Roberts (WI), KG Rabada (South Africa), W Rhodes (Eng), T Richardson (Eng). However, last year when looking at the honourable mentions I said among other things:

“James Rew of Somerset is going places in a big way – at the age of 18 he already has centuries in both first class and list A cricket. I would be very surprised if a version of this XI in ten years from now did not feature him.”.

Rew has come on apace since that comment and is already knocking at the door. At the age 19 Rew now has 1,373 FC runs at 52.80, with six centuries and a best of 221, his List A record reads 572 runs at 31.77 with 2 centuries and 1 other fifty, best 114, and one solitary T20 appearance in which he hit 47 off 35 balls. I am not yet rewriting the XI to include him, but if he gets his chance at the highest level and takes it then for all his historic significance and undoubted class Ranjitsinhji will be in danger.

THE LETTER S

This post was created OTD last year, and was arguably the most wide ranging in the whole series. The XI for the record was AJ Strauss, H Sutcliffe, *GC Smith, SPD Smith’ =KC Sangakkara, G St AS Sobers, BA Stokes, GTS Stevens, M Starc, JB Statham, D Steyn. Ben Stokes has emerged as a challenger to Graeme Smith for the captaincy of this side in the time since I first created it. Also Rhianna Southby has demonstrated herself to be a superb wicket keeper, although accommodating her will be tough – the best option would probably be to drop Greville Stevens and put her in at number eight. If she keeps up her current keeping standards I will certainly have to find a way to get her in and leave Sangakkara to play as a specialist batter. One possibility would be to drop Strauss, open with G Smith and Sutcliffe, play one or other of Sobers or Sangakkara at three and slot Southby in at seven or eight (in the latter case, moving Stevens up one).

STOKES’ ODI ‘UNRETIREMENT’

Ben Stokes has come out of ODI retirement to play the 2023 World Cup as a specialist batter. I can the see the appeal for both him and England,, but him being in the team as a specialist batter does reduce flexibility.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Similar Names, Different Players

An XI comprising pairs of players (and one threesome) who have similar names but are otherwise different and a fine photo gallery.

This XI comprises players (mainly pairs and one threesome) who share at least a surname but are otherwise very different. I disallowed most of the really common surnames such as Smith or Jones, and similarly ignored names such as Khan, Mohammad or Singh. Also, with the exception of two members of threesome none of these cricketers come from the same family.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Bert Sutcliffe (New Zealand, left handed opening batter). An attack minded opening batter who was capable of utter dominance on his day. The New Zealand first class record is his with 385, in a total of 500 all out.
  2. Herbert Sutcliffe (England, right handed opening batter). Much more defensively minded than his opening partner, a complete contrast in style.
  3. CAG ‘Jack’ Russell (England, right handed batter). We will meet the other ‘Jack’ Russell further down the order. This one had a fine but very brief test career in the course of which he became the first English batter to score twin tons in a test match.
  4. JT Brown, Driffield (Right handed batter, England). The other JT Brown, from Darfield, who will be meeting later actually overlapped with this one. This JT Brown was the first Yorkshire batter ever to top 300, and his test highlights include a match and Ashes winning innings of 140 at the end of the 1894-5 series, which was played from this position in the order, though he usually opened for Yorkshire. He also scored a superb 163 for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s in 1900, the top individual score in a successful chase of 501.
  5. Syd Gregory (Australia, right handed batter, superb fielder). He was the second player ever to score a test double hundred, though his came in ultimately losing cause at Sydney in 1894.
  6. *James Langridge the elder (England, left handed batter, left arm orthodox spin bowler). We will be meeting James Langridge the younger further down the order. This James Langridge averaged 35 with the bat and 22 with the ball in FC cricket, though his England opportunities were limited by the presence of Hedley Verity who always had first dibs on the left arm spinner’s slot. I nominate this James Langridge as captain of the XI.
  7. +RC ‘Jack’ Russell (England, left handed batter, wicket keeper). A great wicket keeper, and a far better bat than he was often given credit for.
  8. Jack Gregory (Australia, left handed batter, right arm fast bowler). One of the finest bowling all rounders ever to play the game, part of the first great pair of fast bowlers to feature at test level, along with Ted McDonald and his batting highlights included a 70 minute century against South Africa.
  9. Danielle Gregory (Surrey, leg spin bowler, right handed lower order batter). The last three players in this order haven’t got an international cap between them, but Gregory is one of the two who could still change that. She is a fine bowler, but England women are extremely well equipped in the spin bowling department.
  10. James Langridge the younger (Somerset, left arm medium pacer, left handed batter). Made his first team debut in the current edition of the One Day Cup.
  11. JT Brown, Darfield (right arm fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). A brief career of 30 matches which yielded him 97 wickets at 21.35, with a best of 8-40.

This side has a good batting line up, with everyone down to Jack Gregory at eight capable of major contributions, and the bowling line up, with Jack Gregory, James Langridge the younger and JT Brown, Darfield to bowl seam/ pace and Danielle Gregory and James Langridge the elder a contrasting pair of spinners also looks good.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Adam Gilchrist and West Indies fast bowler Roy Gilchrist were a possible alternative way to fill the keeper’s slot, but even it was a nickname in each case rather than a given one I thought that the two ‘Jack Russells’ was more in keeping with the spirit of the exercise, and also Roy Gilchrist’s discipline was a cause for concern which could only have been addressed by cheating slightly and including Frank Worrell as captain with the other half of the pairing being Australian seamer Daniel Worrall. A. nother possible quibble cook was Bobby Abel and Tom Abell. I could have had a pair of Nottingham born all rounders in John and Jenny Gunn, but felt that Jenny’s bowling was unlikely to be serious factor and that her batting was not enough to warrant selection on its own. I mentioned in the introduction that I tried to avoid really common names, with the exception of the two JT Browns who shared initials as well as a surname, and were usually distinguished by reference to their localities, Driffield and Darfield as I did.

FINISHING TOUCHES

While I have been typing this a match in the Hundred (Women’s) has been going on between Welsh Fire and Trent Rockets. Fire batted first and scored a massive 181-4, an innings dominated by Tammy Beaumont whose 118 is the highest score by anyone, male or female, in the history of the competition. Rockets have got away to a fast start in response, so we may have a classic in the making.

On this day last year I produced my all time Qs XI.

I am starting my usual sign off with a single standalone picture that comes with a story…

This creature, a dragonfly or damselfly of some description had got itself stuck in my house, and I helped it to extricate itself, opening the window closest to where it had ended up and ushering in the direction of said window. When it flew out and away I closed the window. Now for the rest of my usual sign off…

Slow Pitch Produces Two Contrasting Fixtures in The Hundred

A look at the contrasting fixtures yesterday involving Welsh Fire and Southern Brave, the women’s match was an absolute classic, the men’s the reverse. Also a link back to my all time Ps XI which contained a bonus featured of an all time left handed XI.

Yesterday saw Welsh Fire and Southern Brave facing off in The Hundred. This post looks back at the two matches.

A TO THE WIRE CLASSIC

The Women’s match was an absolute classic. Welsh Fire batted first and tallied 144-5 from their 100 balls. Sophia Dunkley struck a superb 50 and Sarah Bryce 44 not out. Things looked decent for the Braves while Mandhana and Bouchier were going well, but then a collapse set in. Georgia Adams, who had earlier taken 2-22 with the ball scored a very rapid 40, but after she was out with nine runs still needed it got very tense indeed. Two players, Kalea Moore and Rhianna Southby were run out in the process of getting Maitlan Brown, Brave’s best remaining hope of winning the match on strike. Brown levelled the scores off the penultimate ball of the match, and then a scampered leg bye after an LBW shout was turned down (Fire had no review left to use) finally saw the Braves home.

A DISASTER CLASS BY WELSH FIRE MEN

The second match of the double header, the men’s game, was the dampest of damp squibs. Save for Stevie Eskinazi no one batted decently for the Fire, and while the lowlight of the innings was unquestionably provided by Ben Green (10 runs off 17 balls in this most rapid fire of formats) he was also involved in the only highlight of this drab innings, becoming the first victim of a birthday hat trick for Tymal Mills (emulating Peter Siddle at the Gabba in 2010 in achieving such a feat on this anniversary, though Siddle’s outranks his, coming as it did in an Ashes test match) on the 98th, 99th and 100th balls, the other two victims being Pakistani pace aces and tailenders Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi. This left Welsh Fire with a beggarly 87 to defend, and the Braves made it look very easy indeed, getting home with a preposterous 41 balls to spare, and for the loss of only one wicket.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES

August 13th is International Left Handers Day, which means that my all time Ps XI, created OTD last year came with a bonus feature of an all left handed XI. Feel free to comment on either XI, though I would appreciate it if you read the whole original post before doing so. The two XIs featured a year ago were:

LH in batting order: *G Smith, AN Cook, BC Lara, RG Pollock, FE Woolley, G St A Sobers, +AC Gilchrist, Wasim Akram, AK Davidson, MG Johnson, H Verity. Note on this one – Stokes had to be disqualified because his bowling, far too significant to be overlooked, is done with his right hand, and similarly Hirst and Rhodes, the Kirkheaton twins, batted right handed and again in neither case can this part of their game be ignored.

The Ps in batting order: A Petersen, WH Ponsford, RT Ponting, RG Pollock, KP Pietersen, +R Pant, *MJ Procter, S Pollock, PM Pollock, CWL Parker, EAE Prasanna.

Now for my usual sign off…

Nat Sciver-Brunt’s Spectacular Finish

A look at the game in the Hundred (women’s) between London Spirit and Trent Rockets that happened earlier today, with special emphasis on the spectacular finish provided by Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Earlier today London Spirit took on Trent Rockets in the Hundred (Women’s). The game was a good one although it came to a premature end due to an amazing display of hitting from Nat Sciver-Brunt for the Rockets.

THE SPIRIT INNINGS

London Spirit never really got into top gear. Danielle Gibson scored 36 off 27 balls at the top of order and Kiwi all rounder Amelia Kerr scored 36*, but took 30 balls to score them and these were the best innings for the Spirit. The best bowlers for the Rockets were their spinners, Kirstie Gordon 2-19, Alana King 1-18 and Bryony Smith 1-19, all bowling their full allocations of 20 balls. The end result was an indifferent total of 124-4 from 100 balls.

THE ROCKETS CHASE

For most of the second innings things were going the way of the Spirit, although Nat Sciver-Brunt was singlehandedly keeping Rockets hopes aloft, reaching a classy 50 off 32 balls. With 20 balls left Rockets were five wickets down and had 35 runs still to score. There then followed a truly extroardinary sequence of seven balls. First Scrivens hit Gardner for a four and six, then a single brought Sciver-Brunt on strike. Sciver=Brunt concluded the set by hitting the next two balls for sixes, reducing the ask to 12 off 15 balls. It took one legal delivery. The 86th ball of the innings, bowled by Danielle Gibson, saw Sciver-Brunt hit a third successive six, thrashed over midwicket. The next delivery was smashed baseball style even further over midwicket, and just to make things worse for poor Gibson it was called a no-ball, meaning that her final spell was officially 0.1-0-14-0! This sequence of four successive sixes took Sciver-Brunt’s score from a splendid 57* (37) to a stupendous 81* (41). In addition to the blitz that ended the match with 14 balls to spare Sciver-Brunt had hit nine fours along the way. Carlos Brathwaite once won a T20 World Cup by hitting four successive sixes, and Kapil Dev once saved India from following on with a similar sequence (Lord’s 1990), but England managed to win that one anyway. For the first time this season Rockets finished up looking more like Apollo 11 than Apollo 1.

PHOTOGRAPHS

For the feature image I have done an experiment. I could not pick between two of my photos so I have endeavoured to combine the best features of both. Otherwise this is my usual sign off…

A Book Review and Some Cricketing Sidelights

A review of a truly wonderful book, some cricketing sidelights, including speculation about a debutant with a (from a cricketing viewpoint) very interesting name, and a large photo gallery.

I have some cricketing content as usual, but the main focus of this blog is a book I have just finished reading (finished it on the bus back from work yesterday to be exact), and I start with…

A (VERY) SHORT HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH

Regular followers will know that I am an avid reader and that my interests include a number of science subjects. This book, written by Henry Gee, covers the history of life on Earth starting from before Earth existed and looking almost a billion years into the future to when Earth will no longer be able to sustain life of any sort. There are six timelines studded through the book, which I have reproduced in image form. This is a superb book, extremely fun to read and very informative. I would recommend anyone to read it. If I was going to offer a starter pack of books touching on this theme I would add in Richard Fortey’s books “Earth” and “Life: An Unauthorised Biography”, Thomas Halliday’s “Otherlands”, Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” and for an imaginative look at the future Dougal Dixon’s “After Man: A Zoology of the Future”, all of which adorn my shelves. This book has a broader scope than any of those. The book plus acknowledgements runs to 241 pages, with a further 60 pages of end notes, hardly an intimidating length (and as I said it reads easily – it took me about two hours to read).

INTERESTING DEBUTANTS IN THE ONE DAY CUP

Two of the One Day Cup matches taking place today, Surrey v Kent and Somerset v Sussex feature debutants whose names were decidedly familiar to me. Making his first team debut for Kent at the age of 17 was Jaydn Denly, a left arm orthodox spinner and left handed batter, and nephew of Joe Denly (unfortunately for connoisseurs of such things uncle Joe is out injured so no case of uncle and nephew playing in the same match today). The name to conjure with on the Somerset team sheet originally appeared on cricinfo as JT Langridge, which immediately brought the brothers John and James Langridge, Sussex stalwarts of many years ago, to my mind. Cricinfo’s information has now extended to the fact that the initials stand for James Thomas, and that like the original James Langridge this one both bats and bowls with his left hand (John and the original James both featured in my all time Sussex XI, and James got the all rounders slot in my all time Ls XI), Sussex have a history of cricketing families, including one that encompassed a second county, the Parkses (HW, JH, JM and Bobby, who played for Hampshire), while another multi-generational multi-county family are the Tremletts (Maurice, Somerset, Tim, Hampshire, and Chris, Hampshire and Surrey), and Langridge is not one of the commonest of surnames. Jaydn Denly faced the last ball of the Kent innings and hit it for four, while the 21st century James Langridge opened the bowling for Somerset and currently has one wicket to his name (the Sussex innings is in progress). I am currently listening to commentary on Northern Superchargers v Oval Invincibles in The Hundred (women’s) while monitoring the One Day Cup games via cricinfo.

I end this section with two further links: I missed the first anniversary of the post in which I created my all time XI of players whose names begin with N, while the O post was created on this day last year so:

All Time XIs – The Letter N

All Time XIs – The Letter O

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Cricket News

A look at some of today’s cricketing developments and a large photo gallery.

A lot is going on in cricket today – three One Day Cup matches are taking place, and two Hundred double headers as well. My post looks at some developments on the day so far.

SPINNERS SUPREME AT TRENT BRIDGE

When the Northern Superchargers were restricted to 134-4 from their 100 balls things looked good for the Rockets. They continued to look good for most of the Rockets innings, with Bryony Smith batting superbly, but then a spin generated collapse, with Linsey Smith and Lucy Higham the main bowling contributors left Superchargers victorious by nine runs. This means that the Rockets are still winless, having had one game washed out and lost the others. Sadly for them they are at present looking more reminiscent of Apollo 1 than of Apollo 11.

A scorecard of today’s match can be seen here.

SHAW SMASHES SOMERSET

In the One Day Cup Somerset visited Northamptonshire today. Northamptonshire batted first and scored a monstrous 415-8 from their 50 overs. The principle author of this destruction of Somerset’s bowlers was Indian star Prithvi Shaw who thrashed 244, an innings that included 28 fours and 11 sixes. This was Shaw’s second list A double century, and the sixth highest score in all List A cricket, and second highest in a List A game behind Ally Brown’s 268 for Surrey v Glamorgan in 2002. While nothing in cricket should ever be ruled out the likelihood is that the score that Shaw’s heroics propelled Northamptonshire to will be beyond Somerset’s capacities to chase down.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I end with my usual sign off…

All Time XIs – The Ms Second XI

On the first anniversary of publishing my all time Ms XI I produce a second XI from the riches available under this letter to do battle with them. Also a huge photo gallery.

this day last year I published my all time XI of players whose surnames begin with M. As I point out in the original piece (click the M at the end of last sentence) there was a wealth of talent for this letter, so I am picking a second XI who could go up against the originals.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Hanif Mohammad (Pakistan, right handed opening batter). Until Lara’s 501* in 1994 he held the record first class score with 499 for Karachi vs Bahawalpur, and he still holds the record for the longest test innings ever played, 970 minutes, in the course of which he scored 337.
  2. Roy Marshall (Hampshire, West Indies, right handed opening batter). The Barbadian was an attack minded opener and should combine well with his more defensively oriented opening partner. His career for WI was brief, but he was brilliant for Hampshire for many years – so many that at one point England were considering selecting him as he had qualified by residence, but they opted not to do so.
  3. *Peter May (Surrey, England, right handed batter, captain). For a naturally aggressive batter to average 46 in cricket’s lowest, slowest scoring decade, the 1950s, was a fine achievement. His 285* at Edgbaston in 1957 stood as the highest by an England skipper until Gooch scored 333 v India at Lord’s in 1990.
  4. Stan McCabe (Australia, right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). His career highlights include 187* at Sydney in the series opener of the 1932-3 Ashes, 189* vs South Africa which caused the fielding side to appeal against the light, a real rarity, and 232* at Trent Bridge in 1938 when his play induced Bradman (no less) to call his team mates out on to the balcony to watch on the grounds that “you will never see batting like this again”.
  5. Mushtaq Mohammad (Northamptonshire, Pakistan, right handed batter, leg spinner). One of five brothers to play FC cricket, and four of them got to play at test level. He was just 15 when he made his test debut and did well enough at that level to average 39 with the bat and 29 with the ball. That included twice scoring a century and taking a five-for in the same match (only Ian Botham, five times, and R Ashwin, three times, have done so on more occasions at the highest level).
  6. Mulvantrai ‘Vinoo’ Mankad (India, right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). Although his batting and bowling averages are just the wrong way round he was indubitably a fine all rounder, his batting average being depressed by the fact that he so often had to open the innings as India lacked players sound enough to take on the moving ball, and he often had to do a lot of bowling due India lacking depth in that department.
  7. +Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh, wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the greatest cricketers his country has ever produced, well worth his place in this side.
  8. Arthur Morton (Derbyshire, right arm medium pacer, off spinner, right handed batter). 981 FC wickets at 22.78 get him in this side, while over 10,000 FC runs are a useful second string to the bow. He scored 50 in a total of 68 all out v Yorkshire at Chesterfield in 1914.
  9. Ted McDonald (Australia, Lancashire, right arm fast bowler, right handed lower order batter). He played the 1920-1 and 1921 Ashes series, forming test cricket’s first genuine pace bowling partnership with Jack Gregory. He then signed a contract to play Lancashire League cricket, which ended his international career, but he would go on to play for Lancashire and would spearhead their pace attack in the most successful period in their history.
  10. Devon Malcolm (Derbyshire, England, right arm fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). Genuinely fast, but badly mishandled by the England management of his day. His peak came against South Africa at The Oval in 1994, when he took 9-57 as they crashed to 144 all out.
  11. William Mycroft (Derbyshire, left arm fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). Over 800 FC wickets at 12 a piece, including the first ever instance of 17 in a match (Hampshire still won that game by one wicket, the winning runs being scored by a man named Hargreaves who married Alice Pleasence Liddell, the Alice of “Alice in Wonderland”).

This side has a powerful top four, arguably four all rounders including the keeper, and a trio of specialist fast bowlers to round out the order. This side has a wealth of bowling options – Mycroft, McDonald, Malcolm, Morton in his medium paced guise and McCabe to bowl seam/ pace and Mushtaq Mohammad, Mankad and Morton in his slower guise to bowl spin, while no batting order with someone of Morton’s calibre at number eight can be called shallow either.

AN HONOURABLE MENTION

The original Ms post dealt with almost everyone who might merit an honourable mention, but I give attention to one particular missing name: John Murray of Middlesex and England who made the second most first class dismissals of any wicket keeper behind Bob Taylor and was also a useful batter. I gave the verdict to Mushfiqur Rahim, but it was a very close call. As to who would win this one, I back the first XI, but I think the second would make a very good fight of it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (to see a larger version of any picture just click on it)…