A look at the first innings of the One Day Cup final and a large photo gallery.
Today is the final of the One Day Cup. The match is happening at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, and the two teams to reach the final are Hampshire and Leicestershire. This post looks at developments in the first 50 overs.
A TERRIBLE START
Leicestershire won the toss and chose to bat first. They were soon reeling at 19-4 (I missed the start, due to an event at King’s Lynn library). Although they mounted a bit of a fightback, the dismissal of Lewis Hill for 42 made it 89-6, and Leicestershire’s cause still looked hopeless…
THE FIGHTBACK
…at this hopeless looking juncture Harry Swindells joined Sam Evans. While Evans fought hard and eventually recorded 60 (84), it was Swindells who really turned the tide. He completed a century at better than run a ball, and with Tom Scriven offering support after the dismissal of Evans, he eventually finished on 117* (96), and had guided has side from the ruins of 89-6 to a defensible 267-7. The Hampshire reply is just getting under way as I type, and it is not the formality they would at one stage have been expecting.
A look back at Gloucestershire’s win against Lancashire yesterday, some cricket related links and a huge photo gallery.
Yesterday Gloucestershire took on Lancashire for the right to claim a slot in the One-Day Cup semi-finals. This competition uses an interesting qualification system – the winners of each of the two groups qualify direct for the semi-finals, while second place in one group plays at home to third place in the either to qualify for the remaining semi-final places. Tomorrow will see Hampshire play Worcestershire to complete the SF line up, with group winners Warwickshire and Leicestershire already qualified. This post looks back at yesterday’s game.
THE LANCASHIRE INNINGS
I missed part of the Lancashire innings because I had a dentist appointment at 11AM. Lancashire were already four down with not a huge number of runs on the board when I tuned in. Wickets continued to fall regularly, although the eighth wicket pair (Tom Aspinwall and Tom Bailey) battled hard and prevented a total debacle. Still, 177 all out in a 50 overs per side match, even on a pitch offering a bit to the bowlers, should never be a defensible total.
THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE RESPONSE
There had been a brief rain interruption to the Lancashire innings, but no overs had yet been lost. However, the weather remained threatening, given Gloucestershire motive to look to settle things quickly. In the event they required less than half of their 50 overs to chase down the target. The chief architect of this destruction of Lancashire was Miles Hammond, who reached his maiden list A century off 82 balls, hitting nine fours and six sixes along the way. He added two more fours, the latter the winning hit, after reaching the landmark to end up on 109*. Gloucestershire had eight wickets as well as 25.1 overs to spare. It would appear that Gloucestershire have hit their straps exactly at the right time, and they will be tough for anyone to deal with now (direct qualification for the SF for group winners is IMO a double-edged sword – by the time the SF comes round they have had less recent practice than those who have to win an extra match to claim their places). A Lancashire bowling attack being helpless in the face of a Gloucestershire batter named Hammond is not unprecedented – about a century ago Walter Hammond in a county championship fixture absolutely took Lancashire apart, including starting a day’s play by hitting Aussie pacer Ted McDonald for five successive fours.
OTHER CRICKETING LINKS
This time last year I was making my cricketing trip through the alphabet. There are two more pieces to share to complete the set of selectorial posts:
THE LETTER Y
My full post about players whose surnames begin with Y can be seen here. There is a change to this XI since I posted it – Yashavsi Jaiswal has announced himself for India in no uncertain terms, which means that Martin Young, a respectable county opener, loses his place. The revised XI for this letter is thus: M Yardy, Yashavsi Jaiswal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, GN Yallop, *NWD Yardley, +Saleem Yousuf, U Yadav, Waqar Younis, J Young, P Yadav.
THE LETTER Z
No changes to this one, which can be viewed in full here. The XI reads Fakhar Zaman, Ibrahim Zadran, Zubayr Hamza, Najibullah Zadran, K Zondo, JW Zulch, +Zulqarnain Haider, M Zondeki, Zia Ur Rahman, Zaheer Khan, Zahir Khan.
As well as the above I have a new blog to introduce. Brailly has opened up with a cricket themed post, reinventing the county championship as a red ball franchise competition. I am impressed by this effort, and in gratitude for getting an honourable mention I reciprocate by linking to it.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a splendid gallery to share with you today…
aspiblog 