Notts toiled against Yorkshire while Jimmy Anderson’s menace gave Lancashire the edge against Somerset
And Mike Selvey’s report from Trent Bridge:
Related: Alex Hales digs in for Nottinghamshire before Jack Brooks strikes
And here’s Vic Marks’s close of play report from Taunton:
Related: Jimmy Anderson’s three-wicket burst gives Lancashire hope against Somerset
Bad light has sent the players in for an early tea, with Notts 47 for two in their second innings, a lead of only 18. The ball has been nipping about as the clouds rolled in and batting has been a trial against some urgent Yorkshire seam bowling. The national selector James Whitaker, who is here, will have been watching Alex Hales with interest. It is a personal belief that whatever his ability Hales has not been helped by the absurd idea that he could be England’s version of David Warner. In other words, impose on him something he is patently not. In the first innings, having deposited some wayward bowling to the boundary, he did likewise to another half-volley but sent it straight to short extra cover. It is not a mistake he appears prepared to meet a second time around. So he has left the ball carefully outside off stump, played and missed at a few, hit a couple of boundaries, one of them through point from a hefty leading edge, and so far has faced 76 balls for his 18.
In the press box, it has been an entertaining afternoon spent chewing the fat with John Hampshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and England, who many may know has not been well. He is gaunt now and walks with a stick but is very chipper and has a great memory for matches and incidents past. It is always good to be able to relate experiences from back then to those of the players today. I first played against him at Hull in 1968, the match in which Yorkshire clinched the championship. He told me some things about that game I did not know. Fred Trueman, whose last championship game for Yorkshire it was, had not thought much of the opposition. “I can tell you Hamps,” Fred had said,” I had better things than this fookin’ Surrey lot for my breakfast.” One of the umpires, called Albert Gaskell, a florid-faced fellow with a nose the colour of a Victoria plum, had given a very dodgy lbw in favour of Raymond Illingworth. “That were never out,” said Raymond. “ Ay,” said Albert, “ but we’re going to win championship.”
The 43rd over turned the match on its head. The turgid runfest
I have been foreseeing – a foolish observation, perhaps – was
no longer on the cards.
Jimmy Anderson took three wickets in that over and changed the
game. Unlike the majority of pacemen in this game Anderson can
be a master on brown pitches as well as green ones.
First he took an age setting an elaborate field for Rogers:
seven men on the off-side with just one slip, two short extra
covers plus a silly mid-on. Before embarking on his over he
moved his close fielders half-an inch this way and that.
Eventually he set off and Rogers poked a drive straight to
Brown, one of the extra covers. Rogers had an anguished look
at the pitch as if the ball had stopped. Certainly this was
one of Anderson’s cutters.
Next ball Roelof van der Merwe played around a straight
delivery and was lbw. This was his fourth Championship innings
and he has yet to score 10 runs in this competition. Out came
Peter Trego eventually – just in time to avoid an appeal on
the two-minute rule – and he defended his first two balls easily
enough. He missed the next one and was adjudged lbw. The
serenity of 102 for two had become the chaos of 102 for five.
Ryan Davies surpassed his previous best in first-class
cricket, which was 17, but soon celebrated by running down the
pitch to Kerrigan and being stumped by a couple of yards for
22. Craig Overton was bowled by a shooter, a rare devilish
delivery.
Meanwhile James Hildreth has looked on aghast from the other
end. He has batted calmly, barely missing a ball, and at tea
he has 66 runs out of Somerset’s rather disappointing 206 for seven.
Yorkshire have their noses in front. But only just. The lunchtime score of 279 for eight gives them an 18-run advantage only which means that there will probably need to be some risk taking or machinations if there is to be a result in this match.
At the moment it is Liam Plunkett who has been instrumental in hauling Yorkshire to the front. Currently he is unbeaten on 42, a typically robust knock that includes a six belted over long off from Stuart Broad.
It was an interesting choice of bowlers first up for Notts. Harry Gurney had an over to finish but then, having claimed the early wicket of Alex Lees for 92, a single only added to his overnight score, was allowed to bowl for the best part of an hour without further success before the destroyer of the second day, Jake Ball, got a turn. At the other end Jackson Bird bowled before Broad, although Broad is clearly being nursed up to full international pitch in time for the Headingley Test in a couple of weeks.
As soon as Ball appeared, he dismissed Andrew Gale, another excellent delivery from round the wicket that the batsman edged to second slip, while Adil Rashid, to the great embarrassment of the bowler Samit Patel, and the even greater embarrassment of the batsman, smashed a high full toss to deep square leg. Bird claimed his first wicket when David Willey edged to Chris Read.
On the way to the pavilion for lunch, Ball was presented with his county cap.
The pattern of the first two days has been repeated, albeit in
slightly higher temperatures: left-arm spin from the River
End, today in the form of Simon Kerrigan, the seamers rushing
in from what we now call the Somerset Pavilion End – as
opposed to the Old Pavilion End.
Chris Rogers hit his first Championship half-century for
Somerset in 80 balls, during which he was typically calm and
business-like, and the game moved on sedately, if a little too
reminiscent of a funeral procession. The pitch is still flat
and slow.
Lancashire have snaffled two wickets. Marcus Trescothick
patted the first ball he received from Kyle Jarvis back into
the grateful bowler’s hands. Some 90 minutes later Tom Abell,
highly rated – quite rightly, but not yet in full flow this
summer – was lbw pushing forward to Kerrigan for 29.
Lancashire have bowled earnestly. Jimmy Anderson ran in
smoothly, Jarvis eagerly and Neil Wagner with a hint of
hostility. They were augmented by Luke Procter, who is one of
those who are deemed to bowl off the wrong foot (actually I’m
not sure anyone really bowls off the wrong foot).
A few decades ago I remember how Mike Procter bowled “off the
wrong foot” here - a little more quickly than Luke. At lunch
Somerset are 101 for two.
With the Test summer now little more than two weeks away, Rob Smyth discusses the ECB’s proposed change to series results in this week’s The Spin
Related: ECB points system has only one drawback: it totally devalues Test cricket | The Spin
The sun is out at Trent Bridge, not quite warm enough to jettison the gilet and beanie but it is a start. Pretty much even in the match as it stands thanks to the diligence of Alex Lees who will hope to complete an excellent century first thing. He was badly dropped by Chris Read late in the day yesterday though which could be costly. Read’s keeping was scruffy in general – he dropped the ball too often for a quality performer – and there are whispers that he has lost the edge of his game in that department. Yesterday evening spent with Allott and Atherton so a good deal of cricket talked. More tonight I suspect.
Sunshine in Taunton. Quantocks glorious in the middle distance. The sort of day that Sammy Woods over a century ago would take his cricketing friends up in to those rolling hills for a walk. After a while he would offer them a refreshing beer and then magically he would reach into a nearby stream and pluck out a cool bottle or two. His guests would be gobsmacked (not that anyone was “gobsmacked” 100 years ago) and grateful. Woods, a most hospitable and gregarious man, would take the precaution of placing beers strategically around the Quantocks the day before entertaining his guests. Or so they say.
Anyway in the 21st century we have the duel between two modern legends here, Marcus Trescothick and Jimmy Anderson. Elsewhere it is hard to spy many natural results on the horizon around the country. Kent are well-placed to beat Glamorgan in Canterbury; Leicestershire are dominating Sussex at Hove, which is quite a surprise, but not such a big one as… you know, the other Leicester triumph.
Good morning! Play will begin at Trent Bridge and Taunton shortly but in the meantime, catch up with Bank Holiday Monday’s action …
Jake Ball just looks right. He is tall but not a beanpole, has an athletic rhythmical run rather than the awkward gangliness possessed by some of the giants and, without being seduced by the extra bounce he might gain, is beyond the brisk side of fast-medium when he hits his straps.
He has good shoulders, hits the deck hard, moves the ball off the seam, has an excellent command of length and line and, well, has all the attributes at the age of 25 to be a successful international bowler.
Progress was slow, which is not usually the case when Liam Livingstone is involved, though this was not his fault. Twelve months ago the 22-year-old Cumbrian hit 350 from 138 balls when playing for Nantwich against lowly Caldy in a 45-over Cup match, which prompted raised eyebrows beyond the north-west.
As did an unfortunate incident in an Ashford bar after Lancashire’s Twenty20 quarter-final victory against Kent in August last year. A brawl left him with 20 stitches on his face.
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