Some thoughts on the first week of games:
Test grounds saw 90% more overs per game than the non-Test ones. Drainage matters, especially with only 8 points for an abandoned game.
Consider the midlands – between Nottingham (which saw a result) and Edgbaston (270 mainly watchable overs) lies the non-Test ground at Derby, which was washed out.
🙄 Trent Bridge, The Oval and Edgbaston are in action for round two. The weather has been better across the UK, but if there’s any damp outfields out there it won’t be them.
For all the talk of the Kookaburra ball being OK when new and then going flat, openers didn’t get that much of a benefit (averaging 35 vs 43 for others). The SR of opening bowlers was over 60 in round one.
Conversely, opening bats did OK – averaging 37. Then numbers 3-7 had the best of it, averaging 47. The real outlier is numbers 9-11 averaging 20 (the sort of numbers openers might accept in the harshest April conditions).
The Kookaburra ball in the first two rounds is a clever move in principle – offsetting the favourable bowling conditions and fresh bowlers with a less helpful ball could produce some well-balanced cricket (if the pitches get a chance to wear). But – Light levels mean early season games are shorter than the summer ones. They are thus poor candidates for the Kookaburra. Maybe games three and four would have been better. Perhaps insisting on Kookaburra balls for Lions games and England training camps would be a more accurately directed policy?
Watch out for fatigue in the bowlers with miles in legs already (James, OHD, Hutton, Pennington, Seales). Don’t expect to see any four man attacks in these Kookaburra weeks- the closest to a four man attack is Notts, and they can’t keep giving this many overs to Hutton & Pennington.
Higgins double hundred put the Northeast treble in perspective.
Essex getting wins now can give them a fine platform for when Harmer starts getting his 13-fors later in the summer.
Round two
Anyway, looking ahead to round two we have the following games:
– Essex’s attack far too strong for Kent’s batting.
– Surrey have a better team than Somerset, but I like both team’s batting so it could well be 14 points apiece.
– Hampshire vs Lancashire has a strong chance of a result: if this goes the wrong way for the hosts, they’d be well off the pace after an eight-point washout last week. And hot off the presses Hampshire will be sans-Barker. Not good.
Red Ball Data 