Kiwi County Tour #17
Frank the champ!
The Kiwi County Tour bus parked up at some pub in a quaint English village to celebrate the debut season of the Kiwi County Tour ... and to farewell Lord Jeetz. Three OG kiwi cricketers enjoyed their last round of County cricket in style with Jeetan Patel answering the Blackcaps black-cap batman signal while James Franklin celebrated as skipper of the newly crowned Division One Champions Middlesex and Hamish Marshall did what he's done fairly well this season and many previous seasons, in scoring a few runs.
We'll toast to Gloucestershire's Marshall first, as the cheeky lad signed off from the KCT with 77 off 97 in the second innings of a draw between Gloucs and Sussex. Marshall could only manage 14 in the first innings, but it was fitting that he finished off with a handy knock as he's enjoyed a pretty damn successful English summer.
Marshall was one of 13 Division Two batsmen to score over 1,000 runs, finishing with 1,022 runs from 16 games or 26 innings. This had Marshall as Gloucestershire's 2nd leading run-scorer for the season and with four centuries to his name, Marshall hit one more century than Gloucs opener Chris Dent who was their leading run-scorer. Along with those four centuries, Marshall also hit five half-centuries and was a rock in Gloucs middle order where he kept the scoreboard ticking over with a strike-rate of 54.97 and an average of 39.30.
Here's to you Marshy.
Middlesex defeated Yorkshire by 61 runs to clinch Division One glory and as has been the case all season long, they were supremely led by Franklin and his all-round ability. In the win over Yorkshire, Franklin hit 48 and 30 which put his willow-wielding ability on full display as he hit the 48 off 106 balls and then smoked 30 off just 14 balls as Middlesex chased a few quick runs and a declaration. These are the sort of runs that Franklin has scored all season, chiming in at No.6 or 7 where he can lend his experience to the situation and bat accordingly.
This didn't put Franklin near the top of the run-scorers list, but with an average of 42.73 Franklin was clearly a key figure just with the bat (not including leadership and bowling) in Middlesex's championship run. Franklin scored 641 runs from 14 games/19 innings and hit four half-centuries this season with a top-score of 99.
Franklin didn't take a whole lot of wickets, merely chipping in with a few overs when required as Middlesex relied heavily on Toby Roland-Jones (54 wickets) and Tim Murtagh (43).
Here's to you Frank, skipper of the Division One Champions.
And then we have Lord Jeetz, the great one. Jeetan Patel has been a rampant force in County cricket for the past four seasons, taking over 50 wickets in each of those seasons and the 2016 was no different ... well it was. Patel not only took 50 wickets, making it five seasons in a row in which he's taken at least 50 wickets, he finally passed the 60 wicket mark and took 10 wickets more than his previous best which was 59 wickets in 2014.
In his final game for Warwickshire this season, Patel even managed a few runs as he hit 26 in their first innings before taking 2/42 at 2.62rpo. Patel is still fizzing after back-to-back innings in which he scored over 20 runs, with 23* in the second innings helping Warwickshire set Lancashire a target of 347 to win. It goes without saying that Patel ensured that Lancashire would have no chance in getting close to this target as his 3/46 at 1.91rpo, helped skittle Lancashire for 109.
Patel took his 69 wickets at an average of 24.02, conceding 2.68rpo over the course of the season and his value is perhaps most visible in the fact that Patel was the only bowler across Division One and Two, to bowl over 600 overs (616.4). Sure, bowling that many overs will help you take the most wickets but you're only going to be bowling that many overs if you're doing a great job and it's safe to say that with four 5-wicket-hauls and a 10-wicket-match to his name, Lord Jeetz was doing a great job.
I would say that Patel has been 'rewarded' for his work in County cricket with a 'call up' to the Blackcaps but that simply doesn't do him any justice. Lord Jeetz and his exceptional performances for Warwickshire have him existing in his own lane, with or without the Blackcaps and while representing Aotearoa is an honour, going over to England and dominating County cricket is just as good an honour for a kiwi lad in my books ... let alone dominating it for five seasons straight.
Here's to you Lord Jeetz, my favourite kiwi cricketer.