Kiwi County Tour #10 (County Championship Update)
Text book.
Jeetan Patel got a cheeky send off as he departed for Blackcaps duty, leaving James Franklin and yours truly to kick back on the Kiwi County Tour bus. It's always a joy to spend some time with Franklin thanks to him being skipper of Middlesex, effectively making Franklin the secretary of Lord's and with Franklin taking this round off, there was plenty to discuss. Topics ranged from how Franklin's enjoying his stint as a low key beast in County cricket to how the Champions Trophy may pan out. Shit, Franklin even said he'd help my ol' mate Andy settle into London life.
Neil Wagner/Matt Quinn
Essex vs Surrey (May 26-29)
Franklin had the pleasure of playing against Kumar Sangakkara last week and now owns all sorts of bragging rights as he dismissed Sangakkara twice, while Wagner and Quinn couldn't snatch Sangakkara's wicket. Before diving into how Quinn and Wagner went, we should really celebrate Sangakkara's wizardry in what is now his final season of County cricket. Franklin took his wicket twice last round, although Sangakkara still hit a century in both innings and with 200 in the first innings against Essex, Sangakkara hit his fifth consecutive century in County cricket.
Going back to April 14, Sangakkara's County innings look like this: 46, 136, 105, 114, 120, 200 and 84. County cricket took a little break for Royal London One-Day Cup cricket and in six 50-over games, Sangakkara had an 81*, 59 and 124*. In his last 13 innings across both formats, Sangakkara has scored less than 50 in just four innings and there's no other way to describe Sangakkara besides wizard.
Essex and Surrey played out a draw and while Sangakkara hit his double century, Quinn still managed 3/66 @ 3.47rpo. Quinn sent Surrey's top-three back to the sheds, taking a wicket in each of his first three overs as Surrey's top-three batsmen combined for 9 runs.
Wagner didn't take a wicket although he did put in a mammoth shift for Essex, bowling 31 overs @ 3.48rpo. Quinn only bowled 19 overs and Quinn's new-ball partner Jamie Porter (who took 4/89 and 5/71 in this game, giving him 16 wickets in his last two games) bowled 27 overs. Essex had Surrey all out for 369 and took a teeny lead, thanks to Wagner's 50 off 91 balls.
Wagner didn't take a wicket in the first innings, but his half-century saw Essex put 383 on the board with Quinn contributing 4 off 23 balls. Surrey then declared on 260/9 but Essex didn't get another chance to bat, with Wagner taking 1/43 @ 2.86rpo and Quinn going wicket-less from his 10 overs @ 3.30rpo.
Kieran Noema-Barnett
Nottinghamshire vs Gloucestershire (May 26-29)
We've bid farewell to Lord Jeetz and Franklin's Middlesex weren't playing this round, we were however treated to Kieran Noema-Barnett returning for Gloucestershire. Nottinghamshire only had to bat once and smoked Gloucs by an innings, which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a dominant display from Noema-Barnett. He did however feature heavily with the ball as Notts reached 430/9dec, bowling 21.4 overs of super tidy medium pace and picking up the wicket of Stuart Broad, finishing with 1/57 @ 2.63rpo.
Broad was batting No.9, but it was Broad and if anyone was to dismiss Stuart Broad, you'd hope it was one of our Kiwi County Tour brothers.
Gloucs were then rolled for 149 with Noema-Barnett scoring 13 at No.8 and then then did a little better when following on. Gloucs still feel short of Notts total, dismissed for 231 with Noema-Barnett the third highest scorer thanks to his 30, again at No.8. Broad took 5 wickets for the game (3, 2) but didn't dismissed Noema-Barnett on either occasion.
Noema-Barnett isn't really doing a whole lot for Gloucs, here's hoping some consistent game time for their 1st XI can help him stack up some runs and wickets. He's played three 2nd XI games (all one-day games) and two 1st XI games (a one-day and four-day game) and is yet to pass 50 in six innings, while taking 3 wickets in five innings. 1st XI game time is the priority, then strong contributions.
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