Kiwi County Cricket Tour #2
Our Kiwi County Tour got underway during the week with a sprinkling of our kiwi cricketers in action for their respective counties. It was actually a slow start to the County season with a handful of games, a few of our IPL lads still doing their thing in India while Matt Quinn didn't get the gameday nod for Essex and Ross Taylor's Sussex couldn't do much more than bowl 135 overs before rain robbed us of the chance to see Rossco pad up.
We'll start with Essex vs Gloucestershire, which featured Hamish Marshall and Kieran Noema-Barnett for Gloucs and Jesse Ryder for Essex.
Marshall hit 51 in Gloucs' first innings and was caught by Ryder while Noema-Barnett could only muster 5 off 36 balls before Ryder had him caught. Ryder bowled 17 overs, taking 1/36 at 2.11 runs-per-over and had a hand in both Marshall and Noema-Barnett's wickets, what a dick.
Gloucs were all out for 262 and Ryder managed 15 with the bat for Essex as Alistair Cook's 105 helped Essex reach 385 in reply. Noema-Barnett's medium pace went wicket-less, finishing with 64 runs off his 17 overs. Marshall then scored 14 and Noema-Barnett 21, with Ryder going wicket-less for 31 runs off 8 overs as Gloucs were dismssed for 215, which meant Essex only had to chase 93 to win.
Noema-Barnett bowled 2.4 overs and Essex won by 10 wickets, completing a game in which Noema-Barnett struggled to influence with either bat and ball. It's going to be interesting to see how long Matt Quinn has to wait before getting the call up as Essex's bowling attack did the trick with their new-ball duo of Jamie Porter and Matt Dixon taking 10 wickets in this match between them. Throw in the steady all-round abilities of Ryder, Graham Napier and Ravi Bopara and Quinn might need to sit tight.
Next up we have Essex away to Surrey while Gloucestershire are at home in Bristol to Derbyshire, both games start on Sunday.
Jeetan Patel has been the premier spinner in County cricket for a number of seasons now, which wasn't quite reflected in figures of 0/19 off 7 overs and 1/53 off 30.5 overs as Patel's Warwickshire and Hampshire played out a draw. In truth, Patel's offies weren't really needed and had it not been for rain ruling out any play on day 2, Warwickshire could have made a strong case for victory.
Hampshire batted first, getting 202 as Patel's pace-bowlers did the business with Keith Barker opening the bowling at taking 5/53 off 18 overs and Rikki Clarke's medium pace took 3/43 off 22.2 overs. Jeetz didn't really need to do too much here, nor did he need to do much with the bat as Warwickshire's internationals did the job; Ian Bell hit 174 and Chris Woakes hit 66 while Jeetz hit 1 off 4 and Warwickshire took a lead, all out for 360.
Patel picked up Hampshire's Will Smith LBW for 3, as this game peetered out with Hampshire 185/5.
Warwickshire and Jeetz now head to Lord's where they'll face James Franklin's Middlesex on Sunday.
The match between Sussex and Northamptonshire saw no action on days 3 and 4, with Ross Taylor taking a catch while Northamptonshire spent the whole game batting, ending up on 481/7. Taylor actually dropped one as well ... and there was 5 runs off the helmet! Amazing.
Taylor now hosts Ryder and Quinn with Sussex taking on Essex starting on Sunday.
Tom Latham (Kent) and Matt Henry (Worcestershire) were due to go up against each other in a battle of the Cantabrians, however this contest was rained off without a ball being bowled.
Here's the wrap for the next dose, starting on Sunday...
Glamorgan vs Leicestershire (Cardiff)
Gloucestershire vs Derbyshire (Bristol) ft. Hamish Marshall + Kieran Noema-Barnett vs Neil Broom + Hamish Rutherford.
Lancashire vs Nottingamshire (Manchester) ft. Neil Wanger for Lancs.
Middlesex vs Warwickshire (London) ft. James Franklin vs Jeetan Patel
Sussex vs Essex (Hove) ft. Ross Taylor vs Jesse Ryder + Matt Quinn
Yorkshire vs Hampshire (Leeds)