2017 Kiwi County Tour #2
James Franklin was welcomed on to the Kiwi County Tour bus this week with Middlesex in action for the first time. While Franky Frank tends not to score a heap of runs, or dominate with his left-armers, he is the captain of Middlesex and that means that the English County who call Lord's home, are skippered by a kiwi.
Of course, Middlesex won the Division One Championship last season and it was Franklin who lifted the trophy for them. This Championship victory came on the back of a few tweaks at Middlesex which makes for a bloody good yarn...
James Franklin - Hampshire vs Middlesex
Away to Hampshire, Middlesex were first up to bat and Franklin came in at No.7 where he scored 19 with Middlesex all out for 356 in 113 overs. Using himself as a fifth bowling option, Franklin then took 1/35 off 10 overs as Middlesex conceded a lead, dismissing Hampshire for 438.
This wasn't Franklin's finest outing as he could then only manage 1 off 14 balls in Middlesex's second dig, both times he was dismissed by South African seamer Kyle Abbott. Middlesex declared on 278/9, but there was no more action and this one finished in a draw.
Neil Wagner - Somerset vs Essex
The star of the Kiwi County Tour this week was none other than Neil Wagner as he took 8 wickets in Essex's 8-wicket win over Somerset. Wagner started slowly by taking 2/78 off 15.2 overs @ 5.08rpo, dismissing two lower order batsmen as Somerset were all out for 209. Essex dug themselves a hole when they were then rolled for 129 and Wagner could only manage 5, as Essex's tail didn't exact wag.
Wagner came to the rescue though as he took 6/48 off 12.2 overs @3.89rpo and that led to Somerset being rolled themselves, for 174. Wagner took the last 6 Somerset wickets and a century to Alistair Cook led Essex to victory as they chased down Somerset's target of 255 for victory. Wagner dominated with the ball and Cook dominated with the bat, hitting 52 of Essex's first innings 129 and then the match-winning century.
4th in Division One wickets with 11, Wagner has an average of 25.45 and he's merely continuing his wonderful form from the kiwi summer. It seems as though there aren't too many batsmen around who can handle Wagner's short stuff.
Jeetan Patel - Warwickshire vs Yorkshire
Lord Jeetz was only graced with one bowling innings as his Warwickshire batsmen failed to hold things down for their all-conquering County spinner. Patel hit the second-top score of Warwickshire's first innings, blazing 36 off 30 balls and that's not a good thing given Warwickshire were dismissed for 178. Yorkshire and sometimes England leggy Adil Rashid picked up Patel's wicket.
Patel took 1/51 @2.31rpo with Yorkshire strengthening their position, dismissed for 381 and with a big ol' lead in the bag. Aussie batsman Peter Handscmobe top-scored for Yorkshire with 75, while Rashid and Tim Bresnan both hit 60-odds.
Warwickshire needed to show some grit with the bat to salvage this game and things finished up bitter-sweet here as Patel top-scored with 49*. That Patel top-scored (after a handy 36 in the first dig) was beautiful, but he was left stranded a run short of a 50 and no other Warwickshire batsmen passed 20. Patel was on fire with the bat for Warwickshire, but no one else was and they lost by an innings and 88 runs.
Lord Jeetz is ranked 17th in Division One run-scoring and he's averaging 40.66 after two games, plus his strike-rate of 81.87 is higher than all 16 batsmen with more Division One runs than him.
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