Kiwi County Tour: County Championship #10
Underground king.
Having booted Kane Williamson off the Kiwi County Tour bus, the gang welcomed Jeet Raval as a lovely replacement not only for us on the bus, also for Yorkshire. Raval got his first crack at County cricket and we also had Matt Henry and Jeetan Patel swap their wicket-taking fortunes.
Jeet Raval - Yorkshire vs Nottinghamshire
With only one opportunity to bat, Raval got his County stint off to an underwhelming but understandable start. Batting first, Notts put up 448 all out with both their openers - including Kraigg Brathwaite who is like the West Indian version of Raval - passing 50 and showing Raval how this opening batsman thing works in County cricket.
Raval however managed just 15 off 30 balls as Yorkshire were all out for 498 via a few substantial knocks in their middle order. Raval did a wee bit better than former England opener and Yorkshire comrade Adam Lyth though who got a 6-ball duck. Both teams tried to make a game of this as Notts then declared on 93/1, but Yorkshire was unable to start their batting innings and Raval was left to reflect on his one dig.
Matt Henry - Kent vs Northamptonshire
Matt Henry and Jeetan Patel swaped their wicket-taking fortunes because Henry's last outing only featured 1 wicket and this time around, Henry resumed normal service as a wicket-taking phenom for Kent. This game started with the bat though for Henry and he got the blood pumping with 18 off 16 (112.50sr) and Henry was the only Kent batsman in this innings with a strike-rate over 60.
KCT readers know that Henry is a fabulous batsman and that kinda bonkers bit of strike-rate information is nothing new, or foreign. Nor is the fact that Henry was the second-highest scorer for Kent in this innings as they were rolled for 137.
137 ain't much as a total, although it's plenty when you have the best seamer in County cricket steaming in. Henry took 7w @ 2.54rpo in 16.3ov and in a true mark of his ability, 5 of those wickets were top-order batsmen; Henry sent five of the top-six back to the shed. This had Northants all out for 105 and the Kent batsmen did a better job in their second innings, all out for 287 with Henry scoring 2 off 7 via a wobbly strike-rate of 28.57.
Kent set a target of 320 for Northants and Henry knocked the top off the Northants batting line up, dismissing both openers within 11 overs. Henry finished up with 4w in 22 overs @ 3.27rpo and Kent dismissed Northants for 217, sealing the win.
Henry now has 61w from just 8 games/16innings. In that, Henry has taken 5w five times and he has taken 10w in a game, three times. Henry has a glorious average of 14.85/3rpo and his 61w is the most of any bowler in either Division of County cricket.
Jeetan Patel - Warwickshire vs Durham
Lord Jeetz on the other hand went from taking 10w in the last game, to no wickets vs Durham. We know Jeetz is a wonderful chap and has already sussed yet another season with 40+ wickets (49w), so he was happy to hand Henry some wickets and continue the KCT dominance.
There is a reason for Patel's wicket-less game though as he only bowled 12 overs in total, 10 in the first dig and 2 in the second. Jeetz put up a solid 26 off 46 in Warwickshire's first innings, taking them to 310 all out and the Bears seamers then did the trick for their skipper Jeetz, dismissing Durham for 292.
Jeetz then squeezed out 7 off 6 as Warwickshire were all out for 199 and with Durham chasing 218 to win, Warwickshire were only 2 wickets away from grabbing a win. This game finished with Durham on 115/8 and a niggly draw for Warwickshire, a great draw for Durham.
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Peace and love 27.