99.94

A player can only make the list once. View the previous winners: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017

Haseeb Hameed – Has the Has-Been no longer

At 19, after that fairytale series in India when he became the youngest debutant ever to open for England, the teenage lad with the Bolton accent and winning smile faced two of the hardest jobs you can have. First, he had to grow up in public, a task almost too cruel to wish upon any kid. Second, he became the latest vessel for The Hopes Of English Cricket.

Tough enough? Roll in injuries, inevitable fluctuating form and the game moving on from ‘Baby-Boycotts’ to ‘Pseudo-Sehwags’ and he was in danger of being left behind. That said, it’s hard to recall a player who could generate such goodwill amongst cricket followers – I’m sure I was not alone in frequently checking in to have my heart sink as another 20 or so was written on the scorebook. There were the occasional false dawns of course – we all knew he could play – but his batting suffered from a kind of writer’s block, an inability to go beyond the first page of an innings.

Well, at the halfway mark of his career, he’s solved that one! A move to Nottinghamshire, a chance to work with Peter Moores, the best county coach of this century and, last season, the show of faith he probably needed with the appointment as captain of a grand old cricket club steeped in tradition. 

His 1258 runs at 66 for Nottinghamshire put him second behind only Dom Sibley in the Rothesay County Championship Division One run-scoring table, but he got them at a strike rate of 58, hitting 178 boundaries, the most in the division – so, maybe, in 2025, it’s ‘Baby-Stokesy’? 

More importantly, he lifted a club most judges expected to endure another season hovering above the drop zone all the way to the title. Sure, as Worcestershire fans will point out, he had some handy recruits to work with, but he fashioned a culture that allowed collective consistency to develop across the stop-start season, regardless of the conditions, the brand of ball or the playing XI on the field. And, at The Oval, when it was all to play for in the penultimate round, he got his team over the line by just 20 runs. 

George Hill – don’t you mean George who?

There’s a certain kind of cricketer who seems doomed to go under the radar. Sure England fans love an all-rounder, but they equally love to label anyone short of Sobersesque figures as a ‘bits-and-pieces-merchant’ pointing to a batting and batting average both in the low 30s suggesting (and there’s a case for this) that the side would be served better with a specialist batter or specialist bowler. I’d suggest that condescending label can cling to a player even though one skill can develop to the extent that they become a front line bowler who can bat at seven or a number five who can be a handy fourth seamer.

So this year’s candidate for the Darren Stevens Award is George Hill, younger than your Ryan Higginses and your Matt Critchleys and unusual in that his bowling has been the skill to improve. Still listed as a batting all-rounder by ESPNcricinfo after his three centuries three years ago, he snared 51 wickets with his medium pace last season at a remarkable average of under 17 with exactly 100 of his 341 overs being maidens. That’s usually a sign that he’s also ‘taking wickets at the other end’.

If his batting has been no more than handy this season, his bowling, from a strong action that hits the deck hard with something of the young Toby Roland-Jones about it, has flourished in a tough season for the Tykes. Where would Yorkshire be without him? Division Two I suspect.

Rehan Ahmed – starting his third job at 20

At 17 he was a promising young county leg-spinner; at 18 he was an England Test player with a fivefer in the bag; at 20, he was a top three batter making centuries almost at will. In-between times, he’s been a domestic and international T20 all-rounder, a List A and a Hundred player too and worn the hi-vis vest running drinks home and abroad. How is he supposed to learn cricket’s hardest art in those circumstances?

There are Division Two players with more runs or more wickets, but it was Ahmed’s early burst of run-scoring that lit the fire under a Leicestershire season that absolutely nobody saw coming. Ten years on, in the same city, he was the new Riyad Mahrez.

Pushed up the order, he embraced the spirit of Bazball and teed off to the extent of bagging five centuries in ten matches, at a strike rate above 75. The belief he had in himself surged through the club and they took out a mortgage on a promotion slot and never relinquished it. He even had time to keep his hand in as a bowler by adding 6-51 and 7-93 to his 115 in the match at Derby.  

Other players may have done more, other players may have faced tougher opponents, but no player had quite the impact Ahmed had on his club. 

Will Smeed – Somerset’s new masterblaster throttles back for greater reward

The Somerset opener is probably still best known for his (in)famous decision to sign a white ball only contract before he had played a red ball match, dedicating his career to franchise cricket and the Vitality Blast. He has stuck to that, his profile telling us that he’s played 130 T20s (and Hundred) matches, just four List A’s and no first class cricket at all.

But the kid who more or less saw every ball as a six in waiting has matured into a more thoughtful batter, one who understands that even short format cricket has rhythms that need to be respected, an ebb and flow that won’t just bend to your will because you’re swinging hard at every delivery. 

The most valuable asset to any team wishing to win a T20 competition is an opener who can go at 140 or above, pace an innings when conditions and the match situation demands and deliver in the big moments. Smeed could always meet the first requirement, has developed his game to make good on the second, but, until the very end of a slightly chaotic Finals Day at Edgbaston, he hadn’t made a score in a knockout match.

Chasing the highest target ever to win The Blast, Smeed had 27 off 19 at the end of the powerplay with two Toms (Kohler-Cadmore and Abell) out and another (Banton) away with England. After those six overs, the required rate had actually gone up to a round ten and, though there was batting to come, everyone knew his was the key wicket. It fell to him to accelerate the innings while simultaneously anchoring it, first with James Rew and then with Sean Dickson. His 94 off 58 took the match deep enough for a cameo to suffice and Lewis Gregory finished the job. 

The Smeed of 2024 might not have played that innings, but the 2025 version  is that little less impulsive, that little more considered, the best batter in an outstanding T20 outfit. 

Ethan Brookes – the gamechanger changes a season

The admirable Tom Taylor has a case but the Worcestershire all-rounder edges him because when the Metro Bank One Day Final needed someone to step up and seize it, he did. 

It was a messy, interrupted conclusion to a messy, interrupted competition, but professionals are paid to deal with that stuff, unreasonable as it may be. Brookes had enjoyed a fine List A summer, his medium pace bringing him 13 wickets at a strike rate below 5.5 as a team anchored to the foot of the Champo’s Division One found progress easier in a weakened, but still challenging, 50 overs tournament. 

But, having got his eye in with a round 100 from number eight the previous week in a Chester-le-Street runfest, Brookes knew that impetus was required in a twice delayed chase that ended up at 188 in 27 overs. He was at the crease while the score advanced from 93/3 to 168/5 in 8.3 overs, his share 57, a cascade of sixes and fours, a knock that supplemented a wicket and a couple of catches in Hampshire’s innings. He didn’t win the Cup alone of course, but Worcestershire wouldn’t have won it without him – nor even been at Trent Bridge in the first place.

There are some players and some fans who will always value the plateaus of a high achiever over the peaks of a player who saw his chance and played the match of his life. I side with the latter. Consistent excellence is laudable, but match winning wonders are glorious.   

Moores the merriest as Nottinghamshire end Surrey’s Championship streak

But there’s cruel heartache for Durham and some soul-searching for Lancashire and Kent

Ball one: one more for Moores 

After last week’s almost crucial win at The Oval, Nottinghamshire returned home to Trent Bridge with one of sport’s trickiest assignments – maintaining momentum after the emotional victory.

Wisely (he seems to have plenty of wisdom for a man still in his 20s, much of it born in adversity no doubt), Haseeb Hameed didn’t risk 50/6 at lunch, inviting his fellow captain, Alex Davies to wear his batting pads and tossed the ball to his opening bowlers, Mohammad Abbas and Brett Hutton. They have over 300 first class matches between them and they knew the job at hand.

The next morning, Hameed himself knew his job. If he could make a century, Notts would likely gain a first innings lead and test Warwickshire’s resolve. When he left the crease with 122 to his name, the deficit was just 30 and not all the late order were going to fail. They didn’t, Kyle Verreynne and Liam Patterson-White adding 110 at a run a ball, taking the game away from the visitors.

With the title secured with a bonus point during that stand – always slightly anticlimactic, but try telling that to the Nottingham locals – the win came on day three, making it seven from 14 matches, two more than any rival. It was a team effort, eight batters who played at least 10 matches averaging at least 33 (all at strike rates between 52 and 62 – interesting that) and, across a long and disrupted season, seven bowlers took at least 20 wickets.

But one man doesn’t appear in those tables. This was Peter Moores’ fourth pennant with a third county (after two with Sussex and one with Lancashire). Like his captain, he’s had two gos with England and it didn’t work out, but, like his captain, he was only down, not out.

Ball two: Albert cues up Chahar 

Speaking of feeling down, Hampshire, have suffered plenty with two white ball final defeats in September. It was suboptimal then, after taking the hit of a much-delayed points deduction for a substandard pitch, to look up and find themselves in a fight for their lives in the tangled mess at the bottom of Division two.

All seemed fine against a weakened, now ex-champions, XI at the Utilita Bowl sitting on a first innings lead of 101, but Surrey were stronger second time round, Ralphie Albert, South London snooker superstar, Jimmy White’s, grandson, top-scoring on debut with 63. But there was a sting in the tale of Hants’ topsy-turvy season. 

Surrey (as they do, but possibly a week too late) had drafted in an Indian spinner, Rahul Chahar, and the legspinner, possibly inspired by his team’s second innings total of 281, a Very Very Special number, took eight wickets as Hampshire lost by 20 runs.

Ball three: a second sting in the tale

Eyes turned to Headingley where Yorkshire, now safe after Hampshire’s defeat, could slide into the flip-flops and wait for the 5pm handshakes. To avoid the drop, all Durham had to do was bat out the last day, knowing that once their total past 129, they were in credit and those runs would have to be made by Yorkshire for the win.

Nobody seemed to have grasped that fact, the cliché telling us that runs holding a lead ‘count double’, as Durham lost captain, Alex Lees in the 26th over, the score on 29/2. That was merely the precursor to a truly calamitous spell of 12 overs in which eight wickets fell for 28 runs, George Hill and Dom Bess the destroyers.

The revolving door of the dressing room had become a trapdoor to Division Two and Durham were goners, Hampshire saved. At either end of the country, fans could not quite believe what had happened. Nor, I suspect, could CFOs of Durham and Hampshire.   

Ball four: another top flight campaign hoves into sight

Aside from the champions, Sussex are Division One’s big overachievers, signing off with a fourth win of the season to take them fourth in the table – with Warwickshire and Essex also on 172 points!

Centuries for James Coles and John Simpson (what a signing he has been) set up Ollie Robinson to do his thing with 11 wickets in the match. The big but fragile seamer is pushing up towards 500 first class victims at the McGrathian average of 21.59 – he comes with baggage but he also comes with a guarantee of wickets.

To their credit, Worcestershire fought hard, taking seven wickets as the visitors stumbled towards the measly target of 61, the admirable Tom Taylor grabbing his second four wicket bag of the match.  

As Worcestershire do, they’ll knuckle down to make the yoyo work next season with a promotion, but Sussex can look forward to a second season in the top flight, perhaps reaping the reward of playing all those kids in the Covid season.

Ball five: gloom envelops Canterbury and Manchester

Last season, Lancashire and Kent managed only four wins between them to be relegated to Division Two. It took a win in the last round of matches for Lancashire against promotion-happy Glamorgan for the dismal duo to best that record in the lower flight, Lancashire finishing in the bottom half and Kent a pitiful 29 points adrift in last place, this week getting an absolute paddling from Derbyshire.

Does that show that there isn’t much to choose between the divisions, that the depth is there in the County Championship, that you’re almost as likely to be ambushed at Bristol or Northampton as you are at Taunton or Birmingham? Or does it tell you that clubs that are poorly managed produce poor results?

Kent lost eight points in July for a fourth (count ‘em) disciplinary infraction of the season and Lancashire’s grumbling membership have moved votes of no confidence in recent weeks. Dissent towards the umpire and trouble at t’mill in the committee rooms do not necessarily mean that bowler A will deliver too many half volleys or batter B will leave a gate and lose his off stump, but we know dysfunctional organisational cultures’ impacts are more complicated than that

What isn’t complicated is the assertion that the fans of these two grand old clubs deserve much more in 2026 and if the current leaders on and off the field can’t deliver it, they should get out of the way and let someone else have a go.

Ball six: So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night

The Rothesay County Championship season is concluded and, glory be, will return with its 14 matches in 2026, an imperfect structure, but surely the best we can hope for in the short term. Let’s face it, in the medium and long term too. 

It’s been my privilege to write about it here adding to the super work led by Tanya, Jim, Ali and others at The Guardian, a newspaper that continues to treat the grand old Champo with the respect it deserves and, as always, consistently earns. While crowds on grounds can look a little lost amongst the empty seats, many, many more follow the YouTube streams, now more professional than ever, and local commentaries, all enjoying a global reach. 

There’s a case to be made that English domestic first class cricket has a place in more people’s summers than at any time in its history – more modest than when Compton and Edrich raised spirits after the War, but there all the same.

Finally, as a writer ‘about things’ (cricket and theatre) I need two constituencies – the makers and the readers. So thanks to the players, the coaches, the staff and the volunteers at the counties. Thanks also to the unseen workers at Guardian HQ who go well beyond the call of duty to get these words from my screen to yours. And thanks to you for reading and commenting, adding so much to this wonderful game of ours. 

Well, it’s ours for now…  

Nottinghamshire leapfrog Surrey in the Championship run-in

Worcestershire win the Metro Bank One Day Cup on an emotional day between the showers

Ball one: Notts cut through Surrey’s knowhow

The showdown arrived early in sun-blessed (well, sun-blessedish) South London, as Surrey and Nottinghamshire wrestled for the top spot in the Rothesay County Championship Division one going into the last round of matches. They did not let fans down and, one can but hope, gave pause to those considering more radical changes to the Championship format.

On the kind of pitch that The Oval has become in the 2020s – plenty for the bowlers early on, then flattening after a couple of days fun – a match worthy of its weight played out in weather rather better than elsewhere in the country.

After the two pace attacks had faced off, the game had moved on swiftly with Notts ahead, but Surrey, serial champions, confident of coming from behind. At the fall of the visitors’ sixth wicket in the second innings, their lead was a highly gettable 147 and Matt Fisher had nine scalps with power to add. Enter Lyndon James (47), Liam Patterson-White (58), Brett Hutton (42) and Josh Tongue (22). 

Rory Burns had to endure opponents scoring the late order runs that have so often driven his own team to success, but he would still have been confident walking to the crease with 315 to chase. He was walking even taller at the start of day four after he and Dom Sibley had knocked 66 off the target the previous evening. But the old script wasn’t to play out.

The champions were still favourites at 244/5, but the single over of spin in the entire match saw Tom Curran, just starting to motor, stumped by Kyle Verreynne off Patterson-White. Two runs later, Dan Lawrence departed for a round 50 and the pendulum had swung, never to return. Josh Tongue finished off the resistance and held up the match ball as Nottinghamshire went 15 points clear, reduced to 14 after an over rate penalty. They host Warwickshire at Trent Bridge on Wednesday; Surrey have a must-win-and-also-hope trip to the Utliita Bowl, Southampton.      

Ball two: Organ stops Somerset

It’s even more of a dogfight at the other end of the table to avoid what might be referred to as ‘probable’ relegation. Surely it’s too late for the counties to pick up the goalposts and march towards the gunfire with a new structure for 2026? Don’t bank on it though.

As so often happens in sport, the very last opponents Hampshire needed to see 36 hours or so after a bit of a mauling in the Blast final was Somerset and.., there they were, grinning. That said, both XIs were changed, but scars are scars. 

Spirits would have improved with five Somerset wickets in the bag before three figures were on the tins, but Tom Abell found a partner in Kasey Aldridge and their 221 run stand gave the home side a grip on the match they were never to relinquish.

Shot out in just above 50 overs by Jack Leach (what an asset he is to his county), Hampshire must have trodden wearily to the crease to follow-on, grateful for the first day washout. 

An old-fashioned digging in was required and, to their immense credit, that’s exactly what the batters delivered. Nick Gubbins lasted nearly four hours for his 37, Ben Brown over two and half for his 36 and Felix Organ a heroically self-denying 94 minutes for his four! Hampshire wriggled free.

Both clubs have suffered deductions this season, Somerset’s four points extinguishing their faint hope of a late run for the pennant, but Hampshire’s confiscated eight has them just two above the trapdoor. And Surrey, needing a win, another not so welcome sight rolling into town.

Ball three: winning pays off in Division two     

Hand up who had Leicestershire and Glamorgan to finish first and second to secure promotion from Division two? 

Their six and five wins respectively outgun all of their rivals, with only Middlesex’s four going above a brace. After a few years in which there have been too many draws in the second flight, positive cricket has been rewarded and, though it’ll be much harder to repeat in 2026, I hope both counties retain their approaches.

Not much last week for Leicestershire beyond a few bonus points as three days were washed out at Grace Road and it was a similar story for Glamorgan at Derby. But points in the bank and Middlesex’s draw at Old Trafford ensured a stress-free valedictory 14th match this week. Much deserved too. 

Ball four: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

This column has long argued that there’s not much wrong with county cricket that isn’t solved by a bit of luck with the weather, rigorous cost control and a faintly sympathetic calendar. 

A glance at the Division one table is evidence enough to make the point. Going into the final act denouement, Nottinghamshire or Surrey (and, yes, I am aware of their player recruitment policies) could win it and, deep breath now, any one of Sussex, Essex, Yorkshire, Hampshire or Durham could join Worcestershire in Division two. And that’s betting without any points deductions levied by the blazers. 

Rather like The Flashman Papers, the Championship needs contextual footnotes to appreciate it fully, but it’s worth making the effort. Whatever is decided for 2026, it must retain the scale of its canvas if we are to see its beauty in all its glory.    

Ball five: Orr shows his mettle

Grey skies and a very disappointing crowd greeted the players as they took the field, sans fireworks, sans flamethrowers (mainly), sans mascots, for the Metro Bank One Day Cup Final. The semi-finals lie some three weeks in the past, so I can’t have been alone in having to look up the teams on the train up to Nottingham – Worcestershire Rapids and Hampshire Hawks as it happens. Great sport, even merely good sport, creates its own sense of occasion and a knowledgeable and committed public were soon delivering their side of the bargain.

Under the low slate skies, Hampshire made 237 off 45 overs, twice interrupted by rain. It was tricky to know if it was a good score or not, Ali Orr hitting their only two sixes and adding ten fours, two more than the rest of his colleagues put together. His 110 off 130 balls compared well with their 111 off 142, making the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern adjusted target of 188 off 27 overs tough to assess as gettable or tricky. 49 fewer runs to hit, but 18 fewer overs available, seems a harsh recalibration, but then there’s 10 wickets too, so…

Algorithms set aside, credit to the Worcestershire bowlers, whose changes of pace and skilfully nailed yorkers conceded just 24 runs from their last five overs, giving their batters the edge at the turnaround. 

Ball six: Rapids charge to the win and a poignant presentation 

Superb stuff from Hampshire substitute, Tom Prest, who, alert to the possibilities at Third Man, dived forward to catch Gareth Roderick, slashing at James Fuller. So often, fielders are happy to retreat and take the ball on the bounce to prevent the boundary. Prest committed early, ran hard and got his reward. More players should to be honest. 

A thriller emerged in the gloom, as DLS proved itself (oh me of little faith) delivering a tremendous finish that swung this way and that. Not that you’ll find many connected with Hampshire who’ll agree, waylaid at the death for the second Saturday in a row as Worcestershire kept swinging for the bleachers and hit them often enough.

Ethan Brookes with 57 off 34 and Matthew Waite with 16 off five were the heroes, but, essentially, it was a victory for the brave. Worcestershire won the six count eight to two with four batters clearing the ropes to Hampshire’s one. That was in spite of losing wickets to the big shots – say what you like about just knocking it around, it’s not how it’s played these days and innings like this show why.

Two other heroes deserve a mention. Firstly, the ground staff who were tireless across a long day, manhandling wet covers in the dirtiest of weather. We don’t thank them enough.

Secondly, the parents of Josh Baker, the Worcestershire cricketer who died in 2024 and who was memorialised on his team’s shirts, the JB33 Foundation over the heart of every player for every ball. They were there to celebrate with the players and to lift the trophy, Henry Cullen, Josh’s great friend, having hit the winning runs.

Sport really is the most important thing that doesn’t really matter.     

Somerset’s record chase wins The Blast

Tremendous hitting, sensational catches and a committed crowd deliver the best Finals Day ever!

Ball one: K-C in the sunshine stands 

Lancashire’s James Anderson, 43 but, obviously with a portrait stowed in the attic, opened Finals Day having started his Lancashire career before Twenty20 was a gleam in a marketing man’s eye. Somerset allowed 16 balls before a shot was played in anger – the perils of batting before midday in mid-September as feared as ever, even on a sunny morning.

The old stager took some flak in his third over, but he had the last laugh, bowling Tom Abell off the last ball of the powerplay. ‘Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome’ is a cliche often rolled out when convenient, but experience shows that sticking to your plans usually pays off.

Lancashire’s collective aim – to restrict the boundary count – paid off in part, becalming Somerset for long periods, but it collapsed twice. In the 16th and 17th overs, five consecutive fours were plundered and the final over saw four of five balls hit to the fence. Ten balls going for 39 with the remaining 110 going for 143, at least eight of which could be put down to misfields, shows that it was seldom easy for batters. 

Only Somerset’s bemulleted opener, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who batted from the start to the 19th over for 81, found any fluency, power proving more effective than finesse as a strategy, which might interest Liam Livingstone when his turn comes.    

Ball two: Somerset set for the summer’s biggest match 

The value of bowling first is illustrated in the scores after three overs: Somerset 17/1; Lancashire 37/2. Not that fielding captain, Lewis Gregory, will be overly concerned since, while a match cannot be won in the powerplay, it can certainly be lost. 

It’s actually fine margins that loses matches and there were a few to pick from as the second innings of the first semi-final progressed.

1. TV umpire, Sue Redfern, interpreted a very messy Ultraedge sequence as merely ball on pad with no bat involved and Lancashire’s one real matchwinner, Liam Livingstone, was sent on his way, much to his chagrin. I’m not sure I can recall so long (on the horizontal time axis) a ‘spike’ for a single impact, but, on and off field, the umpires were satisfied and they matter more than me and the fuming Liam himself.

2. Somerset’s bowlers nailed their yorkers and their fielders caught their catches, Lancashire never approached the kind of consistency that scrambles brains. In fact, Somerset won the non-powerplay overs 133 to 86, showing how the batters were bottled up.

3. On paper, Lancashire’s XI looked short on experience needing big performances from Keaton Jennings, Luke Wells, Livingstone and Anderson to overcome their opponents’ greater depth. None could conjure anything that matched Kohler-Cadmore’s impact on the match and the better side won. 

Ball three: a shoutout for Howell    

England’s Sonny Baker looks much as he did when I saw him at the start of his breakout season – sharp, but not entirely sure where the ball is going. Three wides in his first over and a wicket – the key one of Ravi Bopara in his second. But…if the bowler doesn’t know where the ball is going, how can the batter?

Benny Howell has been one of my favourite cricketers to watch these last ten years or so. There are many bowlers who deliver six different balls in an over because they don’t know what they’re doing, but Howell does it because he does know what he’s doing. Aided by a spectacular catch in the deep by Ali Orr, he struck with the wicket of Saif Zaib in his first over.

Number eight is always a crucial spot in the order, so is it fair to have a man with ten tons and 53 half-centuries lurking down there? Northamptonshire fans will say yes, as Luke Procter played a fine hand advancing the score from 86/6 to 156/7 in the company of the impressive Justin Broad. 

Hampshire will feel that they let the game get away from them after the rain break, but they’ll fancy their chances with a target reduced from 159 to 155 by Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. Nobody knows why.  

Ball four: Lynn’s win

It was pleasing, if a little curious and ultimately spectacular, to watch Lloyd Pope bowling to Chris Lynn in an all-Australian duel. Pleasing because Pope is a leg-spinner who flights and turns the ball with Lynn a destructive batter and curious because Cricket Australia denied Marcus Harris and Ashton Turner their chance to play in the early semi-final. The spectacle came later.

In a day of sensational catches – seeing them live is a privilege – none were better than George Scrimshaw’s running, over-the-shoulder pouch of Ben Mayes. In my 50 years or so of watching cricket, no element of the game has improved as much as the third skill, pretty much to the point where the best 10% of 1970s fielders ars about level with the worst 10% of the 2020s. Practice makes (almost) perfect.

You can’t catch them in the stands though – well, not the players of course. Lynn smashed 11 sixes, most ten rows or more back, in an extraordinary display of clean hitting that secured a final slot for his team and the first ever Finals Day ton for him. Pope was smashed for five in a row but was spared the ‘Broad to Yuvraj’ treatment off the last ball of the over. You can’t play against that.   

Ball five: Fight / For your right / Not to party

I wondered where I had last noticed the slight desperation that always clings to attempts to ‘organise fun’. At, wait for it, Edgblaston no minute must be left unfilled, none in the audience left unencouraged, no sign left unflashing with exhortations to “SING!” in the karaoke session. And all at a volume that does to eardrums what Lynn’s bat did to Pope’s deliveries. Then I recalled (involuntarily) my long-buried memories of mid-70s holiday camps in Prestatyn or Pwllheli. And a shiver ran down my spine…  

Speaking of karaoke favourites, the old slogan for the ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ albums came to mind watching Hampshire in the powerplay – “It’s just hit after hit after hit”. Rather like those old stalwarts of Woolworth’s, the question of whether it’s too much of a good thing does raise its head. Like power ballads, power hitting can pale after a while.

Though Hampshire’s innings fell away a little after Toby Albert and James Vince’s stand of 97 off 59 balls, the Lewises (Gregory and Goldsworth) the pick of the bowlers, a chase or 195 would be a Finals Day record. 

Ball six: Smeedy get your bat

There was an “Anything you can do, I can do better” vibe to Will Smeed looking at fellow 23 year-old opener, Albert’s, 85 and responding with 94 of his own. Buoyed by a support, many of whom had started on the cider 12 hours earlier and were still in fine voice, he found support in the quarter-final hero, Sean Dickson with a valedictory 33 in his last white ball match for his county and then his captain, tonking 18 off 5 to seal the deal.

Though they never give their fans an easy ride, 14 wins from 17 matches shows that Somerset were the best team in the tournament. And another exciting, if a little overbearing, Finals Day shows that the Blast is the best competition in domestic one day cricket.

But, put your glasses down lads! It’s Hampshire again this morning in the Championship. How can something as fragile as cricket and as rare as victory be treated with such disdain by the suits?  

Blast Finals Day joy beckons for Lancashire, Somerset, Northamptonshire or Hampshire

Joy too as Leicestershire win promotion, but it’s tight at both ends of Division One

Ball one: On Saturday, Dickson vs Livingstone I presume

Cricket being cricket, all of a sudden, The Blast was back! Some of July had passed, all of August and a few days of September, but we recalibrated to twenty overs each and to players last seen in county fatigues, well when exactly? It was definitely after Covid, but not sure. 

Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone (not a historical reference as it happens) proved the key figure in their win over Kent. After a handy 2-21 with his liquorice allsorts from his four overs (spin twin, Tom Hartley, also impressing with 1-21 off his full allocation), he hit more sixes off his own bat than Kent managed as a team.

It can be infuriating watching Livingstone as he can win matches on his own, but we have to accept that he can’t win all matches on his own. So, just two more please Liam.

The first of those will be the Finals Day opener against Somerset who had a matchwinner of their own in the rather less likely shape of Sean Dickson. In my mind’s eye, the Hollies Stand was filling with locals for Finals Day – Warwickshire’s players wouldn’t have been human if they weren’t thinking the same thing right up to the very bitter end. Somerset were losing the match for 237 of the 239 balls bowled, but Dickson had the night out to end all nights out with 71 off 26 to send the Bears white ball team into hibernation. You can’t play against that. 

Ball two: Ravi raves on

Another pyrotechnic innings from an even less likely source saw Northamptonshire beat a strong Surrey XI to book a slot at Saturday’s jamboree.

We’ve known since at least the second match of Twenty20 cricket ever played, that Ravi Bopara has the talent but, with a 20+20 on his personal scorecard, could the 40 year-old still do it? In for the second ball of a rain-affected 14 overs game, he was there at the end too, 105 not out. No home batter could get near the veteran’s strike rate of 228 and Northants will prepare for Hampshire in the afternoon semi-final.

They’re there largely because three of their top four (Toby Albert, Chris Lynn and Hilton Cartwright) made half centuries at strike rates in excess of 180. Chasing down 222, everything needed to go perfectly for Durham, and that’s music to Benny Howell’s ears, the best inducer of batter error in the competition taking 2-28 off his four overs.  

Ball three: Saucy Worcester pitch spices up title race

The County Championship returned, along with the first rain since about Christmas meaning few teams were able to squeeze out a result between the showers. 

New Road has its unique problems with Worcestershire seeking alternative accommodation that doesn’t flood quite so often, but there’s no doubt that interesting pitches make for interesting cricket. For Division One frontrunners, Nottinghamshire and Surrey, it was also an interesting result.

Like Brighton and Hove Albion against Chelsea, there were plenty of old friends catching up and it was two ex-Worcestershire quicks who did most of the damage for the visitors in the first innings, Josh Tongue and Dillon Pennington sharing 12 wickets in the match, with that most handy of players, Lyndon James, chipping in with six to back up the big lads.

The Swiss Army Knifeish James with bat in hand made 35 off 42 to help secure a first innings lead and then a cool-headed 17 not out off 67 to see Notts over the line, seven down.

The all-rounder is probably too ‘bits-and-pieces’ to get an England call, but Pennington, also 26 years old, has a lot of what it takes to bowl fast, especially on Australian pitches. He could be a bolter for The Ashes squad, but, more likely given the attrition rate of England quicks, I’d advise him to stay fit and have his phone and passport close to hand come November.    

Ball four: Burns burned?

Have Surrey developed a problem in getting the wins that have seen them win four of the last six pennants? No defeats in 12 matches this season looks good, but with eight draws, the South London juggernaut looks less unstoppable than in previous seasons.

The latest draw came at home to Warwickshire, the visitors fighting hard to maintain a toehold in the race themselves, a chance now probably gone. 

In what became a two innings match, The Oval’s pitch eased (as it does these days) and Surrey’s top five, all England Test batters, each made scores. Those runs allowed Rory Burns to set the Bears 390 for the win, which is probably what he had in mind at the start of the second innings. 

But rain had already arrived in South London on day three and there was plenty on the radar for day four. Could Burns have been bolder, pulling out with a lead of 313 buying himself at least 13 more overs and encouraging a bit of a chase? It probably wouldn’t have made any difference and Surrey’s captain has a set of gates near the site of the old mechanical scoreboard, so he knows best I’m sure.

Just one point separates the champions from second place Nottinghamshire, who roll into town on Monday for a showdown.

Ball five: Ben and Matt bloom under pressure

Raine and Potts sound like two segments on a Gardeners World running order, but they combined to earn Durham a vital draw and drag Essex back into a squeaky bum quartet (add Yorkshire and Hampshire) looking over their shoulders in the last two weeks of the season. The eighth wicket pair defied Simon Harmer and co for well over an hour in an unbroken stand of 77 at Chelmsford to earn their eight points for a draw.

Essex’s Dean Elgar (150), Matt Critchley (129) and Jamie Porter (7-113) can feel somewhat aggrieved at the stalemate, but, at the end of a long and dizzyingly varied season, grit can be just as important as class. And those two bowlers who bat have never been short of that quality.

Ball six: Red ball Leicestershire: Division Two’s big cheese!

If Worcestershire look certain to yoyo back to Division Two, they will be replaced by the very unyoyoish Leicestershire, back in the top flight after a long absence.

With their talismanic figure, Rehan Ahmed, away developing his game by wearing a hi vis vest and running batting gloves for England, the outstanding team in county cricket were indebted to Lewis Hill and Shan Masood. Their fourth wicket partnership of 152 was critical to avoiding the follow on after Gloucestershire had racked up 482, Graeme van Buuren’s ton complemented by four half centuries. The draw was odds-on once the first innings deficit was limited to 140 and rain was about.

To survive in whatever structure the top flight takes in 2026, Leicestershire will need to hand on to Ahmed, Hill and the inspirational Peter Handscomb and hope that Ian Holland and Ben Green continue to take wickets and that Josh Hull’s progress continues (but not enough to catch the England selectors’ eyes).

It’s a tough ask to survive in the Division One bearpit after two years away: Leicestershire have been gone for 22!   

Worcestershire and Hampshire to contest Metro Bank One Day Cup Final on 20 September

International players, Liam Dawson and Khurram Shahzad, play key roles for their counties, as domestic cricket ponders its future yet again

Ball one: business or pleasure?

We’re told, ad nauseum and usually by those extracting a wedge of surplus value for their own purposes, that sport is a business – but most of it isn’t. Almost all recreational sport could barely be categorised as ‘business’ and even top level sport only sketchily fits in with the orthodoxies of capitalism. 

But there it is – they keep telling us so and they believe their reality, and all that comes with it, will be wished into life as a consequence. Some 45 years on, many industries are still dealing with the fallout of Mrs Thatcher’s assertion that There Is No Alternative to the discipline of the market, so cricket is warned.

At this time of year, the tension between the business and the sporting models always surfaces as The Hundred (invented precisely because cricket would not shape itself into normative business structures) finishes, just as the Metro Bank One Day Cup is drawing to its conclusion. Players suddenly become available to counties and, as businesses, they’re free to contract whomever they like and the player, making a living remember, is free to accept an offer or to resume for their county career, having been elsewhere for the last four weeks.

That said, the sport decides its rules. Counties could, voluntarily or via the playing conditions of the competition, bar players being parachuted in once they become free from other obligations. Such a rule might be challenged as a restriction of trade, but it’s rooted in sporting integrity, the longstanding, if somewhat loose, idea that a club uses a largely fixed set of resources within a specific tournament (in football, new signings are ‘cup-tied’ for this reason). 

A business will always seek to gain competitive advantage: a club should always prioritise the sporting principles and the interests of its members. Whose side are you on?  

Ball two: Orr shows his mettle 

Hampshire preferred to travel to a Middlesex outground rather than play their eliminator on one of their own, but that appeared to be more of an issue for fans than for players as they ran out comfortable winners at Radlett.

The match added a chapter to one of the more heartwarming stories of the summer, as Ali Orr continued his rehabilitation as an exciting young player with a matchwinning performance. He had made just one Blast and two Championship appearances prior to a run in the One Day Cup that has allowed him to find his feet again after injury setbacks.

At 95/5 after Henry Brookes had shot out the top order, Orr found a partner in the experienced all rounder, James Fuller, and Hampshire dragged themselves up to set a low, if defendable, target of 230. Once Liam Dawson, enjoying his first long bowl since the fourth Test, disposed of Middlesex’s two best batters, Sam Robson and Ryan Higgins, and the captain, Ben Geddes, there was no way back for the home side.    

If your team has a batter who scores 108 in a match in which the next best is 48, you’re unlikely to lose – and Orr’s side didn’t.

Ball three: too few to challenge Rew I and Rew II 

There was a reluctant welcome for old friends at Taunton as Duckworth, Lewis and Stern were padded up and ready for action having been unemployed for most of this sunny summer. 

Perhaps with one eye on the forecast, Gloucestershire decided to put runs on the board, a plan derailed after James Bracey and Cameron Bancroft were both gone within 14 overs and, with Jake Ball and Tom Lammonby leading the seam effort and Jack Leach parsimonious with his spin, the batting never sparked.

A target of 156 was never enough and it was still not enough after DLS, post a rain break, had amended it to 149 off 45 overs. All that needs is a couple of scores and it was no surprise that the Rew brothers delivered them. They are so pivotal at four and five that you have to remind yourself that James is 21 and Thomas 17. They are evidently the future of Somerset: the question is whether they are also the future of England.  

Ball four: Pears’ form ripens 

Trump cards are useful in all formats of the game, but perhaps most of all in 50 overs cricket. A gun batter can get a really big one and a goto bowler can use the new ball, come back when a wicket is needed to break a partnership and then take death hitting out of the equation by knocking a couple over late on.

Khurram Shahzad, Worcestershire’s Pakistani Test bowler, hasn’t pulled up any trees so far for the Pears in 2025, but there’s been a steady progression evident. So it was no real surprise that he came good when needed.

A solid rather than spectacular home batting order delivered a solid rather than spectacular score of 275/9 off their full allocation, Jack Leach again keeping it very tight. Somerset knew that a good start is key to a middling chase like that, relaxing the batters to come and allowing wickets to fall without triggering a crisis. The trouble is that Jake Libby knew that too.

He turned to his spearhead and Shahzad took four wickets in his opening spell leaving far too much for Somerset’s captain, James Rew, to do and the game went away from the visitors in fewer than 30 overs.

Worcestershire will play their first one day final since 2019 and I suspect their fans will arrive at Trent Bridge en masse come 20 September.

Ball five: Dawson and Currie too hot for Tykes

Whether you like it or not (and you can tell that I don’t) Hampshire’s semi-final win over Yorkshire at Scarborough turned on a stellar performance from Liam Dawson.

At 78/4 in the 20th over, the visitors were in a hole, but Dawson found a partner in 17 years-old Ben Mayes (89 for the fifth wicket) and than Scotland all-rounder, Scott Currie, who notched a first white ball half-century in a stand of 136 for the sixth wicket. Dawson was out off the second last ball for a List A career-high 142. 

The 32nd over of the chase proved the turning point. Yorkshire started it with Imam-ul-Haq past 100 with power to add in the company of a resurgent Finlay Bean. They finished it with George Hill and Harry Duke at the crease with a rebuilding job on their hands that was to prove too much. The batting heroes, Dawson and Currie, picked up a couple of wickets each in a decent match for the all-rounders.

Ball six: a choice between two camels when we need a horse

Cricket is a complex game. Its structure should simplify it, not complicate it still further. That the proposals for 2026 need an article like this one to explain them (I’m using the term loosely) is reason enough to throw them all out and start again.

Yorkshire and Worcestershire earn home Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-finals on Sunday, after just one defeat in eight group matches

Middlesex play Hampshire and Somerset face Gloucestershire in the tasty looking eliminators on Thursday 

Ball one: White Rose blooms away from HQ

Yorkshire completed an outstanding series of group stage matches by travelling to Canterbury and beating Kent comfortably to ensure a bumper Sunday crowd at Scarborough for the semi-final. James Wharton made a century and, once Dom Bess broke a useful second wicket stand between Jaydn Denly and Ekansh Singh, the home side’s batting subsided to the Tykes’ spinners.   

Yorkshire played two matches at York and will now play a third at Scarborough. Other competitions have forced their hand in terms of playing away from their headquarters, Headingley, but The Broad Acres is not the county’s nickname for nothing, Leeds being 70 miles distant from Scarbados. It’s pleasing to see the club taking matches to the fans, one of the underpinning principles of this competition and something all counties once did.

 Ball two: old virtues at New Road 

Worcestershire secured the other guaranteed semi-final spot, topping their group with six wins and a tie, completing the charge for the line with a hat-trick of victories. 

The best came at home to Glamorgan who, helped by Asa Tribe carrying his bat to the innings close with 122, set a stiffish target of 298. That looked a long way off at 78-3 in the 17th over, but this format rewards patience and calm heads and Worcestershire found those attributes in the captain, Jake Libby, and Rob Jones, who put on 172 for the fourth wicket, Jones still there at the end, 110 not out.

Thirty overs may not sound much but a key difference between county cricket’s two white ball formats lies in the value of patience. Whether batting or bowling, too much patience can kill you in a T20; across 50 overs, it really pays off. 

Ball three: Manny the boy is already a bowler

Hampshire will carry momentum into their eliminator, finishing off their set of eight matches with two wins, the latter against a slightly stumbling Gloucestershire.

The match marked a third senior outing for 16 year-old Manny Lumsden, and a third in which he has taken at least one wicket. The Basingstoke boy is no hulking teenager who could pass for 21, but, if anything, looks younger than his years. But he’s already generating pace and bounce from his busy, whippy action and looks a real prospect.

With growing still to do, he’ll need a bespoke development programme to allow his body to mature without the undue stress that can lead to so many injuries for young quicks. He will know that though, and he’ll also know that he has a real chance given where he is now.  

Ball four: Morgan earns his place for tomorrow

Given their dismal campaign, there’s a temptation to say, “It’s only Lancashire”, but Middlesex will still carry confidence into their eliminator after a superb chase at Old Trafford.

The visitors looked gone, ceding their place in the knockouts to Warwickshire, when they required 172 off 21.4 overs but with only four wickets in hand. At 21 and 17 respectively, Nathan Fernandes and Seb Morgan are much too young to have seen some of the legendary August chases in Manchester, but perhaps the much mutilated ground retains some of its magic.

Fernandes made 92 off 79 balls and Morgan 61 off 53 and, though it took eight from the last pair, Middlesex got over the line with a ball to spare. Morgan’s effort was especially laudable as he hadn’t picked up a bat in anger for over seven weeks – let’s hope he keeps his place and has another chance on Thursday.

Ball five: batter of the group stage

If you were to write a person specification for a One Day Cup batter, you would pretty much take Nick Gubbins’ CV as the template. At 31, he has plenty of experience, now approaching 100 appearances in List A matches, with a solid average in the mid-40s and a strike rate around 90. But he’s not going to be called up by an international side and he’s also unlikely to be poached by a Hundred franchise, despite the fact he’s probably exactly what they need.

Instead, he’s led Hampshire from the front, scoring 658 runs at an average of 131 and at a strike rate of 105. His prize is a showdown with his old employers, Middlesex, a match to relish for an old pro who has never let either of them down. 

Ball six: bowler of the group stage

One of the delights of 50 overs cricket is that it rewards wickets more than does its upstart 20 overs cousin, but I still like a miserly seamer, “their wickets” often coming at the other end.

Ian Holland, another whose profile aligns with Nick Gubbins above, won’t play in the knockouts, but his medium pace brought him nine wickets in his seven matches at an outstanding economy rate of under 4.4. Leicestershire may have missed his runs in this campaign, but he’s not the reason they can concentrate on finishing off their super season of red ball cricket come September.

Groups boiling up as 12 counties vie for six knockout slots

Gloucestershire hold the only 100% record at the midpoint of the group stage, as 50 overs cricket proves its worth 

Ball one: if it’s Monday, it’s The Oval 

The Metro Bank One Day Cup is already at the halfway point (or beyond) of the round robin stage, with the top three in each group qualifying for the knockout matches to come in just ten days time!

Without peeking, do you know how your county is doing, still less the fate of local rivals or that one you’ve always had a soft spot for since the barman replaced the pint that was knocked out of your hand in 1987? 

Compact competitions are often easier to follow than those that sprawl across the calendar or stop and start (I’m looking at you, Vitality Blast, asleep on the sofa) but, notwithstanding the chronic under-reporting of the One Day Cup, is it possible to define a narrative at all? Matches are scheduled every day – except the days that they’re not, like last Saturday, this Saturday and next (Bank Holiday) Monday – and there are no defined game weeks after which one can look at the table, take stock, and consider what is to come.

As with much else in cricket, the feeling persists that it could all be done better for fans, for players and for sponsors. And they’re the constituencies that really matter… Aren’t they?   

Ball two: Taylor suits white ball cricket

Gloucestershire are sitting pretty at the top of Group A, courtesy of the only 100% record in the country, even more impressive as they are one of the counties past the midpoint of their league campaign having played five matches. It would take an unlikely combination of results to deny them a slot in the knockouts, but the clever structure of eliminations, byes and home advantages means there’s still a lot to play for once they, or anyone else, secures progression to the next phase.

As if to underline my point above, would any non-Gloucestershire fan or a person not openly out as a cricket badger be able to name their captain? A hint – he also held aloft last year’s Blast trophy too. 

You’re looking for batter-who-bowls, Jack Taylor, who came to the the crease at Worcester after Oliver Price’s 66 and immediately lost Ben Charlesworth after his handy 50. Not a crisis, but with 80 needed off 17 overs, four down, Worcestershire had the first sniff of a win in a match they had been chasing since losing the toss. Taylor compiled a half-century at better than a run a ball and in the company of another old pro, Graeme van Buuren, steered his team home.

In the Brave New World that always hovers just beyond the grasp of administrators looking at the product and its content, there might not be a place for the likes of Taylor and van Buuren. They’ve never played senior international cricket and, unless they can turn up a Monagasque relative or some such, never will. They’ll be surplus to requirements on the powerpoints that so easily dazzle the tech bros who are the pipers about to call the domestic cricket tune with their franchise riches. 

Ask a Gloucestershire fan, or a fan of any other county, if players like those two matter should have a place in the English game come 2027 – I suspect the answer will be rather different.  

Ball three: Orr strikes gold at last

Do you remember growing up? God knows, I’ve tried to forget, but I just about can. It wasn’t easy. And that’s without going to work every day facing people armed with a bat or a ball literally trying to beat you. Professional sport is mainly a young person’s thing, a brutal sifting of winners and losers – no wonder some find it a tough path to follow.

Ali Orr was one of the Sussex youngsters given a chance in those strange Covid summers and named in this column back in 2021 as a bright prospect along with Tom Haines, Aaron Thomason, Danial Ibrahim, Jack Carson, Henry Crocombe and Jamie Atkins. Injury, a move to Hampshire and navigating changes and setbacks meant that the last of his seven centuries came in May 2024.

He ended that barren spell with 131 that played a part in an opening stand of 202 with his captain, Nick Gubbins, making the win over Leicestershire a formality and keeping Hampshire well positioned for a top three placing. Orr is still only 24 and that knock could be the start of his second coming of a fine batter.  

Ball four: Milnes marmalises Middlesex

Group B is the tighter of the two with five counties in with a decent shout of a qualification slot and even Durham, in sixth, not out of it yet. 

Yorkshire, with Imam-ul-Haq back after missing the defeat at York vs Somerset, travelled to Radlett to play Middlesex for the honour of leading the standings after five games.

Though the prolific Pakistani notched an undefeated half century, the match was won by the Yorkshire bowlers who had the home side 5-3 and then 129 all out, the match done in 58 overs. The damage was inflicted by the ever-reliable Ben “Betsy” Coad with 3-26 from his ten overs and Matt Milnes, 4-29 from his eight.

Both seamers are 31 and know their own games. and that of most batters, inside out and make an ideal pair for a competition like this, Milnes will be motivated to leave Headingley with a parting gift of a cup as he heads back to Kent after his three year sojourn up north. You wouldn’t bet against it. 

Ball five: Carson drives Sussex home

The first of two hard fought tussles that underlined just what a fine format 50 over cricket can be, came at a sun-kissed Hove where one of those names from Ball Three became the late hero.

It was a match that ebbed and flowed, Lancashire’s openers pinging some friendly bowling to the boundary in the powerplay, Michael Jones 82 off 77 the highlight, before Sussex’s spinners, Jack Carson and Archie Lenham, pulled things back. It needed some pyrotechnics from Harry Singh to get Lanky up to 338/7, a score they must have felt confident in defending.

At 241/1 after 33 overs, that confidence had evaporated like ice cream dropped on the promenade pavement, but the impressive Arav Shetty snared Tom Clark for a brilliant 139, then nabbed Fynn Hudson-Prentice and John Simpson in short order and, when Tom Haines went for 90, the anchor was gone and the home side were all at sea, 54 off nine overs suddenly very distant.

Calm heads were required and few were clearer in their thinking than Jack Carson who turned into peak Michael Bevan, finishing matters with good running and two sixes just when his team needed them.

680 runs, the result in doubt until the third ball of the last over was clobbered to the fence by number 11, Sean Hunt, and a home victory to boot. It’s not a bad game is it?     

Ball six: Lintott trots up in good time

Just to show it was no fluke, there was another cracker served up two days later, this time at Taunton.

Tom Lammonby notched a round 100, somewhat surprisingly his first in white ball cricket, before the Rew brothers inevitably got in on the act with 81 (James) and 41 (Thomas). But, from 218/3 with more than ten overs still to come, a target of just 310 gave Warwickshire a chance they might not have expected.

The visitors developed a habit of losing wickets at a bad time, the top seven all getting in but nobody topping Rob Yates’s 47. Cue Jake Lintott, back in his home town and in at number eight with 67 needed at just more than a run a ball. He bagged 50 of them himself in the company of wicketkeeper, Kai Smith, and, when he was done, so was the match.

Both sides are locked on 12 points in second and third, with both sides hosting their last group matches at home. If it does go to the wire, the noise will be big!   

Metro Bank One Day Cup off to a good start in front of enthusiastic local crowds

England’s longest running one day competition returns for a 63rd season but withers that little bit more in the face of shameful neglect

Ball one: Some arias cricket could explore 

You might not have heard of Garsington Opera, but you may have heard of its next door neighbour, Paul Getty’s celebrated cricket ground. Both are on the Wormsley Estate, simultaneously just off the M1 and a world away.

Not all country house opera venues are as closely linked to cricket as this one, but there are other parallels. Both depend on weather to some extent – even the lovely Opera Holland Park is rather different in the golden hour if it’s raining – and both aren’t quite as middle-aged and middle class as you might suspect, especially if you look into their community work. And both play an important role in developing the superstars of the future. 

Country house opera survives, thrives even, because it accepts what it is (ie not the Royal Opera House or the New York Met); it provides a distinctive all day experience, integrating festival elements with the main attraction; and markets itself to its niche audience effectively. Watching the live streams of the Metro Bank One Day Cup largely from outgrounds last week, it struck me that there’s a template to explore there. That’s if domestic 50 overs cricket survives at all. 

Ball two: bad Akhter turns good Akhter

The loss of David Lawrence is still felt sharply at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and it’s hard not to think that those beautiful photos of him with the Blast trophy last autumn may be inspiring his club towards another trophy this season. Perhaps that’s for the romantics, but the One Day Cup is where we fools gather in August and Gloucestershire sit top of Group A with the only played three, won three record in the country.

Zaman Akhter’s pace has been key to those three victories, his four wickets between the 37th and 41st overs in the opener against Derbyshire destroying the chase just as it was about to launch. He’s going to Essex next summer, quitting the club along with Ajeet Singh Dale (Lancashire) and Tom Price and Dom Goodman (Sussex). Tough times in Bristol.

So lots of work to do in the academy and on recruitment, but might it just free the minds of those departing players? Eliminating the fear of failure has proved successful in Test cricket after all.

Ball three: Hampshire bowled over by their options

The other 100% record in the group belongs to Hampshire, whose two wins have been built on centuries from Nick Gubbins and Joe Weatherley, but also on a less eye-catching aspect of white ball cricket. 

In each of their matches, six bowlers have chipped in with a wicket, eight in total across the two games. Only one of them, 16 year-old Manny Lumsden, is going at above 7.5 per over and the kid got three of Glamorgan’s top five out on debut, so let’s cut him some slack.

Options for the captain in the field across the long stretch of 50 overs is a crucial aspect in selecting any XI and Gubbins has them. It’s also a lot of fun for fans to see occasional bowlers and kids like Lumsden given a proper go with proper fields and not just one before lunch, in hastening a declaration or when the oppo are playing out a draw.

Ball four: better for the lack of Imam-ul-Haq? 

In Group B, the Yorkies lead the way with two wins from two, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire their victims. Their top scorer in both matches (55 and 159) is Imam-ul-Haq.

That does raise a question – and I pose this as a longstanding supporter of overseas players in the domestic game. Should we praise the Yorkshire committee for finding so good a player, one that provides a role model for communities with whom they desperately need to build bridges? Or do we lament the presence of a man with over 100 appearances for Pakistan in a competition with so many young pros trying to make their way in the game?

I tend to the former, but I’m unsure and, were there an easy way to ringfence XIs so such imbalances could be avoided, I suspect I could be persuaded otherwise. 

Ball five: Rews bounce into view, but Flintoff unseen

A fine game of cricket at Taunton saw Somerset lose after two wins and Lancashire notch a first win after an abandonment in their opener.

All eyes were on the Rew brothers after their sparkling starts to the tournament. We all know that James is a huge prospect, but 17 year-old Thomas was spectacular against Durham, looking, already, to have everything a player needs to succeed at the highest level.

But they couldn’t make it three in a row, both failing as Lancashire, steered by skipper, Marcus Harris and George Balderson, at 24, the experienced pro in the middle order, got the visitors over the line, eight down.

What of Rocky Flintoff I hear you ask? Well, he’s been wearing a hi-vis vest over adverts for crisps instead of developing his game. He’ll likely be doing the same tomorrow instead of playing in a Roses match at York. Riddle me that.   

Ball six: media failing to serve the game well

As of Monday morning, ESPNcricinfo’s group tables are incorrect. On the BBC Sport’s website’s cricket page, there are two links to round-ups of the One Day Cup action and 33 to stories about The Hundred. That’s the publicly funded national broadcaster, not a private cheerleader for a business enterprise.

Though I’ve tried to avoid the, by now, regular August pieces denigrating the standard of play and absence of stars in the 50 overs competition, I have seen one. They’re as tedious as the ‘one man and a dog’ pieces that used to greet the start of the county championship – but you don’t see so many of those now the online viewing and listening figures are available.

The players, sponsors and, most of all, the fans, deserve a bit of respect. We’ll be here long after The Hundred goes the way of the Stanford Super Series.