The man with the bat - Ja

By Grockle
January 7 2011

June of last year we started to think there was something a little special about the year and the unit called "Somerset" in 2010.  We simply didn't lose in May but the T20 was a bit more variable as everything stopped for 3hour slogs in June.  No other cricket for a whole month - would people cope?

We finally had our first game at home by the end of April (Essex).  Our Championship seemed to be possibly over because of two losses and a draw and we were dragged to Manchester for another away match with Lancashire. The season did not seem to be the one we hoped it would be. 

The bowling plan was in pieces and we still had no Mr Kartik to plug the gap.  But first we had  our second one dayer against the same opposition.   Max Waller was introduced into the shorter format and we all wondered whether this would be his way into frist team permanance for the season.  It was someone else's day though as Alf and Ben blew the back end of Lancs' batting order away taking 7 wickets for 62 and resricting the home side to a below par score to defend.  Arul then anchored a middle order performance which wasn't particularly inspiring - lots of people starting and not pushing on while he made 80 from 91 balls.  We took the game and remained undefeated as we moved on to the four dayer.

Mike Munday kept his place after Essex and we started to hope this might be his year and we would see a differentiated spin attack at both ends of a Somerset line-up for the first time in a very long time (not sure when the last one was really).   The 'Red Rose' batted first and Luke Sutton looked to celebrate his captaincy at his new club by doing something against one of his old ones and smacked 118 from his opener's position in the first innings.  He got very little support form his middle order and Damien Wright continued to emphasise his value by taking a five-fer while Alf's 3 suggested that he was becoming something of a marvel in the Championship as well as being a phenomenal talent in the 40 over stuff.

We had them out and had 14 to our name by the end of day 1 (though Arul was already in the hutch before the end of play).  On Day 2 and 3 the shoots of a 'green' year started with Hildreth falling one short of a hundred and Peter Trego pushing on to a three figure score of 108.  The addition of a half ton for the Boss gave us a three figure lead by Day 3 but time lost to poor light and rain meant we were limited by time and we didn't get to a second innings and Munday didn't get to show anything particular before the man from India arrived.  10 overs for 52 did not cement his place - conditions in late spring early summer are not the most friendly to spin bowling.  A drawn game was better than a loss but not as good as a win would have been.  The weather and luck seemed to be against us.

An interesting game followed at the County Ground as we welcomed back some old faces - especially those of Wes Durston (still an 'open wound' with some supporters after his departure at the start of the season) and Keith Parsons in the role of captain of the Unicorns - a team of non contracted players who had been added to the CB40 rosta for 2010.  The squad had a distinctly South Western feel to it with other Somerset and Gloucerstershire old boys in attendance along with those with Glamorgan experience as well. It was good to see them back and KP looked well able to cause us some problems - even though we won by 7 wickets after their batting didn't quite come together after a bright start.  It was good to see this kind of 'shop window' appear and it eventually led to the value of Wes being realised and a permanent contract with Derbyshire.  Three wins in the 40 over format out of three.  things were looking up.

To be continued