The Reverse Sweep

County Championship 2012 Preview: Division 2 - Yorkshire

In the words of their own Chairman, Yorkshire's players were a bloody disgrace as they were relegated last season. Their woes were compounded when Lancashire finally ended their 77 year long wait for the title.

Strengths

Where do you start? The squad is a seriously good one. Ryan Sidebottom oozes class with the new ball, Tim Bresnan should play a few games, Ajmal Shahzad can surely not endure as poor a season as last nor Adil Rashid. The batting is bristling with talent with Joe Root, Jonathan Bairstow and captain Andrew Gale leading the way. Phil Jacques is an excellent choice as overseas batsman and could do what Jacques Rudolph did for years.

Weaknesses

An unerring ability to shoot themselves in the foot. Expectations will be high so a good start will be necessary to prevent the loss of form and confidence suffered by the likes of Shahzad, Rashid and Adam Lyth last season

Main man

The star of Adil Rashid waned dramatically in 2011, but leg spinners tend to mature like a fine bottle of Chateau Lafitte - it takes time, care and patience. The arrival of Jason Gillespie as coach and the prospect of a long line of quivvering Division 2 batsmen could provide the spur that the 24 year old needs to revive his fortunes.

Look out for

Plenty of quips, barbs and controversy as Geoffrey Boycott takes a turn at being President. The sight of him in the nets with a stick of rhubarb will be one to behold.

Prediction

Champions - far too good for Division 2.

Where next? 

Read our Division 1 previews: Durham, Lancashire, Middlesex, Notts, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire and Worcestershire

Division 2 previews: Derbyshire, Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northants and Yorkshire

2011 County Cricket Review: including Heroes of the Season, Best and Worst XIs, and a whole host of other nonsense

County Championship 2011 Preview - Yorkshire

Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves gets straight to the point

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes 

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

County Championship XI of the week #12

 
The ECB seem to have played pin the tail on the donkey with the fixture list, so inexplicable was the sudden reappearance of the County Championship this week. Nevertheless, we are duty bound to select our XI of the week, so here goes:

Ian Westwood (Warwickshire) – With not even a 50 to his name in 2011, it didn’t need director of cricket Ashley Giles to warn that his former captain’s season had reached a “crossroads”. So by featuring in a 202 opening stand and going on to score his first Championship ton since 2009, Westwood will have hoped to have turned a very important corner.

Stephen Moore (Lancashire) – His first hundred since July 2009 and his maiden one for Lancashire couldn’t have come at a more critical time as his unbeaten 124 steered his side to a tricky victory target of 240 at Trent Bridge.

Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire) – Victories at New Road have proved to be like London buses for the home side and it was Solanki who set up their nine wicket win and second successive home triumph (and only their second in Division 1 since 2004) with a sparkling 173 against basement side Hampshire.

Paul Collingwood (Durham) – Whilst his omission from the England ODI and T20 squads confirmed the end of the international career of England’s working class hero, it was typical of the man to hit a defiant hundred in his first Championship outing of the season. Colly took a couple of wickets too for good measure.

Alex Gidman (Gloucestershire) – In the battle of the captains for the last batting slot in our XI, it is Andrew Gale who has to give way despite his unbeaten 101 steering Yorkshire to safety at the Riverside. Gidman followed up his 1st innings 43 with an unbeaten 76 to lead his side to their target of 161 at The Oval having slipped to a precarious 54/5.

Shakib Al Hasan (Worcestershire) – One of the driving forces behind Worcestershire’s promotion last season came back for a one-off Championship guest appearance. And what a cameo it was, with seven wickets and a quickfire 54 to help lift his side out of the relegation places.

Phil Mustard (Durham) – Made the most of a charmed innings against Yorkshire to crash 70 off just 67 balls to hand Durham the initiative. Now has 436 Championship runs in 2011 at an average of 109 and a strike rate just a touch under 80 as his side lead the way in Division 1.

David Lucas (Northamptonshire) – A stunning match for the left-arm seamer at Grace Road saw him follow up a haul of 4/55 with a career best 60 as nightwatchman, before taking 5/20 as Leicestershire were skittled second time around for 48.

Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire) – A feature of Lancashire’s season is the collective effort of the squad. Even the sometime malfunctioning and misfiring Mahmood stepped up at Trent Bridge with match figures of 10/186 – albeit at over five runs an over - and a handy knock of 46 to help defeat the reigning champs.

Boyd Rankin (Warwickshire) – Alan Richardson and Tim Murtagh may have bagged nine wicket hauls, but it is Rankin who gets into our XI for being acknowledged as the catalyst behind his side’s triumph over Somerset. Rankin’s pace, hostility, bounce and movement hauled his opponents back on a pristine batting wicket with his burst of three wickets for four runs being the decisive act of the game. "Rankin just blew us away," Marcus Trescothick admitted afterwards.

Ian Saxelby (Gloucestershire) – The 22 year old grabbed career best figures of 6/69 and the first ten wicket match haul of his career as Gloucestershire surprised Surrey sans walk-on girls at The Oval.

Where next?

Read all our County Cricket coverage

See if you agree with our other County Championship XIs of the week

Strauss’s Somerset stint is a sad indictment of county cricket

Gideon Haigh eulogises Test cricket and compares it to The Pixies

Ten to watch in 2011: Adam Lyth, Jade Dernbach,  Rory Hamilton-Brown, Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Danny Briggs, Ben Stokes, James Harris, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Who should make the England Lions XI to play the Sri Lankans?

 
The England selectors will meet in the coming days to pick their Lions squad to face the Sri Lankan tourists in a game starting on 19th May at Derby.

They will have their work cut out as one of the features of what has been a fascinating start to the County Championship is the number of impressive performances by young English cricketers.

We’ve had a go at naming our XI:

Varun Chopra (Warwickshire) – The former England under-19 captain has started the season like a runaway train and deserves an opportunity to see whether he can flourish against an international bowling attack.

Adam Lyth (Yorkshire) – Whilst the young opener still needs to turn more of his fifties into big hundreds, he is still probably at the head of a queue that also includes Stephen Moore and Jimmy Adams. But for injury Alex Hales and Michael Carberry would also have come into the equation.

James Hildreth (Captain, Somerset) – Has had a bit of a slow start to the season after a phenomenal summer in 2010 and impressive performances for the Lions over the winter, but is still on the shortlist for the vacancy created in the Test side by the retirement of Paul Collingwood.

Ravi Bopara (Essex) – With Eoin Morgan opting for the riches of the IPL, Bopara is Collingwood’s probable replacement in the Test squad. He is running into form with the bat as an unbeaten match-winning ton in his last Championship match Glamorgan testifies. Underrated bowler.

James Taylor (Leicestershire) – Supremely talented and gutsy too, if his batting against a fiery Surrey attack on a lively Oval pitch last week is anything to go by. It is a case of when, not if, Taylor plays Test cricket. Other middle-order batsmen that could come into contention include Samit Patel, Andrew Gale and Ben Stokes.

Craig Kieswetter (Somerset) – It’s a borderline decision between the Somerset keeper and Stephen Davies, but Kieswetter has made the more impressive start to the season. Jonathan Bairstow may also get a mention in dispatches.

Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) – Presumably the selectors know all they need to about Monty Panesar, so the game against Sri Lanka offers another opportunity to take a look at the young Rashid - still the pick of an ever-growing list of young English spinners that also includes Danny Briggs, Scott Borthwick and Simon Kerrigan.

Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) – Not many have started the season better than Warwickshire’s bowling all-rounder, who has 24 wickets in the Championship at 18.54 and 262 runs at 52.40. A real candidate for further England honours after demonstrating he had the temperament for international cricket in Australia over the winter.

Ajmal Shahzad (Yorkshire) – Has now been on the fringes of the England Test, ODI and T20 sides for a while now and deserves his chance to show what he can do against the tourists. Alex Hales’ jaw will vouch that Shahzad has fully recovered from the injury that saw his World Cup curtailed early.

Steve Finn (Middlesex) – With Chris Tremlett, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad likely to be in a three-way race for two spots in the Test XI, the selectors will probably want to take a look at next cab on the rank Finn in a Lions shirt.

Jade Dernbach (Surrey) – The surprise late call-up to the World Cup looked the real deal against Leicestershire last week and will probably pip the likes of Steve Kirby, Stuart Meaker, James Harris, the returning Graham Onions and 17 year old Reece Topley to the final spot in the XI.

Where next?

County Championship XI of the week #5

Our ten to watch in 2011: Adam Lyth, Jade Dernbach,  Rory Hamilton-Brown, Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Danny Briggs, Ben Stokes, James Harris, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid

An England under-23 XI - the future looks bright

2010 County XI of the season

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County Championship XI of the week #3

 
As we wrote yesterday, round 3 of the County Championship produced some classic matches, fine individual performances and generally showed that rumours of its imminent death had been greatly exaggerated.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, trying to whittle down the top performers to an XI is an arduous task to say the least. We could find no place for Zander de Bruyn despite his 172 against Glamorgan, nor Tom Maynard who served his revenge cold against his former county with 123 in the same match.

Spare a thought too for Tony Palladino, whose nine wickets and 44 unbeaten runs from number 11 proved in vain against Middlesex. Gary Keedy and Farveez Maharoof also miss out despite starring for Lancashire in their innings win over Somerset.

Here without further ado is our XI for this week:

Varun Chopra (Warwickshire) – from 409 runs in the whole Championship season in 2010 to a sublime 471 in just two matches this season. A second successive double hundred turned the match around at New Road for Warwickshire. A talent that is finally flourishing.

Alastair Cook (Essex) – the tormentor of the Australians got his season off and running with 155 against Northants - an innings described by Derek Pringle as clean and exhilirating. More of the same against Sri Lanka and India please.

Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire) – One of our 10 to watch in 2011 ploughed a lone furrow in the 1st innings at Headingley with a magificent 85 (off just 89 balls) in a sorry Notts total of 143, and then repeated the dose with 83 (off 112) second time around to help stun Yorkshire.

Luke Wells (Sussex) – maiden first-class hundred from the 20 year old was the solid backbone of Sussex's impressive chase of 309 to beat Durham (despite a late scare) at Chester-le-Street.

Andrew Gale (Yorkshire) – looked to have secured Yorkshire's complete supremacy against Notts with a brilliant 145 not out. Alas a 193 run 1st innings lead did not prove enough.

Chris Read (Nottinghamshire) – How many times has Read scored runs when Notts were in dire straits? His 86 and partnership of 150 with Steven Mullaney gave his side something to bowl at and led to a stunning comeback win against Yorkshire.

Gareth Berg (Middlesex) – six wickets and a match-winning knock of 80 as Middlesex chased down 328 at Derby

Chaminda Vaas (Northamptonshire) – five for 76 in a first innings of 433 and then hit 96 as Northants wrested back the initiative against Essex at Wantage Road.

Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) – a crucial first-innings 47 gave his side at least a few runs to play with before a brilliant performance with the ball saw his six second innings wickets condemn unlucky Worcestershire to defeat at New Road.

Ryan Sidebottom (Yorkshire) - couldn't have done much more to secure a win over his former county with match figures of eight for 97 against Nottinghamshire. Getting into this XI is unlikely to prove much consolation.

Monty Panesar (Sussex) – seven wickets for 144 in 44 controlled overs helped Sussex back into the match twice at Chester-le-Street. Any spinner who takes four wickets on day one of a Championship match at Durham in April deserves automatic selection.

Where next?

County Championship XI of the week #2

County Championship XI of the week #1

Ten to watch in 2011: Adam Lyth, Jade Dernbach,  Rory Hamilton-Brown, Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Danny Briggs, Ben Stokes, James Harris, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid

An England under-23 XI - the future looks bright

County Championship Previews - Division 2: Derbyshire, Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire,  Kent,  Leicestershire,  Middlesex,  Northamptonshire,  Surrey

County Championship Previews - Division 1:  Yorkshire,  Worcestershire,  Warwickshire, Sussex,  Somerset,  Nottinghamshire,  Lancashire,  Hampshire,  Durham

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Yorkshire

 
The White Rose county are swiftly becoming our second favourite team for their exciting young side and a seemingly endless supply of talented English cricketers. They were in the mix for the title right up until the final round of matches in 2010, before finishing third. Can they climb the final two steps in 2011?

Strengths

One would think that such a young side can only get better. The squad certainly looks well-balanced with a good leader in Andrew Gale and an abundance of talent in the batting ranks with the likes of Gale himself, Adam Lyth, Jonathan Bairstow, Anthony McGrath and the dogged Joe Sayers.

The bowling looks strong also with England stars Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad, backed up by the returning Ryan Sidebottom, Steven Pattinson and Oliver Hannon-Dalby. That’s the pace department taken care of and then you have spinners Adil Rashid and the hopefully rehabilitated David Wainwright.

All in all Yorkshire have the look of a side that could go all the way.

Weaknesses

The loss of Jacques Rudolph is massive – whereas as last season the likes of Lyth and Bairstow provided support to Yorkshire’s main batting star, this time they will have to be the ones getting the big hundreds. The talent in the squad means the likes of Bresnan, Shahzad and possibly Rashid and Gale will be called away by England.

Main man

After being messed around a bit by England, Adil Rashid took some time to get started last season but when he did wickets and runs flowed in equal measure. Expect the upward curve to continue in 2011.

Look out for…

A serious tilt at the title and more plaudits for Gale’s captaincy.

Prediction

3rd – If Rudolph was still around then we’d be backing them for the title, but otherwise we expect them to fall a bit short.

Where next?

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Sussex

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Somerset

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Nottinghamshire

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Lancashire

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Hampshire

County Championship Preview - Division 1: Durham

2010 County XI of the season

Read all our 2011 World Cup posts here

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Steve Finn wins the big prize of the season

Well, not really. But the inevitable has become reality and after leading pretty much from the first hurdle, Steve Finn has won our County Player to Watch of the season.

Back in April, we named our 12 county players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2) and devised a probably flawed scoring system to assess which player(s) of our chosen few would make the biggest impact during the long 2010 English domestic season. We later expanded this list to 16 to incorporate four extra players who had made a flying start to the campaign.

But after taking 14 wickets against Worcestershire back in April, Finn led the table for all but a short time as the extra points on offer for any of our 16 who graduated to the test team proved decisive. Finn is probably a worthy winner, but looking elsewhere in the final table we may have to refine the points categories for next season.

Despite having a fantastic World T20, Craig Kieswetter's season was disappointing, which suggests his runners-up position in our table is too high. Similarly, Chris Tremlett's 48 wickets at just over 20 suggests that he finished too low in the table.

But with a few notable exceptions, we are pretty pleased with the 16 we chose. Most achieved and enhanced their reputations and of the few who didn't (Sam Northeast, David Wainwright and Scott Borthwick), we are confident that there is much more to come.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	13	231		County Appearance	5
Kieswetter	Somerset	28	196		Lions Appearance	10
Rashid	Yorkshire	16	186		Test appearance	20
Hildreth	Somerset	16	185		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Taylor	Leics	19	171		Score of 40-49	3
Bopara	Essex	21	162		50-99	5
Woakes	Warks	17	159		100-199	10
Gale	Yorkshire	18	155		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	16	132		3 wickets in an innings	3
Panesar	Sussex	16	130		4 wickets	5
Northeast	Kent	16	111		5 or 6 wickets	10
Tremlett	Surrey	12	110		7wickets+	20
Stokes	Durham	13	109		Catches	1
Hales	Notts	12	104		Stumpings	3
Borthwick	Durham	10	67
Wainwright	Yorkshire	5	29

 

Our England Ashes and Lions squads for Australia

 
No doubt in between the latest news from Darlington football club and an exclusive from the Blue Square Premier league, England's Ashes squad will be announced on Sky Sports News tomorrow afternoon.

Most pundits have already had a go at picking their squads and it seems an opportune time for us to update the XVII we selected a couple of weeks ago (see Is this how England's Ashes squad should shape up?).

The retirement of Ryan Sidebottom means that we have to change our squad and we've also reconsidered our earlier decision to drop Eoin Morgan from the party in favour of Michael Carberry. Our reasoning that we were worried about the form of Alastair Cook still stands but it would be too harsh on Morgan and in any case Paul Collingwood's form is just as much a concern as Cook's so Carberry can be on hand at the Academy should he be needed.

Talking of the Academy or the Lions or whatever other name they will be called, we have also selected our shadow squad who will be in Australia should injuries or form necessitate changes within the Ashes party. Given what happened in 2002/03 and 2006/07 it will be no bad thing to have additional English cricketers on hand if and likely when the need arises.

Ashes party

As we wrote a couple of weeks ago, the squad pretty much picks itself with the XI from the Pakistan series plus Ian Bell an additional wicket keeper (either Kieswetter or Davies), a second spinner (Panesar, Tredwell or Rashid) and two or three extra seamers (Shahzad, Bresnan and Tremlett).

If reports are to be believed then Davies, Tredwell, Shahzad and Bresnan will make the cut. We've got no problem with Davies, who seems to have supplanted Kieswetter as Prior's deputy or Shahzad, whose pace and ability to reverse the old ball could be a useful option on the dry Australian pitches.

The selection of Tredwell though would surely be a mistake. He is less likely to take a bagful of wickets then Rashid or Panesar, isn't as good with the bat as the young Yorkshire leg spinner and doesn't have the experience in Australian conditions of Monty who did reasonably well on the 2006/07 tour. Two spinners may be required at Adelaide and/or Sydney and Panesar's slow left arm complement to Swann, experience and wicket taking ability would seem to be the best option. Tredwell would likely be cannon fodder to the Australian batsmen.

As for the extra seamers, we stand by our choice of Tremlett ahead of Bresnan. The former has had an excellent season for Surrey (48 championship wickets at 20.18), seems finally free of injuries and is far more suited to Australian wickets than the ineffective Bresnan who to be frank is out of his depth at test level.

With Sidebottom retired, we now go for a squad of XVI rather than one of XVII with our first XI for the Brisbane test in bold:

The Reverse Sweep's Ashes Squad: Strauss (C), Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn, Morgan, Davies, Panesar, Tremlett & Shahzad.

The Academy / Lions party

We'd opt for an extended group here with a mixture of reserves for the Ashes squad (Bopara, Carberry, Rashid and Bresnan) and the next generation of England youngsters. We'd also select Simon Jones and Samit Patel. Yes, we know that Jones only played one match for Hampshire this season, but where better to monitor his rehabilitation from a string of injuries then the Academy? It would also be a useful fillip for his confidence. 

We'd also take Patel. Forget the weight issues, Patel should arguably be in the England ODI team for the World Cup ahead of Michael Yardy. The selectors would be able to monitor Patel's progress at the Academy and then make a final decision about his form, fitness, attitude and suitability for a recall based on first-hand evidence. Again our first-choice XI is highlighted in bold.

The Reverse Sweep's Lions/Academy squad: Carberry, Alex Hales, Adam Lyth, James Taylor, Bopara, Andrew Gale (C), James Hildreth, Ben Stokes, Samit Patel, Kieswetter, Jos Buttler, Rashid, Samit Patel, Luke Wright, Bresnan, Chris Woakes, James Harris, Toby Roland-Jones, Simon Jones  

ECB get the County Championship finish they don't deserve

The final round of County Championship matches started yesterday with three teams battling it out to be Division 1 champions. After losing their last two matches, Nottinghamshire are fading fast and will hope that their slender two point advantage over Somerset proves crucial in the final reckoning.

Somerset have never won the title, but if they can overcome Durham then captain Marcus Trescothick could get the reward that his glittering career deserves. His counterpart at Yorkshire, Andrew Gale, would also be a worthy holder of the trophy should the White Rose county overhaul the two teams above them.

Not so worthy of recognition are the ECB who have served up a real hotch potch of a season. No test matches for England at the height of summer in July, an overlong Twenty 20 competition and a further degradation of the championship have been some but not all of the blunders served up by Giles Clarke and his fellow clowns.

As the season reaches its conclusion we've remembered that we've been as absent-minded as the ECB in not posting an update of our County Player of the Season table in the last few weeks. Anyway the penultimate table is below and it looks like Steve Finn is going to win another (albeit obscure) award in his breakthrough season.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	13	231		County Appearance	5
Kieswetter	Somerset	27	186		Lions Appearance	10
Rashid	Yorkshire	15	180		Test appearance	20
Hildreth	Somerset	15	170		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Bopara	Essex	19	155		Score of 40-49	3
Taylor	Leics	18	154		50-99	5
Gale	Yorkshire	17	150		100-199	10
Woakes	Warks	16	144		200+	20
Panesar	Sussex	15	122		3 wickets in an innings	3
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	15	119		4 wickets	5
Stokes	Durham	13	109		5 or 6 wickets	10
Northeast	Kent	15	105		7wickets+	20
Tremlett	Surrey	11	99		Catches	1
Hales	Notts	11	98		Stumpings	3
Borthwick	Durham	9	61
Wainwright	Yorkshire	5	29

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fared over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We later extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

Chris Tremlett & Monty Panesar give England selectors an Ashes nudge

With just the final test at Lord's to go, the England selectors will soon have the test after that on their minds. The small matter of the first Ashes test against Australia at Brisbane, which starts on 25th November.

Despite a poor performance at The Oval, the XI who have featured in the three tests to date against Pakistan are racing certainties to be included in the Ashes party to be named some time in September. But spots are up for grabs for extra pacemen and a second spinner.

It is a big season for Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar with their respective new counties Surrey and Sussex. Tremlett played three tests against India in 2007 and did reasonably well, but since then inconsistency and above all injury, has seen him slip off the selectors radar. A feeling that he lacks the inner fire of a Stuart Broad has also not helped his cause. But his season for Surrey is getting better and better and match figures of 38.1-12-87-8 last week against Worcestershire seem to suggest he is back to his best. He now has 38 championship wickets at 19.6 this season. Is it too late for him as far as England are concerned? Or will the selectors take a gamble on a bowler whose height and bounce would seem to be ideal for Australian conditions?

Panesar would seem to be the favourite for the second spinners role ahead of the untried Adil Rashid. After an annus horribilis in 2009, Panesar seems to have got his mojo back at Sussex where his 43 wickets at 24.11 have helped Sussex top the Division 2 table. Like Tremlett, Monty too is coming into form at the right time and last week took match figures of seven for 122 as Derbyshire were humbled at Horsham.

Elsewhere in our County Player off the Year table, Steve Finn extends his lead despite a poor game at The Oval with second placed Rashid only bowling nine overs on a seamers wicket at Chester-le-Street. Other players to shine in the latest round of county championship matches were James Hildreth, who continued his fine recent form with 84 and 59 in Somerset's victory over Essex, and Andrew Gale, who rediscovered his early season form with a rapid 70 not out in Yorkshire's run chase against Durham.

The latest table is below:

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	11	203		County Appearance	5
Rashid	Yorkshire	13	164		Lions Appearance	10
Kieswetter	Somerset	24	162		Test appearance	20
Hildreth	Somerset	13	160		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Taylor	Leics	16	143		Score of 40-49	3
Bopara	Essex	14	130		50-99	5
Gale	Yorkshire	15	130		100-199	10
Panesar	Sussex	13	112		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	13	104		3 wickets in an innings	3
Stokes	Durham	12	104		4 wickets	5
Woakes	Warks	14	103		5 or 6 wickets	10
Northeast	Kent	13	89		7wickets+	20
Tremlett	Surrey	9	86		Catches	1
Hales	Notts	8	69		Stumpings	3
Borthwick	Durham	6	37
Wainwright	Yorkshire	5	29

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fared over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We later extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix. 

James Hildreth enjoys the joy of six

Whilst we've been away some teams have played two county matches (and have started their third this week), which means that the Reverse Sweep County Player of the Year table is in need of a bit of an update.

Steve Finn is still out in front thanks to the extra points available for those lucky enough to play test cricket and because he keeps taking wickets. Though maybe we need to readjust the points given that the Pakistan batting line-up would probably struggle against a Division Two county attack at present?

Of those in close pursuit, Adil Rashid had a quiet match against Nottinghamshire a couple of weeks ago, which has allowed Craig Kieswetter and James Hildreth to close the gap in third and fourth. Hildreth has now hit six championship hundreds this season and may yet prove Justin Langer's opinion that the Somerset batsman was "an extraordinary talent" correct.

Elsewhere Scott Borthwick has managed to move off the bottom of the table thanks to him being picked by Durham. The much vaunted David Wainwright is now bottom of the pile ridiculing suggestions by some at the start of the season that he could move up the blind side to be named as the second spinner in this winter's Ashes party. Watch out though for Chris Tremlett, who is close to his best now that both fitness and rhythm have returned.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	10	183		County Appearance	5
Rashid	Yorkshire	12	159		Lions Appearance	10
Kieswetter	Somerset	23	152		Test appearance	20
Hildreth	Somerset	12	145		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Taylor	Leics	16	143		Score of 40-49	3
Bopara	Essex	13	124		50-99	5
Gale	Yorkshire	14	120		100-199	10
Panesar	Sussex	12	99		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	12	99		3 wickets in an innings	3
Stokes	Durham	11	97		4 wickets	5
Woakes	Warks	13	95		5 or 6 wickets	10
Northeast	Kent	12	84		7wickets+	20
Tremlett	Surrey	8	71		Catches	1
Hales	Notts	7	61		Stumpings	3
Borthwick	Durham	6	37
Wainwright	Yorkshire	5	29

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fared over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We later extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix. 

Steven Finn is back in charge

With Adil Rashid and Yorkshire not having a game, Steven Finn eased back to the head of our County Player to Watch 2010 Table with five wickets in England's demolition of Pakistan at Trent Bridge. Finn must now be hot favourite to win this title given that he has three more tests to come against Pakistan's fragile batting line-up over the next few weeks.

Elsewhere it was a quiet week with six of our sixteen's counties not in Championship action. Three players did impress however. James Hildreth hit his fourth championship ton of the summer, a season's best 142, as Somerset trounced Nottinghamshire. Craig Kieswetter also got amongst the runs with 73 in the same match. The other player to shine was Chris Tremlett who bowled a fiery new spell to take three wickets in five balls against Middlesex and ended up with four for 90. He also scored 53 not out, but was unable to avert an innings defeat for his county Surrey.

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fared over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We later extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix. 

 

 

Adil Rashid is knock, knock, knocking on England's door

As is often the case, we found ourselves agreeing with a discussion on Test Match Sofa during coverage of the Australia-Pakistan test at Headingley. This particular debate related to Adil Rashid and whether he should be elevated to the Englandtest and/or one day squad. So far this season, Rashid has taken 49 championship wickets at 27.87 and scored 524 runs at 52.40. These are stats that the likes of Tim Bresnan, Luke Wright and James Tredwell, all of whom seem ahead of Rashid in the England pecking order, could only dream of.

In our humble opinion, Rashid should go to Australia (just ahead of Monty Panesar) as the second spinner where he could expect to play at Adelaide and/or Sydney. The Yorkshire leg-spinner should certainly go to the World Cup, where three spinners will be required. But will the England selectors go where their Australian counterparts have already trod by picking fellow young leg spinner (but inferior to Rashid) Steve Smith?

Whatever his fate over the winter, Rashid stretches his lead at the top of our County Player to Watch in 2010 table, despite the return of erstwhile leader Steve Finn from his strength conditioning course. Rashid took five for 87 and scored 52 not out as Yorkshire drew with Essexin Division 1. That is Rashid's third successive championship five for and he has now amassed 24 wickets in those three matches - a rich vein of form indeed.

Elsewhere, Ravi Bopara continued his resurgence in form with a hundred in each innings in the aforementioned clash with Yorkshire. He too must be in serious contention for a place in England's Ashes squad. Monty Panesar also is right back in form, taking his second successive five for (including the wicket of England captain Andrew Strauss) as Sussex just failed to beat Middlesex in Division 2.

Other notable performances included a swashbuckling hundred from Rory Hamilton-Brown in Surrey's innings victory over Northants plus fifties from James Taylor and Alex Hales for Leicestershire against Glamorgan and Notts in their win over Warwickshire respectively.

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We recently extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix. 

It's Spin City as Rashid and Panesar impress

The race for the Reverse Sweep County Player of the Year Award heated up this week as Adil Rashid and Monty Panesar spun their sides to victory in the County Championship.

Rashid took his season's tally to 42 wickets with nine for 208 in the match as Yorkshire returned to the top of the Division 1 table. With Steve Finn still on his strength conditioning course (which, will doubtless last until Ricky Ponting and his men board their Qantas jet back to Sydney), Rashid takes over at the top of the table.

Meanwhile, Panesar took his first five for since September 2008 as he inspired his side Sussex back to the top of the Division 2 table. Both will be eyeing a spot in the Ashes squad and are surely each a better bet than James Tredwell as a potential second spinner at Adelaide and Sydney?

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We recently extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

Elsewhere, Ravi Bopara and Andrew Gale took advantage of their opportunities with England A to make a move up the table. Bopara had an extraordinary match against West Indies A hitting 168 and then taking four for 43 - surely he should be playing as the number six in the full England ODI side? Gale hit 90 in the final as England A beat India A to the title.

Finally, the immensely promising Sam Northeast hit a fifty for Kent against Hampshire, but all to no avail as Kent slipped to a heavy defeat.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Rashid	Yorkshire	10	132		County Appearance	5
Finn	Middlesex	7	129		Lions Appearance	10
Kieswetter	Somerset	18	107		Test appearance	20
Gale	Yorkshire	12	104		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Taylor	Leics	12	101		Score of 40-49	3
Hildreth	Somerset	8	90		50-99	5
Bopara	Essex	10	88		100-199	10
Woakes	Warks	11	84		200+	20
Stokes	Durham	8	76		3 wickets in an innings	3
Panesar	Sussex	9	74		4 wickets	5
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	9	73		5 or 6 wickets	10
Northeast	Kent	9	66		7wickets+	20
Hales	Notts	4	38		Catches	1
Tremlett	Surrey	5	38		Stumpings	3
Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24
Borthwick	Durham	4	22

Adil Rashid stalks Steven Finn as Championship returns

The County Championship returned on Monday without any fanfare after a three week break, during which domestic cricket has been devoted to the never ending saga of the FP t20 competition.

Contradictorily the shortest form of the game lends itself to a competition longer than War and Peace and unbelievably we are still only about halfway through the league part of the tournament, so the Championship will have to settle for second place on the bill until the end of July.

Still the return of the Championship plus England's Nat West series with Australia and the parallel England A tri-one day series with India A and West Indies A means that the table to determine our leading county player of the season has resumed with relish.

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We recently extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

Anyway, with Steven Finn off having strength conditioning, Adil Rashid took advantage to move within 18 points of the 'new Glenn McGrath' with an excellent all-round performance in the Roses match; why the leg spinner is not in the England A squad, we will never know. Craig Kieswetter also moves up the table thanks to five matches in England one day colours against Scotland and Australia, despite disappointing returns against the latter. Elsewhere, Chris Tremlett's four for 94 saw Surrey prevail against Derbyshire, James Taylor's 43 not out saw Leicestershire past the post against Worcestershire and Ravi Bopara's bowling continued to impress for England A.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	7	129		County Appearance	5
Rashid	Yorkshire	9	111		Lions Appearance	10
Kieswetter	Somerset	16	100		Test appearance	20
Taylor	Leics	10	94		T20I/ODI/Lions one day	3
Gale	Yorkshire	10	93		Score of 40-49	3
Hildreth	Somerset	8	90		50-99	5
Stokes	Durham	8	76		100-199	10
Woakes	Warks	8	74		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	9	73		3 wickets in an innings	3
Bopara	Essex	7	62		4 wickets	5
Panesar	Sussex	8	56		5 or 6 wickets	10
Northeast	Kent	8	55		7wickets+	20
Tremlett	Surrey	5	38		Catches	1
Hales	Notts	3	32		Stumpings	3
Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24
Borthwick	Durham	4	22

  

Finn consolidates lead as championship takes a break

Another fine performance from Steven Finn in England colours consolidated his lead at the top of our table of county players to watch this season. For the second successive match, Finn took a five for as England eased to a 2-0 series victory.

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We recently extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

Elsewhere, Alex Hales impressed again with a quickfire 95 at the top of the order in Notts draw with Kent whilst James Hildreth continued his rich vein of form with another fifty in Somerset's defeat of Warwickshire. The others of our 16 to shine were Ravi Bopara, who scored 61 to help steer Essex out of a hole against Hampshire and James Taylor, who followed up his double hundred against Middlesex with 63 as Leicestershire beat troubled Surrey by an innings.

The championship now takes a break until the end of June as the Friends Provident T20 takes over. As a purist we don't like to see what should be the centrepiece of the domestic game taken over by the hit and giggle of Twenty20, but money talks and it seems that the counties are as greedy as the next man in the street.

Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	7	129		County Appearance	5
Hildreth	Somerset	8	90		Lions Appearance	10
Rashid	Yorkshire	8	89		Test appearance	20
Taylor	Leics	9	86		T20I/ODI appearance	3
Gale	Yorkshire	8	85		Score of 40-49	3
Woakes	Warks	8	74		50-99	5
Kieswetter	Somerset	11	70		100-199	10
Stokes	Durham	7	68		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	8	65		3 wickets in an innings	3
Panesar	Sussex	8	56		4 wickets	5
Northeast	Kent	8	55		5 or 6 wickets	10
Bopara	Essex	5	48		7wickets+	20
Hales	Notts	3	32		Catches	1
Tremlett	Surrey	4	28		Stumpings	3
Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24
Borthwick	Durham	4	22

 

 

 

Steven Finn roars back to the top of the table

Steven Finn roared back to the top of our table of county players to watch this season with his nine wicket haul in his first home test match at Lord's over the weekend.

Regular visitors to this site will know that just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch (see Part 1 and Part 2 here). We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the 2010 season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. We recently extended this list to 16, adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

Finn now has a big lead at the top of the table as the points system is weighted towards test appearances and performances. He was helped by the weather decimating the programme of county matches, which meant only two of our 16 were able to star. Prior to the game against Middlesex, James Taylor has not been able to repeat the excellent consistency of 2009, but he came back to form with a bang with an unbeaten double century.

And for the second successive match, Adil Rashid took four wickets and hit a fifty as the Roses petered out to a draw. Rashid seems to have regained form and confidence and with the World Cup being on the subcontinent next year, maybe now is the time that the England selectors gave him a run in the side for the forthcoming one day matches with Australia and Bangladesh.

The Reverse Sweep's County Players to watch 2010 - League Table
Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Finn	Middlesex	6	99		County Appearance	5
Rashid	Yorkshire	8	89		Lions Appearance	10
Gale	Yorkshire	8	85		Test appearance	20
Hildreth	Somerset	7	77		T20I/ODI appearance	3
Taylor	Leics	8	75		Score of 40-49	3
Stokes	Durham	7	68		50-99	5
Woakes	Warks	7	66		100-199	10
Kieswetter	Somerset	10	59		200+	20
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	7	59		3 wickets in an innings	3
Northeast	Kent	7	50		4 wickets	5
Panesar	Sussex	7	50		5 or 6 wickets	10
Bopara	Essex	4	38		7wickets+	20
Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24		Catches	1
Tremlett	Surrey	3	23		Stumpings	3
Borthwick	Durham	4	22
Hales	Notts	2	21

16 County players to watch in 2010 - Round 8 League Table

Just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch - see Part 1 and Part 2 here. We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the coming season, so devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress. Last week we extended this list to 16 adding Andrew Gale, Chris Woakes, James Hildreth and Ben Stokes to the mix.

With Steve Finn called up for the England test match, Gale, Hildreth and Adil Rashid have stolen a temporary march on the tall Middlesex paceman to fill the top three places. Gale scored another 50 in Yorkshire's draw with Hampshire as did Rashid, who also took four for 62 in the first innings to finally look like his confidence is returning with the ball. Hildreth continued his fantastic recent run with 131 in Somerset's comfortable victory over Warwickshire.

Elsewhere Stokes smashed a defiant quickfire 50 in Durham's heavy defeat by Kent, whilst Rory Hamilton-Brown hit an equally rapid 45 in Surrey's successful run chase against Northampton. Hamilton-Brown will be happier that the victory was his first as Surrey skipper and indeed the county's first in 17 championship matches.

The next round of championship matches, which begin on Saturday are the last for a while with the FPT20 competition kicking off next week. So stay tuned to see how we fit the T20 into this league, if at all...

The Reverse Sweep's County Players to watch 2010 - League Table
Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
Gale	Yorkshire	7	79		County Appearance	5
Hildreth	Somerset	7	77		Lions Appearance	10
Rashid	Yorkshire	7	72		Test appearance	20
Finn	Middlesex	5	64		T20I/ODI appearance	3
Stokes	Durham	6	62		Score of 40-49	3
Woakes	Warks	6	61		50-99	5
Kieswetter	Somerset	10	59		100-199	10
Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	6	54		200+	20
Northeast	Kent	7	50		3 wickets in an innings	3
Panesar	Sussex	7	50		4 wickets	5
Taylor	Leics	7	49		5 or 6 wickets	10
Bopara	Essex	3	28		7wickets+	20
Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24		Catches	1
Borthwick	Durham	3	17		Stumpings	3
Hales	Notts	1	16
Tremlett	Surrey	2	15

 

12 (now 16) County players to watch in 2010 - Round 7 League Table

Just before the start of the county season, we named our dozen players to watch - see Part 1 and Part 2 here. We thought it would be fun to see how the 12 fare over the coming season, so have devised what is probably a flawed points system to help assess their progress.

It's been a momentous week. First, all English cricket fans are basking in the the success of the England team winning the World T20. Secondly, test cricket returns next week with the start of the England-Bangladesh test series. And third, the English summer has finally arrived (even if we only get to enjoy the sun in our home of the South of France instead :-)

To mark this, we have decided to add four players to our original 12 to watch for this season. It probably isn't cricket, but it is our league and we'll admit we erred in including these four before the season.

The first of the four is Andrew Gale, the 26 year old Yorkshire captain, who has made a fine start to the season both with the bat and in the unique challenge that is skippering Yorkshire. He is already being talked of as a future England captain.

Then we have James Hildreth of Somerset, who has promised much over the years without delivering the final surge required to put him in line for England selection. He has also had a good start to the season and scored a remarkable hundred off 68 balls this week to help Somerset beat Yorkshire.

Next up is Chris Woakes, the Warwickshire all-rounder, who represented the Lions this week and could soon challenge Tim Bresnan and Luke Wright for thier places in the England one day and Twenty 20 sides.

Finally, we have 18 year old Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes. We have hung our heads in shames many times this week for our failure to include him in our original dozen. He is perhaps the most talented of the lot and he had us salivating over his potential when he saw on Sky his hundred against Kent this week (see our 1st and 2nd posts of the week on Stokes).

All this, means it's been a bumper week of movement in the table. All 16 played, even Ravi Bopara who took seven wickets for the Lions and Alex Hales, who made his first championship appearance of the season for Notts and proceeded to score 136 against Hampshire.

Of course, the performance of the week even eclipsing Stokes, was Craig Kieswetter's man of the match performance in the World T20 final. It's been quite a week. 

	The Reverse Sweep's County Players to watch 2010 - League Table
	Player	County	Played	Points		Points awarded*
	Gale	Yorkshire	6	69		County Appearance	5
	Finn	Middlesex	5	64		Lions Appearance	10
	Hildreth	Somerset	6	61		Test appearance	20
	Rashid	Yorkshire	6	57		T20I/ODI appearance	3
	Woakes	Warks	5	56		Score of 40-49	3
	Stokes	Durham	5	52		50-99	5
	Kieswetter	Somerset	9	52		100-199	10
	Hamilton-Brown	Surrey	5	46		200+	20
	Northeast	Kent	6	45		3 wickets in an innings	3
	Panesar	Sussex	6	45		4 wickets	5
	Taylor	Leics	6	44		5 or 6 wickets	10
	Wainwright	Yorkshire	4	24		7wickets+	20
	Bopara	Essex	2	21		Catches	1
	Hales	Notts	1	16		Stumpings	3
	Tremlett	Surrey	2	15
	Borthwick	Durham	2	12