The County Scene: Week 8 - A mixed week for Essex

It's been a pretty dramatic week at Chelmsford. Well, as dramatic as anything can be in county cricket! Let's start with the bad - the arrest of bowlers Mervyn Westfield and Danish Kaneria in relation to spot-fixing allegations made after a Pro40 match against Durham in September. For those of you who don't know, spot-fixing is basically like match fixing but so much more petty and therefore harder to get caught. Unless you are an idiot. So bets were made relating to the number of runs off an over and when the first wide would be bowled. Minor things like that, which have no overall outcome of the match. Kaneria is a test match bowler with great pedigree and Westfield is a young player with potential - why bother jeopardising your career for such trivialities? How desperate are these guys?

Anyway, those that remained untarnished took to the field against Bangladesh in their second county warm-up of the tour. Here are the results from the two games:

Surrey 318/7d (Spriegel 108*, Meaker 94) and 313/3d (Afzaal 159*, Evans 98) drew with Bangladesh 372/6d (Jahurul Islam 158, Mohammad Ashraful 89)

Essex 313 (Maunders 126, Shahadat Hossain 4-72, Robiul Islam 4-77) and 130/5 beat Bangladesh 231 (Mohammad Ashraful 58, Chambers 4-32) and 211 (Mohammad Ashraful 61) by 5 wickets

So basically it's as we expected. Bangladesh have progressed so far in limited overs cricket recently but still struggle when it comes to first class and Test cricket - the run rates in the Essex game reflect a lack of responsibility about the batting - 3.8 and 4.65 runs per over respectively - all very well if you don't lose wickets to what is a frankly average attack, one of whom, Tony Palladino, was loaned out to Kent during the game! The bowlers also failed to extract anything from the flat Oval wicket, suggesting a lack of penetration in an attack based on spinners. You'd expect England to soundly thrash them in both tests. But well done to the young Surrey and Essex sides, who showcased players of real potential and also to Mohammad Ashraful, a wonderfully gifted batsman looking back in form after a lean spell of several years!

Finally, the Victoria Sponge Lad of the Week Award:

Jos Buttler (Somerset) - I panicked when Craig Kieswetter jetted off to glory in the West Indies - I thought we would be left with Sam Spurway as our stumper, an average keeper who offers nothing with the bat. Instead we got Buttler, who was recommended to me by a reader (OK, it was my brother) as a potential VSLotW winner after his 144 against Hampshire in the Championship. I said no, purely because the Rose Bowl pitched resembled a road, where only 22 wickets fell in the four days - Sean Ervine also posted 237*. Then I changed my mind, when Buttler proved he is also adept in the one day game with 69 off 53 in a chase of 292 against leaders Sussex. Ok so the real star was James Hildreth (100* off 66) but just for filling some big boots so adeptly (he's not a bad keeper either and Dominic Cork no less was impressed with what he saw), local boy Buttler gets the requested nomination.

Gareth Berg (Middlesex) - These boys have been awful this year. So it came as a relief when they thrashed Derbyshire by an innings and 35 runs in the Championship. Berg picked up 3 wickets with his medium pace but it is his 125 at a run a ball in his team's 374 that really made a difference. Steven Finn (4-19 in the 2nd innings) and Neil Dexter (112) also contributed to a fine performance that kick-started Middlesex's season. Berg also went well with the bat against the Netherlands in the CB 40 before the rain arrived with 53 off 42.

The Scotland team - in between the Monaco Grand Prix and World Twenty20 final, I flicked onto the Leicestershire v Scotland match in the CB 40. Scotland always compete in domestic one-day competitions and always lose - they made up of merely "good" club cricketers and I myself play with guys who have played age group cricket for the national side. So to pull out such a performance against a team featuring Paul Nixon, Andrew McDonald and captain Matthew Hoggard was outstanding. They bowled really tight lines as a team to restrict the Grace Road outfit to 217-7 (du Toit 55 off 76, Taylor 51 off 70, Goudie 3-45). They then held their nerve to chase down their target with 4 wickets and 2 balls left, led by overseas star George Bailey and man of the match Richie Berrington (51 off 52). I intend to go to the Grange to see the boys play Nottinghamshire next weekend, so hopefully this form and team effort will continue.

The winner - Jos Buttler... LAD.
RM