Another week of the season has gone and as always there has been plenty to talk about. Whether it’s the return of Graham Onions to the Durham team or the title favourites Somerset succumbing to a defeat of monstrous proportions there is plenty of action to salivate over.
We’ll start with Division One and Headingly where Onions on his return after 15 months of injury torment led Durham to victory with 6 wickets. It’s great to see Onions back to full fitness and he seems to have given Durham the lift they needed after week 1’s disappointment where they couldn’t force a victory and Steve Harmison broke down in both innings. Young English prospects Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid both had quieter games that last week with bat and ball, Dale Benkenstein continued his early season form with an unbeaten hundred and Michael Richardson deputising for Phil Mustard behind the stumps contributed vital fifties in both innings. Lack of runs by the Yorkshire top order has been their undoing so far for them this season, they seem to be missing the consistency of Jacque Rudolph and as yet no one has found much form to replace him.
Elsewhere in Division One champions Nottinghamshire got their season of to the perfect start with a comfortable victory over Hampshire. Andre Adams went a long way to proving last year’s form wasn’t an anomaly as he proved the difference between the two teams taking 11 wickets in the match. It’s been a difficult start to the season for Hampshire with one defeat and one draw and they don’t seem to be living up to my billing as dark horses for the championship, their fast bowlers already have succumbed to various ailments and their batting has been inconsistent.
The biggest surprise potentially of the season (already??) came at Taunton where Warwickshire produced their biggest victory of all time and the 6th biggest in all county cricket winning by an innings and 382 runs. There were a number of star performers for Warwickshire as you would expect. Varun Chopra compiled his highest first class score of 210 as he continued his impressive preseason form and all signs point to this been the season he breaks through properly onto the first class stage. From an early age he has been touted as a potential England player but he has struggled so far moving from Essex to Warwickshire in 2009 and this was only his 3rd first class hundred which makes Chris Woakes’ 4th first class hundred from no.8 all the more impressive. Woakes stroked a run a ball 129 and then ran through Somerset in both innings, narrowly missing out on a 10 wicket match to add to his hundred. For all that Warwickshire were good, Somerset were equally bad. Ajantha Mendis struggled on debut especially on day one bowling countless no balls and dropping short consistently; the batting was awful with no real application shown. Somerset lost their first two games last season and so nearly won the championship but a hammering of this magnitude is something else and has to put doubt into players and pundits alike on Somerset’s chances this season.
There were four fixtures in division 2 with victories for Glamorgan, Derbyshire, Middlesex and Northants leaving Essex as the only team with two defeats from their first two games. I was expecting a better start to the season for Essex with Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook been available from the start of the season but both have failed so far. The only consolation is the emergence of 17 year old left arm pace bowler Reece Topley who has taken 5 wicket hauls in his first two first class games. On England watch in the same match Steve Finn started the season well for Middlesex taking 5 cheap wickets and contributing with the bat.
At present Division 2 looks wide open with every team capable of winning games, Gloucestershire look the weakest but any of the others in my opinion on this initial viewing look capable of challenging for promotion.
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