Round 3

More surprises and big turnarounds characterized this latest round of matches in the county championship.

Role Reversal

Somerset slipped to their second innings defeat of the season at the hands of Lancashire who went top of the table with their second win from two. Looking at the Lancashire squad at the start of the season I struggled to see how they would do anything other than struggle in division one this year, how wrong I have been so far. A lot of the credit has to go to their coach Peter Moores, he seems to have moulded a team with no outstanding individuals into a competitive team. I’m not sure i’d like to pay to watch any of the Lancashire batsmen at present but they seem to be fighting hard and are mentally strong. Somerset on the other hand look mentally shot already, struggling to deal with the hangover from last season and dealing with the pressure of being preseason favourites for every competition going this season. As yet Marcus Trescothick has failed to fire yet and so much of what happens at Somerset tends to lead from the performance that Trescothick puts on. By some accounts his captaincy in the first game of the season was muddled and inconsistent, a couple more losses with no upturn in form for Trescothick may see him pass over the reins possibly to James Hildreth, who captained the England lions over the winter.

Youngsters come good

Sussex, another team I fancied to struggle in division one managed to defeat Durham in a game where Sussex scored the highest innings of the match batting last chasing down 308 to win by two wickets. Monty Panesar had a good game taking 7 wickets; it will be interesting to see how he fares in what is his first season playing in the first division. Early signs are good as he has bowled economically and taken a solid haul of wickets. It was the two youngsters Luke Wells and Ben Brown who shone chasing down the target, Wells scoring a maiden first class hundred and Brown coming out of his early season woes and playing attractively to make 61.

Hale Gale but defeat for Yorkshire

At Headingly a final day collapse by Yorkshire allowed Nottinghamshire to continue their winning start of the season. There were a couple of noteworthy performances by English batting prospects during this match. Alex Hales was the only Nottinghamshire player to look comfortable throughout the match as he played fluently and powerfully scoring at nearly a run a ball as wickets fell at the other end. It had looked like his efforts would all be in vain after Andrew Gales fine first innings 145, Gale exploded once he was joined by the no.11 adding 82 vital runs for the last wicket, Gale scoring 78 of the runs. In all truth Nottinghamshire completely lost it bowling too short and straight allowing Gale to feast on his favoured leg side but again it was another indicator of a strong mind, Gale seems to find runs when the rest of the team is struggling. Yorkshire collapsed on day 3 chasing a measly 145, the loss of Jacques Rudolph looks more and more costly by the week and it seems Yorkshire won’t quite score the runs needed for a good run at the championship.

Miracle Chopra

Another young English batsman was prospering at New Road as Warwickshire produced a memorable turnaround to take back to back wins at the start of the season. For Worcestershire this defeat will be particularly hard to take, as for the second game running they were the better team for the majority of the match before falling away to defeat on the 4^th day. The young batsmen making the headlines was Varun Chopra, making his second double hundred of the season in only his second game. As Worcestershire coach, Steve Rhodes put it ‘The miracle was Chopra's innings. It's unbelievable that he batted for eight hours on that pitch. He played very well.’ Much heavier run scoring by Chopra at this point in the season and you may even hear his name being mentioned as a potential test player this summer, a thought at the start of the season you would think was laughable. Whatever Chopra did over the close season seems to have worked miracles and for the short period that Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell are available for Warwickshire this season, it really will be a formidable batting order, possibly a line up of

Chopra – super early season form

Porterfield – Proved at the world cup that he is a decent opener and sound captain

Trott – Current No.4 and No.7 bat in test and odi cricket respectively

Yousuf – Formerly ranked best batsmen in the world

Bell – No.21 in test rankings. Ever Improving

Clarke – Has started season very well. Bowls with pace and has contributed vital runs

Ambrose – 11 Tests and one hundred for England as WK

Woakes – Takes lots of wickets, career has been injury free so far, more than competent batsman

Carter – 2010 PCA player of the season. Takes lots of wickets and scores plenty of runs from the tail.

Botha – Possible weak link, handy with the bat, average spin with the ball

Rankin – Ireland WC starter, bowls with pace and gets good carry from his tall stature.

Rarely has there been a batting order of such strength in recent years in the county championship and their fast bowling attack looks strong also albeit the spinner in Botha probably is the one weak spot. The top 10 all have first class hundreds and average 20+, sadly for Warwickshire fans this may happen only a couple of times or maybe never. If a team of this compilation or similar does appear this season it will be a must see for county fans.