Spin at Northampton
284!!
By Grockle
May 7 2007
2nd in the table as we leave the run infested South West to test ourselves on a possible spin friendly strip in Northampton. Will the powers give Mr Munday a match to show us some of the leggy skills so many think he has in abundance? It seems not as the selectors have opted for 4 seamers and left the spin responsibility to Mr Blackwell once again.
v Northampton LVCC2 @ Northampton Tuesday 8 May 2007
The official site lists a squad of 13 for the trip. It mirrors the Derbyshire side plus a couple more. The full list is;
Trescothick, Edwards. Langer, Hildreth, White, Blackwell, Keiswetter, Trego, Jones, Willoughby, Caddick, Turner and Munday
The only decision seems to be whether Jones and Turner will give way and Michael Munday will play or whether we will go with four seamers and leave the spin work to Cameron and Ian. With the present batting form it is possible to include Munday (a number 11 in the full sense of the word) and still bat to number 9.
I personally expect Jones to miss out in both scenarios and the young leggie to have his head (meaning Turner will also miss out) simply because we may need him in the home match against Gloucestershire and this is the only four day game before that fixture. Therefore we will go into the game with Trescothick, Edwards, Langer, Hildreth, White, Blackwell, Trego, Keiswetter, Caddick, Willoughby, Munday
My prediction. Let's see how close we are.
Well I was out. Steffan plays. We lost the toss and were put in.
Day 1
Trescothick and Edwards put on 96 before Monty fooled Neil and took the first. But that was it for the home team on the first day. Langer helped our Marcus pass 100 before he went for 86 with us well past 300.
By the end of the day Marcus was on 185 and James Hildreth had contributed 51 to our 361 for 2
Day 2
Banger was now in full flow and continued over the 200 mark as Somerset rolled over 400 and towards 500. Both James Hildreth and the Mighty Banger were in the zone. It ended at 519 when Lance Klusener finally took Marcus's wicket for 284. White didn't stay long and then Hilda went on 'Nelson'. But it wasn't over as Ian Blackwell and Peter Trego pushed the score to 641 before Ian went for 81 off 47 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes and a strike rate of 172!!
That ended Day 2
Day 3
An overnight declaration put Northants in and Andy Caddick had the first two out for 35 in the first hour but Sales anchored a fightback helped by the rain which only allowed 34 overs in the day and they ended on 130 for 3
Day 4
Sales making 150 and able support from the Northants tail kept us at bay and when they declared on 400 for 7 the game was effectively over (they got their maximum batting point though).
Caddick got another two quick wickets but after 8 overs the game ended in a draw. We lost nearly a day and had them on the ropes all the way through. A winning draw I think.