Alastair Cook’s Trent Bridge finest lays basis for Essex
Nottinghamshire 13 for 0 path Essex 298 (Cook 72, Westley 66, Hutton 4-69) by 285 runs
Trent Bridge has been despatched extra love-letters than Marilyn Monroe ever obtained and right now this good previous floor obtained a couple of extra, not all of them from the cricketers. At first, although, one got here from Alastair Cook, whose overtures have been as gracious as one would possibly anticipate; his 72 was studded with the strokes he has typically performed at Nottingham when carrying England colors. Later within the day the blandishments of Stuart Broad and Brett Hutton have been brusquer, the pair sharing seven wickets, 4 with the second new ball, as Essex have been dismissed for 298, two runs in need of a second bonus level. And this wealthy day lastly ended with a straight-driven boundary from Haseeb Hameed.
But maybe it was certain to be Trent Bridge that supplied us consolation after the bum-numbing, brain-buggered tedium of Lancashire’s draw with Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford on Sunday. We had three classes packed tight with high quality issues at Nottingham and though a few of these could seem extraneous to the cricket, the people within the Radcliffe Road Stand comprehend it is not so.
For instance, the scorecards are literally made from card quite than the strengthened toilet paper that some counties presently deem ample. And the groups printed thereon are a detailed approximation to the elevens that take the sphere quite than a press officer’s postmodernist entry for the Booker Prize. This morning they informed us that Calvin Harrison can be making his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire and that Ben Duckett was absent from the house facet. We later found that having made 401 runs in 9 innings since April 6, Duckett had been withdrawn by the ECB, presumably to keep away from him collapsing with power fatigue.
Such an appalling destiny has not but befallen Broad and nearly the primary entry the conscientious spectators may make on their crisp playing cards right now was to document the dismissal of Nick Brown, leg earlier than wicket for 11 when half ahead within the fifth over. Sadly, Broad claimed his sufferer with out interesting to umpire O’Shaughnessy for his judgement, a apply that by no means fails to look graceless and which can little doubt encourage tons of of imitations in junior cricket throughout the nation.
But such issues couldn’t mar our morning. Cook, who solely confronted six balls in his previous mucker’s five-over opening spell, seems to be batting with larger freedom in his latter days and he milked three off-side fours off Hutton and Dane Paterson within the first hour. At the opposite finish, Westley, watchful as a cat in a rat-alley, picked up ones and twos for 70 balls earlier than he straight drove Broad to the pavilion boundary three overs earlier than lunch.
The pair continued in an identical vein on the resumption. The day was balmy and windless and it appeared we have been set for a batting afternoon with Cook enlisting his formidable powers of endurance and focus to assist Essex construct one thing formidable. Ben Slater dropped Westley at lengthy leg off Dane Paterson when the Essex skipper was on 40 and we thought the house facet couldn’t afford such laxity. It turned out they may.
Six overs later, Cook tried to drive a wideish ball from the identical bowler and Harrison marked his debut with a superb two handed-catch to his left. Then simply as Westley was starting to dominate Steven Mullaney’s assault, he bottom-edged an tried pull off Paterson and splayed his stumps a lot as a drunken driver scatters bollards. Sharp as ever to sense a gap, Nottinghamshire’s bowlers took two extra wickets within the subsequent half hour though that they had assist from their opponents. Dan Lawrence got here down the wicket to Hutton after which feathered his drive to Joe Clarke behind the stumps. It was a cool “england23” shot and uncharitable spectators may need noticed that Lawrence would have carried out higher to suppose what Essex wanted right now quite than what Ben Stokes would possibly need in three weeks’ time. Either means, it was a shabby effort. Two overs later, Matt Critchley meekly adopted a ball from Hutton and Essex repaired to the pavilion on 205 for five.
The paradox was that Essex’s recent batsmen wanted the 20-minute break quite greater than Nottinghamshire’s drained bowlers. On the resumption, a lot of the dwelling assault overpitched and each Adam Rossington and Simon Harmer gave such deliveries severe rumpo. The pair had biffed ten fours of their 75-run stand for the seventh wicket when Broad took the brand new ball and arrowed one into the pads of Harmer who walked with out ready to be informed he ought to. We had thus had a day on which neither bowler nor batsman had required an umpire’s choice. Maybe O’Shaughnessy ought to apply for an unemployment good thing about some type.
Harmer’s dismissal marked the day’s remaining shift. Essex misplaced their final 5 wickets for 28 runs in lower than ten overs, a conclusion to the day’s cricket that almost all of these at Trent Bridge welcomed warmly. They know that is the most effective Test venue at which to look at county cricket and Nottingham’s place within the hierarchy is questioned solely by the deep-dyed at different venues.
This would possibly produce a perverse dedication on the a part of some neutrals to withstand its charms however such a resolve can be ineffective. One sight of the previous pavilion or the uniform white-painted seats and we develop into gentle clay within the arms of those that entered into the inheritance of this place and constructed it with love. It was actually no coincidence that we observed O’Shaughnessy and Tom Lungley strolling around the boundary simply earlier than the toss this morning. They may need been beating the bounds of a medieval parish.
Paul Edwards is a contract cricket author. He has written for the Times, ESPNcricinfo, Wisden, Southport Visiter and different publications