Gayle got off to a slow start today, 11 singles off his first 11 balls. The next 24 went for 57 though...

Blimey. That was something. 206 to win, 43 needed off 2 overs, Albie Morkel carts V-Rat Kohli for 28. Vinay Kumar cleans him up with 14 still required off 4 balls and bowls a no-ball to Dwayne Bravo that's clubbed for 4. Jadeja on strike last ball, facing his first of the innings, needing 2 to win, finds the fence for 4. Outrageous.

Some game that

Had to go out with three overs to go, thinking there's no way they'll make that.

And it was followed by a complete dung-heap of a match. Those players really put the poo in Pune.

Is the one who, when someone said to him in Taunton, trophy in hand, "I never thought I'd be so happy to see a Yorkshireman holding that" replied quite bluntly with "I'm not from Yorkshire." Lancastrian in all but an accident of hospital positions.



It's nice to see that, after the blip of winning the Championship, Lancs are back to being sh*te.

And a robbery of land from the West Riding in the Boundaries Act of 1972. (still bitter)


Yes, very gratifying. (still bitter)

Kent beat Northants by an innings and 120 runs

Yorkshire in a real battle with Leeds/Bradford MCCU. Think these couple of weeks have been a wake-up call for anyone thinking promotion was a given. If Phil Jaques doesn't fire, we're in all sorts of strife. And he'd better get clearance to play as the Englishman he undoubtedly is *cough* so we can go get a bowler from somewhere. Desperate times.

Amazingly tense finish at Lord's yesterday, where Middlesex beat Surrey by 3 runs in a low scoring match.

The visitors began the day needing another 46 to win with six wickets left. The first three wickets fell for the addition of only nine of those runs, but a few meaty blows from Jon Lewis edged Surrey towards the target. Lewis was the only batsman who looked comfortable against some skilful swing and seam bowling, and if he'd managed to take a bit more of the strike once the real non-batsmen were at the other end I think we'd have won. After taking a single off the first ball of an over Lewis called Jade Dernbach down the pitch for a conversation. One can only assume he said something along the lines of "See if you can hit the next ball out of the ground". Or then again, perhaps Dernbach just completely ignored him. Dernbach 's brainless slog, head tilted back, body and limbs contorted in a horrible mess, sent the ball high into the air for a catch in the covers only a few yards from the pitch. He does it every bloody time. Every time you need him to just stay there while someone who knows what he's doing can grind out a few more runs at the other end he seems to imagine himself as Ian Botham and totally takes leave of his senses.

Jade Dernbach - I just don't see it.

Yorkshire in for Mitchell Starc to bolster the bowling. That'll do nicely. Let's produce another Test player for Australia eh?

To be fair, he is already a Test and ODI player for Australia.

Yorkshire's immediate need is bigger than any concerns over nationality though. I can't sit through a season of Patterson and McGrath as first change seamers.

Knew he'd played ODIs, didn't realise he had a Test cap already.
My comment about nationality was purely facetious, although with Bevan and Lehmann there was a period where we were producing more Test players for them than for us. At the same time, we also ended the international careers of Blewett and Elliott, Harvey to a lesser extent, so we're about square.

We didn't do too badly for that little Indian kid that came over. Decent batter, what was his name again?

Then again, offset all that in two words. Richie Richardson.

Yuvraj

KP just hit his first t20 hundred. 103* from 64 balls with six fours and nine sixes. With Warner coming back as soon as Pietersen leaves, Delhi look in real good shape this year.

as a registered player with Surrey CCC will KP deign to make at least appearance for his county or is it simply being used as a 'flag of convenience' ? and how much is HE paying Surrey CCC for the privelege of being registered ?

Might get a few t20s and a county game mid-season. I wouldn't bank on him playing too often for them.

seems a big con to me - at least county cricketers playing test cricket used to to go back for the occasional county game between tests

I hope the counties are well compensated for the loss of the england players ?

at Essex CCC - we used to lose the likes of Goochie,Fletcher & JK Lever etc etc but they always managed to turn out for county games through the season

Different world now though ain't it. And can anyone really argue that England's position in the world game in unrelated to central contracting? They're pretty well remunerated from those central contracts. I wouldn't care to guess what counties cough up.

Batsmen seem to play for their counties a lot more than bowlers.When Jimmy Anderson isn't playing for England he never plays for Lancs as he needs to rest inbetween test matches.The only time bowlers play for counties these days is if they're coming back from an injury.

Well looks like we're doing our best to join the list of those who have been relegated the year after winning the Championship.

Embrace it. Happens to the best of us.

last season was a fluke anyway !