PINKY BUT NOT PERKY!
England hopefuls fail under the lights
On the day county cricket found itself in the pink, Alastair Cook’s potential opening partners for next week’s first Test against South Africa at Lord’s failed to follow suit.
With all 18 first- class teams embarking on a historic round of floodlit four-day championship matches ahead of the day/night Test against West Indies at Edgbaston in August, Haseeb Hameed, Keaton Jennings and Mark Stoneman all missed their chance to make a case for inclusion.
And it was left to one of England’s forgotten men to show his compatriots how to bat against the pink Dukes ball.
northamptonshire’s Ben Duckett, who lost his Test spot over thee winter in India, thrashed d an 89- ball hundred d against Leicestershire before lunch — or tea, as the first interval iss known in this experimental set of games starting at 2pm.
With the tea break becoming ‘supper’, it was perhaps no wonder some of England’s Test hopefuls struggled for their bearings — though Cook himself chalked off another half-century for Essex.
Jennings, who scored a century on Test debut before Christmas at Mumbai as Hameed’s replacement, made only six as Durham collapsed to 18 for five against Worcestershire at Chester-le-Street. And Stoneman, who has been touted for a possible first cap after a prolific start to the season for his new county Surrey, made 30 against Yorkshire at Headingley.
But most concerning for the selectors will be the travails of Hameed, who made only 17 in 76 scratchy minutes at the crease for Lancashire against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
His dismissal took his firstclass tally since the Mohali Test in December to an underwhelming 233 runs at an average of 14 — a sequence that has included five ducks.
As the lights came on at Edgbaston shortly before 5pm, Warwickshire’s sport director Ashley Giles, who until last summer was Hameed’s coach at Lancashire, took a dim view of his chances of walking out with Cook against the South Africans on July 6.
‘On this form I can’t see him being picked,’ said Giles. ‘But he’s a class player and it’s up to him how he punches back. It’s probably a case of it being his second season and bowlers having had a look at him.’
Jos Buttler, another Lancashire batsman fretting over his Test spot, was promoted to no 3 in only his third first-class
county game in three seasons, but managed just two before he missed a pull against Warwickshire’s new Zealand off-spinner Jeetan Patel and was leg-before.
not for the first time, the 42-year- old guyanese warhorse Shivnarine Chanderpaul stood firm, compiling his 76th first-class hundred as Keith Barker swung the ball around in the final session, and finishing on 117 not out in a total of 273.
‘The pink ball seemed to swing for the first 20 or 30 overs or so, then it didn’t do a lot and went quite soft,’ said Warwickshire seamer Boyd Rankin. ‘In the twilight it seemed to do more off the pitch, and later on we struggled to pick it up in the outfield, but in general it played pretty well.’
For Warwickshire, this round of matches has special significance as the club prepares for England’s first day/night Test.
Chief executive neil Snowball says more than 60,000 tickets have been snapped up already, with the first three days virtually sold out. not only is that far more than would have been expected two months out from a game against a West Indies side who have long since ceased to be crowd pullers, but 45 per cent of buyers have not been to an Edgbaston Test before — suggesting a new audience can be reached.
There are those who think floodlit cricket is a non-starter in England, partly because the evenings often provide enough natural light, and partly because of the chill. and at Edgbaston there was little sign of spectators walking in after work to grab a couple of hours. If anything, a crowd of just under 1,300 began to thin during a final session that began around 7.15pm. But these are early days for an experiment that could provide a shot in the arm for Test cricket, which outside England is losing fans to Twenty20.
South africa have named the uncapped Heino Kuhn, aiden Markram and andile Phehlukwayo in their 16-man squad. Wicketkeeper Kuhn will open, and batsman Markram and seamer Phehlukwayo provide cover.