Bracey makes his Test case with timely century
Not playing can do a cricketer good. After spending last summer and the winter in England’s biobubble as their reserve top-order Test batsman, but always unselected, James Bracey scored a century against Somerset off 208 balls, exactly the tempo at which Test hundreds are traditionally made.
Bracey, a 23-year-old left-hander, was calm, organised, solid and unfussy until his bat broke in half as he scored his 108th run.
James Taylor, the watching England selector, could recommend Bracey as an opener if Rory Burns – his average down to 30 – has played his last Test, or as a No3, as he is in this game, because he is also keeping
wicket for Gloucestershire. The highlight of yet another sunny yet chilly day was the passage of play that occupied almost the first hour after lunch when Somerset mounted an excellent attack through Jack Leach and Craig Overton, both of whom have changed their bowling method during their winter with England. Bracey alone stood between them and another Gloucestershire collapse, if not on the scale of last year’s derby when the visitors were dismissed for 70-odd in both innings.
Overton this season is running in with the ball in his right hand, not holding it in his left until he is a couple of strides away from the bowling crease. Keeping the ball in his left hand for most of his run-up helped him to disguise his reverse swing. Keeping it in his right all the way has two advantages: a more precise grip on the new ball and therefore greater control, while also allowing him to accelerate to the crease more smoothly.
In any event, Overton no longer runs in like the bowler he was: the up-the slope, into-the-wind seamer at West Buckland school, while Jamie Overton, his twin brother, ran down the slope and bowled like the wind. And after all his hard yards he is a distinctly quicker and better bowler than when he played his four Tests for England.
Leach, too, bowled more quickly than before. He focused longer before each delivery and put more body, snap and follow-through into his action. Altogether snappier, he has become more like an Indian spinner after his winter in India, adding more zip to his essential steadiness.
Bracey appeared after Kraigg Brathwaite, the West Indies Test captain, had fallen lbw to Overton’s inswinger, and he was left holding the baby when Chris Dent, tied down, tried to clip something outside off stump. In the hour after lunch, Leach was so accurate that his first nine overs cost nine runs, while Overton took two wickets from the old pavilion end. Marchant de Lange, signed from Glamorgan, was quicker still – almost a like-forlike replacement for Jamie Overton, and maybe more of a wicket-taker.
Bracey risked only one wild shot, going for a drive when on 97. Next ball he leg-glanced a four to reach his sixth first-class hundred, before he was finally out for 118. His vigilance has given Gloucestershire the chance of a draw, to make up for last season’s rout by an innings.