Cricket’s “declaration bowling”
The climax of this season’s County Championship showed exactly why “we love our dotty old game”, said Jonathan Liew in The Daily Telegraph. Going into the final matches last week, three teams were in contention: Somerset, Middlesex and reigning champions Yorkshire. Somerset won their match, putting them top, but needed a draw between Middlesex and Yorkshire – who were facing off at Lord’s – to clinch the title.
Cue a spot of farce. With the game heading for a draw after the first innings – a result of no use to either side – a deal, which many thought favoured Yorkshire, was made. Middlesex would score quickly, declare with 40 overs remaining, and leave Yorkshire a target of 240 to clinch the title. So, to ensure Middlesex scored the runs, Yorkshire deliberately “served up a juicy buffet” of slow balls and long hops… which Middlesex duly smashed away. “After nine overs and 120 joyless runs”, the home side moved 239 runs ahead, and put Yorkshire in to bat. The ensuing run chase ended in appropriately dramatic fashion – a hat-trick for Toby Roland-jones sealing Middlesex’s first title since 1993.
Some derided this “declaration bowling”, said Josh Burrows in The Times. But expecting Yorkshire and Middlesex to hand Somerset the title is like asking ”two pit bulls not to fight for the sake of the cat that lives next door”. Declaration bowling is a “freakish spectacle” but it’s “all part of the rich and varied fabric” of the game.