Bob Willis Trophy, Gloucestershire v Worcestershire - a draw looms as batsmen struggle to force the pace

Bob Willis Trophy 2020

Round 1: Gloucestershire v Worcestershire

County Ground, Bristol

 

Day 1

In this strangest of new seasons and after a heavy defeat in the only 4-day warm-up (an innings defeat to Somerset), Gloucestershire fans might have been forgiven for watching the action from behind the sofa. The Bob Willis Trophy is also an odd format: 5 games against mixed Division 1 and Division 2 opposition. For Gloucestershire, that means Somerset, Northants and Warks from Division 1 and Worcs, and Glamorgan from Division 2. However, even winning all five games and winning your Group is not enough to guarantee a place in the Final. Northants are the joker in the group: it was a toss-up as to whether Northants or Hants would go into what is effectively the Home Counties Group, leaving the loser to join Gloucestershire in the Wales and the West Group (oddly named “Central”).

Gloucestershire have started with a game against a Worcestershireshire side that the team will look at as “must win” if they are to make an impact on the competition and validate their Division 1 status. Worcs do not have the bowling resources of Somerset or Warks and the batting looks distinctly thinner without Moeen, but then Gloucestershire look thinner without James Bracey and the bowling resources are always looking stretched.

It has been a strange day to call. When your side is 205-2, with the Captain in the 90s and looking set to score the first century of the new season, you would think that things are pretty good. Graeme van Buuren had given him solid support with 60 and the Worcs bowling looked toothless and clueless. 18.2 overs later, at 243-8, things were not looking so rosy. While the fall of Chris Dent for 92 did not start a collapse, the fall of George Hankins, who was shaping well, did. A clatter of 5-15 will not calm the supporters who think that the Gloucestershire batting lacks depth and class. However, it was not beside the point that the balls started to move around and the bowling looked far more purposeful when the wickets fell.

Worcs stuck to it and even bowled one over more than the minimum allocation, for which, I suppose, we should be grateful.

You can never tell what a good first innings score is until both sides have batted and sometimes, not even then. If the tail can push the score up to around 280-ish, that will give Taylor, Shaw, Payne and Higgins something to bowl at and that attack is not one to be despised. The first priority in the morning is the second batting point. The second, is to keep the Worcestershire players in the field for as long as possible. And the third is a couple of wickets with the new ball.

County cricket is back. Sir Robert is back in the commentary box and quelled his instincts to the point that there was only one substantial conversation about football and that, strangely, was about Norwich City and not about Forest Green Rovers. I suppose that with no batting feats for North Nibley CC to talk about and the action on the pitch sedate for much of the day, a brief mention of football is to be tolerated. However, a swear box will be instituted for future mentions of the game!

We will have a better idea where this match is going by the end of the second day.

 

Day 2

Gloucestershire’s extraordinary stutter on the first day was completed with an early wicket. When you are 205-2 and 228-3, to require a solid last wicket partnership to get the second batting point, things are pretty bad. 228-3 to 246-9 was quite a collapse even for Gloucestershire fans who have seen a fair bit of this over the decades and are now increasingly fatalistic about it. What on Earth happened?

Almost as great was the mystery of the whereabouts of Sir Robert. Bob Hunt has had his moments, but failing to appear for commentary was new, even for him. The England side of the mid-‘80s was famous for “optional practice”, but optional commentary is not Sir Robert’s game. An increasingly concerned co-commentator’s alarm on air triggered an investigation and, eventually, a family friend and a nurse appeared at the Hunt residence and found him stuck in the bath, unable to move. Fortunately, he was okay and Sir Robert duly appeared at the ground, sheepishly, after Lunch.

Unfortunately, Gloucestershire did not appear after Lunch. They did not appear first thing in the morning either. There is a theory that a side gets the fans that it deserves, but there is no question that some of the local supporters are as fickle as they come and they are seeing confirmed their theories that Gloucestershire are a poor side that was lucky to be promoted. A fairer interpretation may be that underdone bowlers are struggling to find the rights lengths but, when they do, underdone batsmen are struggling to cope: certainly that seemed to be the story of the first day. It is a game that is so much easier to play from the bar with a beer in hand.

Finishing the day at 223-2, but with just 38 overs left, the game is far less far on than might appear. Worcestershire will surely take a first inning lead, but it will be a far less substantial one that they would expect in a game with no over limit. Unless someone is able to push the score along in the morning, they may finish, just after Lunch on Day 3, only about 60 ahead. It will play Gloucestershire out of the game but, assuming that is how things pan out, with just 140 overs to come, the Shire would have to bat badly indeed to lose. That, though would be scant consolation having won the Toss and started so well.

The pitch looks good but, with the scoring-rate turgid, it will take some brilliant, or some truly awful, play to spark this game into life.

 

Day 3

Two early wickets for Gloucestershire might have made things interesting. The danger with taking just one wicket, breaking a stodgy partnership, was that a new batsman would come in who was willing and able to accelerate the scoring. Add in the ability of the New Ball both to take wickets and to increase the scoring rate and both sides could see an opportunity to spark this match into some kind of life.

Worcestershire were looking for a lead of 100 that would give them a chance to chase on the last afternoon if they could bowl out the Shire in three sessions, but would probably have settled happily for 70-80 ahead. Gloucestershire just needed to slow the scoring as much as possible. You got the impression though that neither side was willing to take any risks and that both would take the 8 points + bonus points for the draw. In the end though, the arrival of Ben Cox at the wicket led to a sudden change of rhythm. That was bad enough, but the wheels fell off the bowling waggon after Lunch: 428-5 and a lead of 161 was at 100 more than Gloucestershire would have hoped; 96 from the last 10 overs of the innings tells the story of the massacre, as Cox and D’Oliviera left the attack shell-shocked. It was bloody and it was brutal and even though Chris Dent has eight men of the boundary, the batsmen scored at will.

Note to Management: ask Father Christmas for a decent spinner who can keep some control when there is nothing in it for the seamers. Without one, next season may not be pleasant.

You can ask why Taylor and Shaw were kept on when the batsmen had obviously got their measure, although having seen Tom Price go for 23 in his last two overs before Lunch could have influenced. Maybe he could have tried another burst from Ryan Higgins, although comfortably the most economical of the bowlers was David Payne.

The Worcestershire innings though was an object lesson for what Gloucestershire’s batsmen must do if they want to stay in Division 1: the top five all batted for more than one hundred balls, no one apart from Rikki Wessels, who came in to throw the bat, scored fewer than 39. Wickets were sold dear and Gloucestershire were not buying. In contrast, just five of the sixteen Gloucestershire innings in this match have reached 30.

The killer for hopes of an honourable draw was the fall of Chris Dent just before the Close, for 67. Chris Dent is not a great strategist, as his handling of the bowlers and rather defensive declarations show – his credo is more to lead from the front, as innings of 92 and 67 have shown – but it was unfortunate that, both times, he got a good ball just when he was hurting the opposition. More unfortunate still was the fact that he fell twenty balls before the Close. The consequence is that Worcestershire will have a nightwatchman to take aim at in the morning, with the consequent near-certainty of the boost of an early wicket with Gloucestershire still behind.

To escape, against one of the weaker teams in the Group, Gloucestershire need fifties probably from two of Roderick, Higgins and Taylor. They have to bat probably a minimum of 55 overs tomorrow – almost to Tea – and they have to sell their wickets as expensively as possible. Yes, they can do it, but some of the Captain’s grit is going to have to rub off if they are to do it.

Day 4

The morning was grey and overcast. Once again Sir Robert was absent on patrol. How are Gloucestershire to save a match without Sir Robert to direct the effort from the Commentary Box? Despite this devastating loss, George Hankins and Josh Shaw saw off 40 minutes with nary a scare and with a nice burst of boundaries. That Hankins can bat was not a surprise, discovering that Josh Shaw could too, was. The deficit was eliminated and, Josh Shaw, possibly getting embarrassed at having scored a lot more than several colleagues more renowned for their batting, did the decent thing and missed completely a straight ball… a very straight ball… the fact that receiving a straight ball counted as a surprise delivery was, at least, some mitigation.

Soon after Josh Shaw fell, Ryan Higgins got what was possibly a rough decision, but not one that you could say was clearly bad (it took three replays for the doubts to appear and the decision only appeared demonstrably wrong with the replay in slow motion) and the Shire had undone the good work of the first 70 minutes of the day. Shire in the mire, stuck in the muck… again.

Time and again, every time during the match that the Shire have appeared to be getting on an even keel they have taken a torpedo amidships. It gets to the point though that just two recognised batsmen are left, the New Ball is taken, there are an awful lot of overs left  and the lead is just 64, that someone has to put their hand up and say “they shall not pass!!” In these circumstances you do not need a really odd dismissal such as Gareth Roderick’s: he was given LBW, not playing a shot to a ball well outside off that appeared to miss everything.

A target of 110 to win in 35 overs was not enough. Had someone hung around for just ten overs more the match would probably have been safe. Even 5 overs more would have added another 15 or so to the chase and taken 7 (5 + 2 for the change of innings) overs from the time to get them, making the equation distinctly interesting. A few loose deliveries on the pads and Worcestershire were on their way. In the end, despite a lovely swinging delivery from Shaw that castled Mitchell and a brilliant catch from Miles Hammond, there was just not enough runs in the bank and the batsmen cruised to the target.

 

What went wrong?

The lessons are pretty obvious. There were some decent contributions: Chris Dent on both innings, Graeme van Buuren in the first, George Hankins in the second, but just four more scores over 20. Contrast that with the Worcestershire scorecard. The support was simply not there. Jack Taylor does not look able to play as a specialist bat and the one delivery that he bowled was a half-tracker, suggesting that he is not ready to play as an all-rounder.

In theory, the Gloucestershire attack, with a left-arm/right-arm new ball combination and left-arm/right-arm change bowlers, ticks the boxes. It is not devastating, but it is by no means poor. However, Ryan Higgins looked out of sorts with bat and ball and Tom Price had a difficult game. Brought on near the end, when the Shire desperately needed four maidens, he produced two expensive No Balls and looked lucky to get away with another delivery, being retired immediately again from the attack.

Where Gloucestershire are really struggling though is the lack of a threatening spinner: Graeme van Buuren came to the Shire with great figures, but is not accurate enough at this level to keep pressure on good batsmen. He showed a nice loop, but the length and line were simply not consistent enough. On good pitches you need a spinner to keep things tight for a session while the seamers rotate, while having a spinner who can pressure batsmen into giving away their wicket is essential so, next year, it should be a priority to find an X-Factor spinner: maybe it will be the young Afghan signing for the T20, or maybe someone else will become available.

All in all the side look underdone and now have the toughest fixture in their group: Warwickshire. On this form it could be a bloodbath, but you would love to think that the team will raise their game and be better for this experience. It is not a crisis. Let’s keep a sense of proportion, but improvements are necessary. In this match the Shire had just one, really bad session and another, poor one and it cost them the match. Against Warwickshire, even one poor session will be one too many.

New start. Apply the lessons. Come back better.

Retrospective, Round 1:

Since the two-divisional County Championship was introduced in the year 2000, cricket has split into the “haves” and the “have nots”. The former have been the habitual members of the top division. The latter: Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan might get the odd season in the top flight, but are not generally regarded as being of the same quality as the rest. When there is talk of reducing the number of First Class counties, these are the ones at which fingers get pointed; these clubs exist, in the eyes of many, as little more than feeders of players to the better teams. A logical extension of this is the thought of a three division Championship in which the Third Division would be semi-professional and maybe even permit promotion from and relegation to the Minor County structure. The benefits, it has been argued, are to concentrate money and talent in fewer teams, fewer First Class cricketers, a shorter First Class season and better preparation for the leap to Test cricket.

At the same time, there have been a credo among some of the habituals of the lower division that this standard way of viewing things among those who run cricket in England and Wales is cock-eyed. I have met plenty of fans of these lesser counties who argue even that Second Division cricket is of a higher standard and has great depth than the top division! It is an interesting argument, given the desperate struggle to compete in the top flight that many promoted sides have had. However, the Bob Willis Trophy allows, for the first time in two decades, the relative strengths of the two divisions to be compared directly.

The North Group breaks 2-4 between upper and lower division teams; the oddly-named Central Group, has four Division 1 teams and two from Division 2, but two of the Division 1 sides are newly promoted and Worcestershire were in Division 1 in 2018, while the South Group also splits 4-2 and looks the toughest Group.

This meant that, of the nine matches played in the 1st Round, two were all Division 1 affairs, six pitted a Division 1 side against a Division 2 side and one was all Second Division. Of the six inter-Divisional clashes, four had the side from the lower division winning. And, what is more, the three sides that finished bottom of Division 2 last season, each head their respective Groups after one round.

This is an odd season and no side has had the preparation that it would like. That may have been a factor in some of the strange results. When you see a side as classy a Surrey get past Tea looking odds-on for a draw and then implode when the ball was thrown in desperation to a very, very occasional leg spinner who had only taken four wickets in 157 First Class matches, you know that this is not any old season. Luck and the unexpected are going to play a unusual part in how the early games play out. Sides make their own luck, but Gloucestershire will feel that they did not get many breaks on a final day when they were showing some fight: Ryan Higgins cannot complain too much – his LBW looked out and it was only successive replays that first raised doubts and then showed that he had been unfortunate – but Gareth Roderick’s may be the strangest dismissal of the season, with barely an appeal and confusion as to exactly what the umpire had seen. If either of those decisions had gone the other way, Gloucestershire might well have hung on for the draw; another matter is whether or not they would have deserved it.

Over five games, class will out and one would expect the sides with the biggest talent pool to come through. In a way, the results of the first round of matches have levelled the playing field by bringing defeat to a couple of what are, on paper, the strongest sides. However, you would have to be a brave person to bet against Somerset on what little we have seen so far. The galling thing for them is that this would not count as a first official Championship win.

In such a compressed format, the next round of matches starts to become critical to the ambitions of some and to the self-esteem of others. Warwickshire know that their chances of qualifying for the Final now depend on beating Gloucestershire, unless Northamptonshire can find yet more defiance when Somerset visit. Gloucestershire know that a second defeat would be seen as a calamity and would have the always nervous and flaky support right on their backs. Whatever happens, it is the sides who finish the second round of matches with two wins from two will be making the running in the race for a place in the Final, while any side with two defeats will be staring down the barrel of fan unrest.

 

Tomorrow: I have had a look at the reality of the two-division haves and have nots. There is one surprising name among the six sides who have the worst overall record since the year 2000.