They say form is temporary but class is permanent, and nobody embodied that more this week than former England star and Warwickshire stalwart Jonathan Trott who notched up back-to-back centuries against Durham and Leicestershire.
The first game saw Durham bat first and rack up 299/8 from their 50 overs, featuring a fantastic 111 including 12 boundaries from Michael Richardson, just his second century in List A cricket and his highest ever score in the format.
Trott opened the batting for The Bears, and despite losing his opening partner in the second over and his number three partner shortly after, began to stabilise
What a difference a week makes. The post mortem from the first Test would lead passive followers of cricket to believe that England would never win a Test Match ever again, with pundits and members of the media seeking star players to be dropped, coaches to be sacked and selectors to be re-selected.
In the end, England were hamstrung by Ben Stokes’ hamstring which denied him any chance of being involved in Headingley. His injury meant that a shake-up to balance the side was needed rather than wanted, forcing the hosts to make two changes in the bowling department to cover for Stokes’ all-round prowess. England did also make an inevitable change at the top of the order, as the merry-go-round of opening batsmen continued.
The latest round of Royal London One Day Cup fixtures featured thrilling finishes, high scores and May’s inevitable bout of rain.
Three matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled, two of which featured Sussex who travelled to Gloucester on the Sunday and then to Surrey on the Tuesday without playing so much as an over of cricket.
Despite the weather, a number of GM batsman followed on from the terrific form from the previous round of fixtures.
A terrific unbeaten century from Adam Lyth seems the most appropriate place to start as his Yorkshire side headed to Leicester hoping to make up for lost time after their washed-out game the previous week.
In Leicester’s previous game against Nottinghamshire over 700 runs were scored in 100 overs, so when they won the toss, they would
Sometimes things just don’t go to plan. The plan for England last week was to bat big, bowl well, win handsomely. In the end, none of those came to fruition.
England fielded three GM players last week; Dom Bess, Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes, fresh from his stint in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals.
Stokes and Malan, however, were both overshadowed by England’s newest Test player, the 20-year-old Bess.
In his short career, only 16 First Class matches to his name
Runs have been the flavour of the month so far in May with the start of the Royal London One Day Cup signalling the beginning of white ball cricket in England.
Tom Westley typified that notion by notching up his first ton of the season, scoring 134 in 119 balls as Essex swept Middlesex aside in the opening set of fixtures. Westley’s 18 boundaries included a six before he was out to fellow GM player Ravi Patel just 5 runs short of the 250 target.
Less than a week later, Westley was in the runs again against Hampshire, this time making 66 at just better than a run-a-ball, setting a good foundation for his teammates to build on.
Their 304 run target wasn’t nearly enough in the end however as James Vince’s Hampshire side chasing the total down with over two overs to spare and losing only four wickets. Vince helped himself
With the cloud of England Squad announcements hanging over players heads today, it was now or never for those in contention to stake their claim for the Test series against Pakistan.
And it was James Vince who made every ball count as he used his last innings before the squad announcement to make an incredibly timely double hundred to dig his side out of trouble.
Vince, made dogged and determined hundred before accelerating his run scoring to finish day four 201* against a full-strength Somerset side, which included fellow GM players Lewis Gregory and Dom Bess.
In Hampshire’s first innings, Gregory and Bess picked up 3 wickets between them as they restricted Vince’s
GM is delighted to announce that Jason Sangha has signed a two year extension on his contract to continue playing GM, taking him through to June 2020.
The 18-year-old’s stock has risen incredibly quickly in the last 12 months, having made his First Class debut against England ahead of the Ashes Series last winter, representing the Cricket Australia XI where he faced England’s bowling cartel of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.
“We are delighted to have extended the contract of the youngest player since Sachin Tendulkar to score a First Class Century vs England. Jason is a very exciting cricketer with an outstanding
After a particularly wet and miserable April, the start of May dispelled the rumours that summer may not be coming at all, with temperatures soaring to record highs over the bank holiday weekend. Batsman all over the country would have been delighted to look up to see skies without a cloud, but filled with the promise of runs.
GM players amassed their finest displays to date, racking up five 100’s, eleven 50’s and two 5 wicket hauls, all of which are mentioned below.
With a number of GM batsman filling their boots this week, it seems apt to start with the highest score of the season so far in County Cricket.
That honour falls to Dane Vilas, the South African keeper/batsman who scored a ruthless 235* for Lancashire against Somerset at Old Trafford.
Cricket in April. It’s rarely straight forward. Unfortunately, week 3 of the County Championship was no different, with rain and wind the order of the week. Despite the miserable conditions, there was a surprising amount of cricket played with a couple of wins falling in just two full days play.
Just as last week, we must start with Nottingham who headed to Worcester, for this week’s County Round-Up.
The GM bowling cartel was once again on fire for Nottinghamshire with two players picking up five-wicket hauls, allowing Notts to clean Worcestershire up in under two days.
Luke Fletcher kicked off the first innings with career best figures of 5/27 in just 9 overs, helped ably by the in-form Jake Ball who pitched in with 2/25, as Worcester were knocked over for 110 in under 27 overs.
The best place to start is certainly at Old Trafford, where Nottinghamshire took on Lancashire in the first round of fixtures.
Jake Ball took his career best match figures of 9-57 for in what turned out to be a marquee match for GM cricket. Cricket in April is often a tricky beast and this match could not have epitomised that more, with 12 wickets going down for just 25 runs in the first 90 minutes of the morning session of day 4.
All 20 Lancashire wickets were taken by GM players, including another career best of 6-25 for Harry Gurney, who took 8 wickets in the match. Luke Fletcher picked up a wicket in the first innings, taking the GM total to 18 before Luke Wood completed the wicket taking festivities with 2-43.
And it was James Vince who made every ball count as he used his last innings before the squad announcement to make an incredibly timely double hundred to dig his side out of trouble.
After only two rounds of fixtures, GM players are already topping the charts and breaking personal records.
