Posted by What will Notts’ and Surrey’s best bowlers do this week with the County Championship on the line? One thing they won’t do is play cricket.
Mid September is something of a seasonal warzone. Meterologists say it’s autumn, while astronomers say you’ve still got a week or two of summer until the equinox (which is at 7.19pm today).
Most of us split the difference a bit and flip-flop for a week or two based on various other factors. The sun shines and the temperature rises: it’s summer. That first morning when it’s sufficiently cold that you sort of wish the heating had come on? Autumn.
Which makes cricket at this time of year very odd, because the sport can come across as both a clear indicator that it’s still summer, or as a thing that’s totally lost track of time and really should have migrated to warmer climes by now.
Even within the game, there is disagreement on what season it is.
The final round of the County Championship
Surrey v Nottinghamshire turned into a magnificent climax to the County Championship last week. Maybe they should implement the 13-match season immediately and just call time now. It pays to be flexible sometimes.
But assuming that doesn’t happen, this week shapes up as what exactly? The ‘falling action‘ stage of the story when tension’s diminishing and everything’s being resolved, we suppose.
Current leaders Nottinghamshire will host Warwickshire, needing a draw and a light sprinkling of bonus points to be sure of topping the table – probably a bit less. Surrey head to Hampshire needing at bare minimum a draw with plenty of bonus points, but more likely a victory even if Notts get beaten.
Both teams will be without their highest-profile England bowlers because Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue are being rested by their primary employer ahead of the Ashes, which – if you aren’t keeping up with these things – takes place in Australia during the British winter. We guess their seasonal laggard team-mates will have to pick up the slack.
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That depends on whether you count Rahul Chahar among Surrey’s best bowlers. https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/rahul-chahar-joins-surrey-for-final-championship-match-of-the-season-1504135
I mean he probably isn’, Gus is the best , but having an international player join you just for the last match of the season is still quite a trick. Very much on the “Surrey Squad” brand.
Hopefully it’s less costly for him than Shakib al Hasan’s one-match Surrey cameo last year that resulted in him being banned from bowling.
Wow, missed that – Surrey have form on the ‘one more in the squad before last orders’ game then. Yes hope it goes better for Rahul than it did for Shakib, he should be able to avoid losing his seat in parliament due to mass protests anyway.
Umpire Dickie Bird died.