Knights in Whites

Worcestershire captain, Kabir Ali leads from the front with a career best: 8 wickets for 50 runs against a depleted Lancashire side, minus their England stars.

He then went on to get 54 runs to steer his side into a 3 run overnight lead, with 6 wickets on hand.

He failed to impress on the international scene, although most say he wasn’t given a fair crack of the whip.

More information on Kabir Ali on Wikipedia.

Posted in LV County Championship, Worcestershire, Lancashire | | Add to Technorati Favorites | Vote for Me at BlogTopList

	↑	Another Aussie Michael Di Venuto gets a quick 204 off of 248 balls.
	↑	Robert Key, the only man to fill an English Cricket Helmet, gets 169 off 279 balls.
	↑	28 year old seam bowler Thomas Lungley gets 4 wickets and 5 wickets in the first and second innings respectively to help beat Leicestershire in a shortened game.
	↑	Ravi Bopara gets 101 runs off of 101 balls to see Essex past Ireland in one of the only finished games in this weekend’ s one day games.
	↓	Craig Spearman breaks his foot and is out for 6 weeks. This puts him out for the first phase of the 20 twenty cup.

Posted in Who's Up and Who's Down | | Add to Technorati Favorites | Vote for Me at BlogTopList

England’s Bowlers on top!

England’s Liam Plunkett, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard were all on form in last weeks round of matches in the County Championship.

Liam Plunkett: 5 wickets for 105 off of 32 overs.

Steve Harmison: 5 wickets for 61 for 19.3 overs.

Matthew Hoggard: 5 for 34 off just 14 overs for Yorkshire against Worcestershire.

This coupled with a rather washed out tour match against Somerset means that the England are in much better shape than the West Indies before the first test this Thursday at Lords.

Posted in LV County Championship, International Test Matches | | Add to Technorati Favorites | Vote for Me at BlogTopList

1. John Batty (Surrey) 154 runs (1 innings) 2 catches (1 innings) vs Warwickshire
2. Paul Nixon (Leicestershire) 82 runs (2 innings) 2 catches, 1 stumping (2 innings) vs Derbyshire
3. David Nash (Middx) 21 runs (1 innings) 3 catches (1 innings) vs Nottinghamshire
4. Chris Read (Nottinghamshire) 20 runs (1 innings) 2 catches (2 innings) vs Middlesex
5. Timothy Ambrose (Warks) 14 runs (1 innings) 1 catch (1 innings) vs Surrey
6. Geraint Jones (Kent) 2 runs (2 innings) 3 catches (2 innings) vs Durham
7. Matt Prior (Sussex) DNP

Posted in Wicket Keeper Watch | | Add to Technorati Favorites | Vote for Me at BlogTopList

How do we sort out who is going to take the gloves for the next ashes? It’s simple really. The next ashes are in 2009 - June-September with five Tests and seven ODIs. Before then we need to get an established wicket keeper behind the stumps and batting well as well as Adam Gilchrist at number 7 and get him on a central contract.

So between now and then we should burn through as many of them as possible on a rotation and a trial basis. The form player performing in the county game should be given the nod.

We have tried picking a player and sticking with them like we did with Geraint Jones, and Chris Read and this clearly doesn’t work!

So we are starting Wicket Keeper Watch where we will have a shortlist of English keepers that we are keeping an eye on, so Peter Moores can just look on the site when he is to choose his next team sheet

Our first short list is:

• Timothy Ambrose (Warks)
• David Nash (Middx)
• John Batty (Surrey)
• Paul Nixon (Leicestershire)
• Matt Prior (Sussex)
• Chris Read (Nottinghamshire)
• Geraint Jones (Kent)

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