Which New Zealand cricketer who hasn’t really played much recently will absolutely destroy India in the third Test?

2 minute read

After 18 home series victories in a row, India have been beaten by New Zealand. The tourists achieved this seemingly-impossible feat exactly how you’d imagine – by plopping cricketers who haven’t really been playing much into their team and asking them to immediately decimate India’s batting line-up.

If you’re not aware of the background to this series from the New Zealand perspective, they’d just toured Sri Lanka, playing two Tests and losing both. In the second one they were bowled out for 88 on a pitch where they’d just conceded 602-5.

“Well, pretty hard to improve on that as preparation for a Test series against India,” they concluded and so went into this series without any warm-up games.

Perhaps concerned that some of their players might nevertheless be overcooked after playing Test cricket three weeks earlier, they picked Matt Henry, who hadn’t featured in Sri Lanka, for the first Test. He responded by taking 5-15 as India were bowled out for 46.

“Say, this ‘picking people who haven’t been playing’ thing seems to work quite well,” concluded the Kiwis and duly dropped Henry for the second Test. They replaced him with Mitchell Santner, who was on a bit of a hot streak after taking one wicket for 197 runs in Sri Lanka and who had caught the eye with some seriously proficient drinks-carrying during the first Test.

Santner took 7-53 in the first innings and 6-104 in the second and India’s proud home record was gone before the third and final Test had even begun.

So who’s going to be the key player in Mumbai on Friday? Ish Sodhi hasn’t played a Test in almost two years, so he must be worth watching. However, our money’s on Jacob Duffy on the basis he’s never played one at all.

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The post Which New Zealand cricketer who hasn’t really played much recently will absolutely destroy India in the third Test? first appeared on King Cricket.

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DEVICE NEWS! (A match report being conspicuously indifferent to cricket in an unusual place)

< 1 minute read

Send your pictures of cricket bats and other cricket stuff in unusual places to king@kingcricket.co.uk. As Chuck will tell you, we do actually check our inbox from time to time.

Chuck writes…

I recently attended a non-cricket match – actually a Pixies concert – in the Simmonscourt Arena in the RDS, Dublin.

At the bar before the concert – yes, dear reader, I drink – I discovered a pale, somewhat commercial, and rather flimsy looking imitation of The Device).

These were being handed out free to punters, but nobody was using them.

“These are Pixies fans, not cricket lovers,” I thought to myself, “so how would they possibly know?”

My daughter, who was accompanying me to the concert, asked why I was photographing this travesty (or “that piece of cardboard”, as she called it).

As she has not (as yet) been initiated in the ways and lore of cricket, I instead distracted her by saying, “Let’s go look at the merchandise!” 

Needless to say, I didn’t use the ‘thing’ pictured. I can only assume that the Pixies were unaware too.

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Let Noman wheel away unchanged

2 minute read

Zahid Mahmood took a wicket today. That was quite a big moment. It’s been a while since anyone other than Noman Ali or Sajid Khan took one for Pakistan. Zahid was lucky to even get a bowl, quite frankly.

In the second Test, Noman Ali bowled 44.3 overs and Sajid Khan got through 43.2 overs. The next heaviest workload among the Pakistan bowlers was shouldered by Zahid Mahmood and Aamer Jamal, who bowled six overs each.

Today, Noman and Sajid opened the bowling and honestly, for a while there, it seemed like that was all we were going to get. Ben Stokes had remarked before the match that he already knew which ends they were going to bowl from simply from looking at which parts of the pitch had been naturally worn by the groundstaff’s natural raking.

Sajid bowled 29.2 overs and took six wickets. Noman bowled 28 overs, but could only muster three, which meant Zahid had to deliver 10 whole overs, within which he took the crucial wicket of Jamie Smith (who continues to fulfil his brief).

Spinners who operate in tandem like this are frequently and wearyingly labelled “spin twins” but Noman and Sajid are certainly not identical.

We’re not exactly in Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito territory here, but we put it to you that Noman has a slight bus conductor vibe about him…

… while Sajid does not…

Suppose it depends what bus you get.

We’re pretty sure Sajid prefers the limelight though. This is how he celebrates his wickets.

England are currently bowling plenty of spin themselves, inching their way towards Pakistan’s best batter.

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Did you see… the butter/dragonfly that tried to run out Zak Crawley?

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Rawalpindi Test pitch preview with Richard O’Brien

2 minute read

England are in Rawalpindi for the third and final Test of this series against Pakistan with the scoreline currently 1-1. Last time they were here, they made 500 on the first day. Will we see a repeat of that?

To quickly recap, England’s last Test in Rawalpindi began with Zak Crawley hitting three fours off Naseem Shah’s opening over and ended in victory, late on day five, with the light meters out. At no point in between did they show any real sign of slowing down.

The centrepiece was that first day performance. England reached 500 quicker than any team ever has before. Three of their four centurions scored at somewhere around a run a ball. The fourth, Harry Brook, scored significantly quicker. At one point he hit six fours in an over, which we argued is actually better than hitting six sixes.

So is that what we’re going to see again? We asked Richard O’Brien from the Crystal Maze for his take.

Richard O’Brien says…

Start the fans!

Pakistan were badly burnt in 2022 and burnt again on another flat pitch in the first Test of this series when Joe Root and Harry Brook put on 454 runs together. They’re understandably far from keen to take the tourists on in another ludicrous batting feats competition.

This pitch will not be like that last Rawalpindi pitch. It has been heated and dried and allegedly raked. Rawalpindi? Rawalspindi, more like! Even England have picked three of the blighters, adding veteran leggie Rehan Ahmed to the team.

It’s fundamentally a solid surface though. There should be runs at first, but then as the match progresses and the pitch breaks up, we could be in for a really rocky horror show from the batters.

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The Salman of doubt – are Pakistan making full use of Salman Ali Agha?

4 minute read

Fielding sides loathe few things more than a really, really good number seven batter. So why is it so rare that a player is specifically picked to do the job?

“Initially, I used to complain,” Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha told Sky Sports this week about coming in at number seven. “But it’s just something now that I have to accept and I have to do well.”

Salman’s latest innings was actually a bit of an oddity, in that he was dropped twice in three balls when he was still in single figures.

The first was a sufficiently easy chance to Jamie Smith that Joe Root was already clenching his fist and roaring “Yeah!” even as the wicketkeeper was mashing the ball into the turf.

Root’s face then swiftly morphed to a mix of horror and astonishment when he saw what had happened. Even as a bystander, he wouldn’t have wanted to catch bowler Brydon Carse’s eye.

Carse was busy reacting like this.

It couldn’t get much more awkward than that. Until, two balls later – with emotions and stakes raised – it did.

This time Root himself dropped it.

In an astonishing act of bravery, he then looked vaguely in Carse’s direction.

It was surely only the sense of protection borne of helmet and sunglasses that emboldened him to do this.

Salman smiled and then set about putting Pakistan out of England’s reach with 63. He was the first batter to pass 40 since Ben Duckett on day two and the last to do so in the match.

This, apparently, is what Salman Ali Agha does. And he does it from number seven in the batting order.

Salman Ali Agha, down the order

Salman averages 44.16 from five innings at number six, but 66.66 from 19 innings at number seven. It’s an impressive record that suggests he should be given more responsibility. But if there’s a case for moving him, it’s arguably downwards – he averages 117.50 from seven innings batting at number eight.

Number seven is a funny spot in the batting order. Assuming a team picks at least four specialist bowlers, it is likely to house the last of the proper batters – only it’s very, very rare that the player who comes out in that position is someone who was primarily picked to make runs.

Salman is not unreasonably listed as an all-rounder a lot of the time, but his bowling’s only really an extra. So far he’s averaging one wicket a Test match at an average of 58.56.

Bowling overs does not a bowler make. Salman Ali Agha is a batter – a number seven batter.

The closest equivalent we can think of is early era Mahmudullah – another player whose batting position did more to earn him the ‘all-rounder’ tag than his bowling. For a while there, Mahmudullah was Bangladesh’s most reliable batter, but he still only came in at number eight.

Or what about Jos Buttler? He played 10 Tests as a number seven batter when he wasn’t keeping wicket.

> Five Test wicketkeepers who quite often didn’t actually do any wicketkeeping

And that’s the nub of it really. On those occasions, England’s chosen wicketkeeper, Jonny Bairstow, was an even better batter and so it made sense for him to bat higher up the order. Similarly, Bangladesh had use of Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, who as well as warranting selection as bowler and wicketkeeper respectively, also ranked among the nation’s six best batters.

Mahmudullah was a displaced number six really. With current Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan more than worthy of a top six spot, so too is Salman Ali Agha.

It feels weird and wasteful, but there’s really no difference. You’ve got the same number of batters, the same number of bowlers, the balance of the side is the same and the number seven is expected to make runs either way.

All the same… let’s see how long it lasts.

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Who is Test cricket’s greatest number eight? (Or: Which Test bowler was the best batsman?)

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The post The Salman of doubt – are Pakistan making full use of Salman Ali Agha? first appeared on King Cricket.

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Did you see… Mohammed Siraj make his way onto India’s top scorers podium with a single shot?

2 minute read

Rohit Sharma chose to bat first against New Zealand, even though he thought it might be a bit tricky early on. Rohit didn’t perhaps consider that India might not make it as far as ‘later on’.

Sharma himself did well though. He made two runs, which – until number 11 Mohammed Siraj entered the scene – would have been enough to earn him a joint ‘top innings run-scorers’ podium position.

Rishabh Pant made 20 (after being dropped on 7), Yashasvi Jaiswal made 13 and Kuldeep Yadav was the other big success story with 2.

Alas, Rohit and Kuldeep’s joint third-placed glory was short-lived, because right at the end of the innings, Siraj waltzed out, cool as you like, and hit a quarter of India’s boundaries (one).

There it goes!

Siraj didn’t score any other runs. That meant he had to settle for being third-highest scorer, along with Extras.

A quick word too for India’s seventh-highest scorer, Ravindra Jadeja, who made probably the most horrible duck of the day.

Here is Jadeja, a left-hander, getting caught at gully.

Just to be 100% clear, gully is waaaay off to the right.

With ‘early on’ safely out of the way, New Zealand put on 67 runs for their first wicket and then also surpassed India’s innings total (46) for their second wicket too.

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Why India’s 36 all out was a one-dimensional effort in the field of collapses

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The post Did you see… Mohammed Siraj make his way onto India’s top scorers podium with a single shot? first appeared on King Cricket.

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Did you see… the butter/dragonfly that tried to run out Zak Crawley?

3 minute read

Look, we’re not an entomologist and grainy, low quality social media footage isn’t helping us here. All we know is a flapping insect tried to run Zak Crawley out, only for Sajid Khan to get to the stumps first, where he made a right royal hash of things.

You think we’re kidding, but we are not kidding. The images below aren’t the clearest when viewed as stills, but you can clearly see the blighter fluttering about in the footage.

What happened was: Ben Duckett gently paffed Sajid Khan into the leg side, Zak Crawley ran halfway to the other end and then noticed Duckett was saying no. At this point he whirled around and headed back to the non-striker’s end, along with the ball and also, less predictably, a butterfly.

On the replay, the butterfly enters the frame from the left.

At this point, Sajid hasn’t ballsed anything up.

The butterfly then makes what we’re unfortunately going to refer to as a ‘beeline’ towards the top of off stump.

We can’t know this for certain, but we believe that the butterfly (which is clearly Pakistani because it is in Pakistan) immediately sensed that Sajid was not to be trusted to secure an easy run-out and therefore set out to intervene.

However, in this next shot, we can see that it sadly arrived too late and therefore failed in its mission.

At this point, none of batter, ball or butterfly have arrived and yet hapless Sajid has already broken the stumps.

We then see how the zinging of the second bail compels the butterfly to take evasive manoeuvres.

Disgusted with the standard of Sajid’s fielding, the butterfly then charts a new course away from the stumps.

Sajid, meanwhile, celebrates – seemingly unaware of a modern phenomenon known as “the TV replay” which will clearly and repeatedly display his incompetence in very slow motion.

While the butterfly may have felt deflated at being unable to prevent this catastrophe, it can perhaps comfort itself that it did have a positive impact for Pakistan.

Sajid’s encounter with it apparently inspired him to undertake a metamorphosis of his own: not too long after this moment, he emerged from the cocoon of fielding incompetence as a player capable of dismissing England’s entire middle order.

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Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills

5 minute read

This Multan pitch is flatter than a pancake that’s gone under a Looney Tunes steamroller. That doesn’t mean you can score infinite runs on it though. Even Harry Brook had to settle for a mere 317 – and he’s so far made a hundred in every Test he’s played in Pakistan.

Liam Neeson’s Taken character famously has “a very particular set of skills”. Because he’s not a cricketer or a businessman, he apparently doesn’t know about the word ‘skillset’.

“But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career; skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”

While Harry Brook’s Test career has so far been relatively short, he has nevertheless acquired the very particular set of skills required to score very large numbers of runs on flat pitches. This makes him a nightmare for Pakistan bowlers.

The long haul

There’s a tendency in some quarters to undervalue big innings played on true pitches. Sure, the value of a run isn’t fixed and ‘tough runs’ scored in challenging conditions can be more significant when it comes to shaping the outcome of a game – but big innings are still big feats.

Not everyone can do this. Test triple hundreds in any conditions require certain qualities that most batters simply do not have. There’s a reason why Brook’s was only the second by an England batter in our lifetime after Graham Gooch’s 333.

Here’s Joe Root yesterday.

Look at those hollowed-out eyes. He looks tired, doesn’t he?

Root was ‘only’ on 100 at this moment. He was in fact being momentarily buoyed by the elation of having just reached three figures. And that’s what he looked like: knackered.

Root made another 160 after this. Big innings are hard physical work. Harry Brook had to run a great many of Root’s runs as well as his own, because his partner wasn’t getting ’em in boundaries – just 68 out of his final tally of 262, in fact.

Brook and Root covered an awful lot of ground. You won’t see what was exceptional about these innings in the highlights.

Alastair Cook was an endurance batter. Cook worked to develop extraordinary stamina, not so he could ascend to some unimaginable new plane of batting, but so that he could remain on the one he was on for a little bit longer. All that physical work was geared towards a simple goal. Cook wanted his feet to move much the same at 6pm as they did at midday.

Root is another who has this physical capacity – but it’s psychological too. Conscious thought is utterly draining. The ability to glide along, making runs on autopilot is rare and invaluable in these sorts of situations. One way or another, most people burn out not long after reaching three figures.

Cook made five Test double hundreds. Root has just gone past him with this sixth, but it tails off pretty quickly from there when you’re looking at England batters. Len Hutton made four. Kevin Pietersen made three. Gooch, David Gower and Jonathan Trott are among half a dozen who made two. Wally Hammond is in the top spot with seven.

Bully for you

Here’s another film quote for you: “Greed is good.”

You may view them as ‘cheaper’ runs overall, but there are undeniably times when a team’s flat track bullying proficiency is what makes the difference between winning and losing a match.

In large part because their home pitches tend to be more lively and the ball they use there more responsive, England have historically been pretty shit at this kind of thing.

You’d think batting would become easier on an absolute road, but that’s not really the story over the span of a long innings. Yeah, it’s easier for a bit, but then pretty soon England batters find themselves in uncharted physical and psychological territory and their innings comes to an end.

Few England batters have had a broader set of skills than Graham Thorpe. He made one double hundred and his next best effort was 138. You don’t even really need to go beyond the Bs to demonstrate this: Botham, Boycott and Bell all made only one double hundred.

Brook, you’d hazard, has another in him. And that is impressive – not least because the very particular set of skills required for a flat track triple aren’t the only ones he has. Lord knows he’s good for a rushed fifty ‘before you get a ball with your name on it’ too.

This is why the Test triple club is small. It’s not for everyone. Brian Lara made one, and a quadruple – not to mention a 501* in first-class cricket. Nine of Lara’s 33 Test hundreds were doubles or more.

> Brian Lara’s backlift

Sachin Tendulkar, in contrast, never made it past 248. We’re stretching ‘only’ a fair bit here, but only six of his 51 Test centuries were doubles.

Harry Brook has one triple. And that’s a lot. We reckon Chris Woakes was on for one too, if Ollie Pope hadn’t cruelly sawn him off on 17 with the declaration.

England’s eight most surprising double hundreds since Graham Gooch’s 333

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The post Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills first appeared on King Cricket.

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As a batter, Joe Root honestly isn’t much fun to write about any more

3 minute read

Joe Root reached his latest hundred with one of those reverse sweeps of his. We’ve seen them plenty of times before, of course. We’ve seen all of it plenty of times before. It doesn’t stop being impressive, but it’s become a nagging, cumulative impressiveness that never really leaves you, rather than the percussive, hit-you-over-the-head impressiveness of a new and remarkable thing.

We’re going to level with you: Joe Root is not a batter who is much fun to write about. Don’t get us wrong, we like him very much and of all the England Test batters we’ve seen, Root has been the most reliably brilliant. We just don’t massively enjoy writing about his innings.

That isn’t to say we don’t enjoy writing about Root. He was a great captain to write about, which perhaps goes some way towards explaining why he is such a dreadful batter to write about.

Root’s bowling is fun to write about too. He dismissed Pakistan’s number 11 with a bouncer yesterday, for example, taking out one of England’s openers for a period in the process.

Root’s fielding is fun to write about as well.

His batting? Not so much.

A lot of it comes down to his clinical efficiency. He’s always been a lot more Sachin Tendulkar than Brian Lara – relentlessly effective, rather than intermittently serving up triple, quadruple or quintuple hundreds. We didn’t write about Tendulkar very often.

If we’ve ever had anything worthwhile to say about Root, we’ve probably said it already. It’s not like he hasn’t given us opportunities. We’ve written about him twice this year already. In the first one, we commended his ability to consistently work things out more reliably than any of his team-mates. The next one was a feature about how he has been so persistently excellent that at times it hasn’t even felt that interesting.

That’s essentially what we’re saying again today. It’s not that we’re running out of superlatives here. It’s that we’ve run out of ways to say “we’re running out of superlatives”.

Joe Root’s career has now officially transcended cliché. Is there any greater sporting compliment than that?

And so, once again, we find ourself looking at the guy at the other end.

Harry Brook is still fun to write about. At one point today, he hit the ball into his own stumps via the ground and then his neck, but managed to avoid dislodging a bail.

Root has no time for such shenanigans. ‘Hitting the ball into your own stumps via ground and neck? Why would you hit the ball into your own stumps at all?’ he wonders.

So he doesn’t. Instead, Joe Root hits it into space and runs to the other end and becomes England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer.

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The post As a batter, Joe Root honestly isn’t much fun to write about any more first appeared on King Cricket.

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Chris Woakes’s back, Jack Leach’s back, James Anderson isn’t – three obvious talking points from day one of Pakistan v England

3 minute read

England did really well last time they toured Pakistan. Now they’re back without their captain or any of the quick bowlers who did well in that series.

Chris Woakes’s back

As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything.

When England toured and won in 2022, they used four quick bowlers.

• James Anderson took eight wickets at 18.50
• Mark Wood took eight wickets at 20.37
• Ollie Robinson took nine wickets at 21.22
• Ben Stokes took one wicket at 124.00

Since then, Anderson has been invited to retire; Wood is injured; and Robinson has been deemed unreliable and kind of a prick.

While Stokes’ performances were shaped by the fact he was in the middle of that, “Maybe I’m fit to bowl. Oh wait, no, turns out I’m not,” phase of his career, he isn’t actually in better shape now, despite having since had knee surgery. Plus ca change etc.

The upshot of all of this is that England’s quick bowling has become a lot more watchable in this first Test. ‘Watchable’ is of course not the same as ‘effective’.

As well as the guy who’d never played a Test overseas and the guy who’d never played a Test at all, there is ‘attack leader’ Chris Woakes. Welcome to the world of TOMORROWWWW!

Woakes has been poor overseas for many a year. As far back as 2019, his reputation was already sufficiently well cemented that he was resorting to growing a beard in a bid to persuade people he could still surprise. (At least that was our reading of that development.)

A year later, we concluded that he was basically at the mercy of circumstance, waiting for rest, rotation or retirement to create a new ball vacancy if he ever wanted to be in England’s first-choice overseas XI again.

And lo it came to pass!

Jack Leach’s back

As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything.

The real downside of being the kind of player who’s in and out of the Test team is the ‘out’ part. There is however also an upside, which is that you’re quite often in again.

Not so many years ago, Jack Leach was England’s first-choice spinner and yet he barely ever got a game. Then he was the first-choice spinner who did get a game. Then he had a stress fracture, then he had knee surgery, at which point first Tom Hartley and then Shoaib Bashir did well in his stead.

Bashir is still ahead of him in the pecking order and yet here we are, England are playing a Test, and there’s Jack Leach, bowling more overs than anyone.

Jimbo and the jet set

You’ll no doubt have seen the news that James Anderson, who is now England’s bowling consultant, has been playing a golf tournament and isn’t actually in Pakistan yet. He’s due to fly in halfway through the first Test.

The news has gone down doubly badly given England have found themselves in more of an old fashioned Pakistan Test, rather than one of these new fangled ones where wickets sometimes fall.

Brendon McCullum tried to claim Anderson’s absence as a “combined decision”. (Presumably the kind where England sigh and decide it’ll have to be fine unless they want to offer Jimmy a permanent job). McCullum then somewhat brazenly tried to minimise the impact by saying, “We live in a world where you can still communicate without being face to face.”

While the idea of Jimmy coaching by WhatsApp attracted predictable mockery before the match, it seemed a lot less ridiculous halfway through the day – because honestly how hard is it to interpret a shrug and the words “I dunno, maybe give Harry Brook a couple of overs?”

Kudos too to Anderson for his decision-making here. It’s not the worst move to keep your distance from a lost toss on this Multan pitch when trying to build a reputation as a bowling coach.

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The post Chris Woakes’s back, Jack Leach’s back, James Anderson isn’t – three obvious talking points from day one of Pakistan v England first appeared on King Cricket.

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Prescot & Odyssey only just getting started as promotion to Love Lane Liverpool Competition confirmed

Prescot & Odyssey celebrate promotion

Promotion to the Love Lane Liverpool Competition is just the beginning of Prescot & Odyssey’s journey, according to skipper Graham Talbot.

The Knowsley side kept their noses in front of Irby in an epic season-long battle for the Southport & District League title, meaning they will play in Division Two of the Comp next summer.

Rather than bottom club Prestatyn, they will replace Alder, who applied to leave the Comp.

Merseyside Cricket Online understands the West Derby club had struggled with player availability and opted to take the step down in order to rebuild in the Southport league.

Talbot has no such concerns. He said: “Obviously, we’re going into a better league with some good quality teams, but we’ve got some quality signings joining us in the next couple of weeks, so we’re going to be stronger.

“In the next two seasons, I want to be pushing us to get into Division One – I’ve got a plan for that and I think I can achieve that. 

“This is just the beginning.”

Love Lane Liverpool Competition tables

In the end, P&O’s two victories over their Wirral rivals proved decisive – they edged the race by three points, having lost just once all season.

All-rounder Khizer Qadeer led the way with 894 runs and 25 wickets; above him in the bowler’s charts were Chris Toms and former Wavertree pair John and Matty Nation.

Talbot, after three years at the helm, was thrilled to guide the club back to the level where they last played in 2017 – sealed with a nine-wicket win at New Victoria.

He added: “It’s fantastic, a massive achievement for the club. It’s where we always wanted to be, so I’m really happy.

“Personally, it meant everything to me.

“When I took the job on, the club wasn’t in a healthy place, we were down at the bottom of the league and needed to bring players in to get to where we needed to be, so it’s taken three years but I always knew we’d get there in the end. 

“It was a really proud moment.”

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Merseyside Cricket Online Division Two Team of 2024… PLUS title-winning skipper Matt White on Hightown St Marys promotion

Hightown St Marys are keen to avoid the “dreaded yo-yo” as they look forward to life in Division One.

Confirmed as Division Two champions midweek thanks to Whitefield playing an unregistered player in the penultimate game, skipper Matt White was able to relax in their season-closer at Northop Hall.

“I used all 11 bowlers,” he said.

“It is hard work, captaining – I live about an hour away from Hightown so it’s nice to put my feet up for a bit. 

“I think the lads are looking forward to a couple of months off, then get cracking with winter nets and get ready for next year.”

Hightown’s successful season was built on the top-order runs of Matt Laybourne and the wickets of the skipper himself, who took 61 at 11.20.

White knows they will need more consistent run-makers in the second tier, saying of Laybourne: “It was a shame nobody could stick around with him, quite often he was the one man. He was outstanding.

“We managed to defend some quite low scores, but moving to next season it is an area we’re looking to strengthen, to try to improve our own performances. 

“We can’t rely on trying to defend low scores in Division One. 

“We played a couple of Prem teams in T20 games and it didn’t go very well, but the year before we acquitted ourselves really well against some higher-up teams. 

“We’re looking for maybe one or two additions, then we’re really confident we can do well next season and stave off the dreaded yo-yo.”

Love Lane Liverpool Competition statistics

White points to a two-run win over fellow promotion chasers Caldy in July as the season’s turning point. 

The Wirral side ended up missing out to Sutton in a three-into-two race.

“If we’d lost that, it might have looked a lot different,” White admitted. 

“We used it a lot in later games – we might have only got 140, but we’d defended less than half of that. 

“Teams found it tough chasing all season at Hightown. 

“We knew once we’d got a half-competitive score on the board, we’d get our 10 wickets and win the game.”

The skipper hailed the contributions of vice-captain Guy Edwards and off-spinner Jackson Darkes-Sutcliffe, recruited last winter from Premier Division Formby.

And he recognised the efforts of two young players, Dylan Riley and Joel McGinnigle.

He added: “Over the full season, I think we’ve proved we were the best side in the division and the league table showed that in the end.”

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Division Two Team of 2024

One player per club, in a balanced XI (with a sub from the bottom side). County and overseas pros are allowed, but expectation levels are taken into account. No I do not have it in for your club, that would simply not be worth my while. 

1 Stephen Lucas (Ainsdale)
683 runs @ 48.79, 1 x 100, 2 x 50; 12 wickets @ 12.75, 1 x 5-for

The former Northern and Formby man rolled back the years for Ainsdale, topping the division’s run charts. There were unbeaten knocks of 98 and 85 to go with his 134* at Northop Hall – Lucas was not dismissed once he passed 48 all season.

2 Theo O’Brien * (Wavertree)
447 runs @ 26.29, 2 x 50

It was an up-and-down season for Wavertree but they were well marshalled by a skipper in his rookie year. The best part of 450 runs opening the batting is not to be sniffed at; neither is a record of just six single-figure scores in his 20 innings.

3 Matt Laybourne (Hightown St Marys)
652 runs @ 38.35, 6 x 50; 11 wickets @ 27.00

It was a case of everything but the ton as Laybourne powered his side to promotion and the division title. A painstaking unbeaten 96 in a pragmatic draw against second-placed Sutton was the highlight, but there were plenty more impactful innings to choose from – notably a half-century in a pace-setting win against the same opponents in May.

4 Danny Fisher (Norley Hall)
459 runs @ 27.00, 1 x 100, 1 x 50

His 137 against Ainsdale was the highest score in the division this year, and the second best in the whole Comp; over the season, he finished just 17 runs behind his side’s high-profile overseas batter (and nephew of a World Cup-winning captain) Moditha Ranatunga.

5 Saud Afridi (Whitefield)
505 runs @ 26.58, 1 x 100, 1 x 50; 13 wickets @ 24.69, 1 x 5-for

The Roby new boys survived in the Comp thanks to being able to post enough defendable scores in two crucial periods of the season. A lot of that was thanks to Afridi, whose unbeaten 108 – the club’s first ever Comp century – inspired the Easter Monday win in the Loop Line Derby against Alder. 

6 Dylan Rowley (Southport Trinity)
418 runs @ 19.90, 1 x 100, 1 x 50; 46 wickets @ 15.91, 5 x 5-for

Without Indian star batter Salman Ahmed, Trinity hovered perilously close to the bottom – Australian Rowley, who stepped up to fill the overseas role as an amateur, having played in the 2nd XI last year, helped ensure their safety with some big performances in both disciplines. 

7 Ben Slater + (Northop Hall)
417 runs @ 29.79, 3 x 50

Wicketkeeper-captains are all the rage higher up in the Comp, and Slater filled the role well at Northop Hall. He didn’t have the numbers of their Barbadian all-rounder Nathan Roett but knitted things together in the middle order, and added 34 dismissals behind the stumps.

8 Greg Harvey (Alder)
389 runs @ 24.31, 2 x 50; 52 wickets @ 15.90, 6 x 5-for

Another excellent year for the slow left-armer, studded with match-winning spells against the teams near or below the West Derby side in the table. Gone are the days when Alder were perennial wooden spoon candidates – a huge part of that is down to Harvey’s excellence over the past four years.

9 Jehan Yahathugoda (Parkfield Liscard)
229 runs @ 12.72; 64 wickets @ 10.88, 7 x 5-for

The left-arm spinner only went wicketless twice all year and took three or more on 12 occasions. Parkfield narrowly escaped relegation in 2023 but with Yahathugoda hitting his stride, seldom looked in danger this time round.

10 Asiri Gamage (Caldy)
180 runs @ 12.86, 1 x 50; 40 wickets @ 13.25, 3 x 5-for

It wasn’t to be for Caldy, denied promotion by a single wicket on the last day. But the pacy Gamage had a breakthrough year, taking 5/12 to defend just 88 against Prestatyn and similar hauls in wins over Whitefield and Parkfield Liscard.

11 Nat Brown (Sutton)
118 runs @ 13.11; 50 wickets @ 10.96, 4 x 5-for

Even before the last day, Brown might well have made this side – she had already taken 41 wickets and three five-bags, equalling her career tally before 2024, at an economy of less than 2.3 an over. Then came the spell that sealed promotion – 9/21 to demolish Parkfield Liscard, defend just 109 and write her name indelibly in the club’s history.  

12 Adam Tidswell (Prestatyn) 
48 runs @ 4.36; 50 wickets @ 14.36, 4 x 5-for

The seamer stepped up to the plate after Aarya Jadhav had to return to India and, while he couldn’t keep his side off the bottom of the table, he won them some games – notably with 9/47 against Parkfield Liscard – and himself plenty of admirers.

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Merseyside Cricket Online Division One Team of 2024… PLUS title-winning skipper George Johansen on Colwyn Bay’s dip for the line

Colwyn Bay legend Paul Jenkins in action for the club

Timing is everything in cricket – just ask Colwyn Bay.

The Welsh side secured promotion from Division One on the final day of the season by earning a second batting point against Orrell Red Triangle.

Then they climbed to the top of the table for the first time all summer by wrapping up a 106-run win – the final wicket falling to veteran left-arm spinner Paul Jenkins in his last game for the club, five minutes before the rain arrived.

Firwood Bootle, who were already promoted and had led the way for most of the summer, failed to beat Liverpool – and Bay, relegated on the final day last season, were straight back up as champions.

Skipper George Johansen, watching events unfold from afar via Play Cricket, couldn’t have been prouder.

“I’m chuffed to bits,” he said.

“We didn’t think it was possible, Bootle were well on top against Liverpool but that changed pretty quickly. 

“The last two times we’ve got promoted, we’ve had to get results on the last day of the season, and we’ve done it.”

Love Lane Liverpool Competition tables

Dulanjana Mendis finished the season with 83 wickets at just 9.71 – just one scalp behind his fellow Sri Lankan slow left-armer, Orrell’s Duvindu Tillakaratne.

But Johansen was keen to sing the praises of the supporting cast.

Will Evans, Zack Gidlow and Sion Morris all made over 400 runs each, and Jenkins and seamer Jack Parry took 35 and 34 wickets respectively.

Bay bowled their opposition out in 15 of their 20 playable games this season, including in a crucial seven-run win over third-placed Highfield in July, which Johansen sees as the turning point of the season.

He said: “It ebbed and flowed, then Dully got six wickets and it was a really good team performance.

“That moved us ahead of Highfield, and we stayed there for the rest of the season.

“It’s been a collective team effort. A lot of weeks, our bowling has been too strong – obviously with Dully being the second leading wicket taker and with the best average. 

“But Jenkins got 30-odd wickets, Jack Parry got 30-odd – so out of all the possible wickets available, I think most teams we managed to bowl out.”

Love Lane Liverpool Competition statistics

Mendis will be back next year, the club having moved quickly to snap him up as they attempt to improve on 2023’s relegation season.

“It’s good to get that out of the way early, it allows us to focus on what we’re doing with a clear head,” said Johansen.

“He’s settled in well, everyone loved him and he’s been great with the juniors. 

“I’m sure he’ll find it tougher but I don’t see any reason why he can’t do really well.”

But in 52-year-old Jenkins, who has been at Colwyn since 2003 and passed 1,000 wickets for the club in 2021, the skipper knows he has lost the services of a Liverpool Competition legend.

He said: “He’s heavily involved with Lancashire over-50s so to stay involved with that, he needs to be playing some form of cricket. 

“I don’t know where he’ll be moving on to but we wish him the best. 

“He’s taken over 1,000 wickets for Colwyn Bay, which is a fantastic achievement.”

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Division One Team of 2024

One player per club, in a balanced XI (with a sub from the bottom side). County and overseas pros are allowed, but expectation levels are taken into account. No I do not have it in for your club, that would simply not be worth my while. 

1 Liam Crilly (Maghull) 
842 runs @ 44.32, 2 x 100, 5 x 50; 12 wickets @ 37.17

In the “first name on the team sheet” category, in more ways than one. Maghull struggled at first after promotion from Division Two; Crilly’s upturn in form from July coincided with his club’s, and contributed to a comfortable eighth-place finish. After making 123* at champions Colwyn Bay, he was only out below 33 twice in the next nine innings and contributed 107 against Lytham. A fine year for the veteran.

2 Luke Prescott (Orrell Red Triangle)
476 runs @ 59.50, 2 x 100, 3 x 50

A half-century in his opening game was followed by three months out injured… but the Lancashire U18 prospect hit the ground like he’d never been away, making 107 at Lytham, 100 against St Helens Town and two more 50s. After six innings, he had 436 runs at 87.20, more than all but two of his teammates – Mark Waddington and Sam Heeley – managed all season. Orrell had the division’s leading bowler in Duvindu Tillakaratne but overseas slow left-armers are plentiful – there aren’t many young batting talents like Prescott.

3 Zack Gidlow (Colwyn Bay)
460 runs @ 24.21, 3 x 50

“Brilliant,” in the words of his skipper, George Johansen. Gidlow managed to stand out in a title-winning top order thanks to the importance of his runs – 85 in a chase of 185 at Maghull when nobody else passed 40, 72 to see the side home by just two wickets against the same opposition, who will be glad to see the back of him. After a below-par 2023, he has unfinished business in the Premier Division; thanks partly to his performances, he gets the chance to put it right.

4 Hermann Rolfes (Firwood Bootle)
759 runs @ 108.43, 2 x 100, 5 x 50; 23 wickets @ 8.13

The South African star wasn’t dismissed until June, by which time he’d made 215 runs and the sleeping giants of the division were starting to stretch their legs. Second only to Crilly for runs, and ahead by Bradman margins in the averages, Rolfes finished his season with a run of 381 for twice out. And this level of statistical dominance is without even considering his bowling, which was off the table for much of the summer due to injury – when he bowled, he stood out in a promotion-winning attack of quality seamers. If he comes back next year, he has what it takes to grace the Premier Division.

5 Matt Taaffe * (Lytham)
477 runs @ 31.80, 3 x 50; 16 wickets @ 13.63

A steady hand at the tiller of our XI, and in the heart of the middle order. Availability problems helped consign Lytham to their lowest finish since relegation, but as in previous years, at full strength they were a tough side to play against. Taaffe was their top scorer and at the heart of many of the good times. When he got settled, he usually made a score, only being dismissed twice between 10 and 36, and his run of four red-inkers in the last 10 games showed his willingness to dig in.

6 Jared Clein (Liverpool) 
544 runs @ 38.86, 1 x 100, 3 x 50; 42 wickets @ 12.24, 2 x 5-for

“The most underrated cricketer I’ve ever known,” according to outgoing skipper Matty Jackson. If Liverpool manage to find the consistency to mount a sustained promotion push, that could quickly change. An unbeaten 102 against Lytham in July, followed by a spell of 5/4 with his off-breaks, was certainly the kind of performance that gets a player noticed. He finished the season with a flourish, with unbeaten 70s against Sefton Park and Bootle, and will be keen to pick up where he left off.

7 Mohit Jangra (Highfield)
599 runs @ 49.92, 2 x 100, 2 x 50; 65 wickets @ 12.94, 5 x 5-for

Fourth in the runs, third in the wickets, the Indian all-rounder almost got Highfield back in the Premier Division as they matched their highest finish since relegation. He did it all at the best part of a run a ball, with only Bootle’s Sagar Trivedi hitting more than his 29 sixes. His seam bowling is his strongest suit, hence him batting in the bottom half in my imagination – he only went wicketless once in 21 attempts, and took three or more wickets on 14 occasions.

8 Nathan Ashford + (Spring View)
473 runs @ 23.65

Speaking of struggling to fit everyone in the right batting order… the 21-year-old wicketkeeper opens for Spring View but would probably be grateful for the rest. The second ever recipient of the Chris Weston bursary, he will be heading for New Zealand in the winter to hone his skills – a reflection of how well thought-of he is. He stood out in a disappointing season for his side, never reaching 50 but only recording five single-digit scores in 21 innings.

9 Dan Harrison (Old Xaverians)
420 runs @ 22.11, 2 x 50; 29 wickets @ 14.55, 1 x 5-for

Another seamer, another all-rounder – it’s been that kind of summer – and one who helped his side stay afloat with some big performances. In four games against the two relegated sides, he only failed once with the bat, making 46* against St Helens Town, and 92 and 42 against Fleetwood Hesketh. And he showed his quality with the ball by taking some big scalps in his 5/46 against champions Colwyn Bay.

10 Sibusiso Maseko (St Helens Town)
179 runs @ 8.95; 43 wickets @ 18.02

A poor season for Town ended in relegation, and their South African spinner was down on his 2023 numbers, when his 50 wickets helped keep them clear of the drop. Still, his numbers stood out from his teammates’ this year, taking a third of the side’s wickets and getting through more than 250 overs. Four of Town’s five wins came with him in the side – he took 4/11, 4/49, 3/9 and 3/60 in them. When he fired, they did well; he didn’t fire enough, sadly.

11 Jimmy Dixon (Sefton Park)
85 runs @ 17.00; 30 wickets @ 16.23, 1 x 5-for

Another outstandingly consistent season from the England deaf international. Sefton flew out of the blocks this year, with wickets shared between all the seamers – but Dixon, in typical fashion, kept it going longer than the others. Targeting the stumps and pads (23 of his 30 wickets were bowled or LBW), he finished the season with a flourish by taking 6/46 against Old Xavs, his seventh haul of three or more wickets. And he went viral with a chaotic, stump-demolishing run-out in the Disability Premier League, too.

12 Dan O’Keefe (Fleetwood Hesketh)
362 runs @ 20.11, 3 x 50; 46 wickets @ 15.02, 4 x 5-for

Two wins and 18 defeats tells its own story when it comes to Hesketh’s 2024 season. Their visiting Australian all-rounder was a bright spot, second in the club for both runs and wickets, behind Matty Howard and Sabbir Patel. But he was left carrying the can alone too often, and couldn’t turn things around for the bottom side.

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