1) Are you not entertained?
What is the purpose of watching sport? “We’re in the entertainment business” used to do the rounds from the administrators, but that’s heard less frequently these days, as sports businesses have wised up to the power that lies in the emotional connection between the fan and the supporter. There’s gold in them thar hills!
Nobody would claim that entertainment has no role to play in sports; after all, there’s little in life has changed more in the last 24 years than the range and accessibility of ways to pass the time. But sport is also about history, identity, belonging, release, excitement and, perhaps more than any other factor, the rare exhilaration that comes from sharing a heightened collective experience in real time. Why are millions paying fortunes to sing along to a speck in the distance? Sports lovers and Taylor Swift fans have plenty in common.
No Somerset or Glamorgan supporter would claim that the Metro Bank One Day Cup is the pinnacle of the game nor of the smorgasbord of entertainment options available to them. But thousands will be heading to Trent Bridge on 22 September for the final in good voice and good heart. The marketing execs with their focus groups, branding strategies and income stream diversifications may understand that sentiment about as much as I understand them. And I quite like it that way.
2) Kai’s okay
Before the long wait for the climax of the competition kicked in, things moved very rapidly last week, with two eliminators on Friday and two semi-finals on Sunday. (As an aside, it’s a great structure, but should be done in seven days: eliminators Monday and Tuesday; semis Thursday and Friday; final on Sunday).
Worcestershire, evicted from New Road by an England Lions vs Sri Lanka match that must have been totally impossible to move, played at Edgbaston in a thriller that showcased the kind of narrative that other white-ball formats just can’t provide.
In the 22nd over, Ed Pollock and Jake Libby were well set with the board showing 97 for two, eyeing a score in excess of 300. Jake Lintott’s left-arm wrist spin induced a false stroke from Pollock and, although his captain was to go on to raise his century (Libby has had a fine tournament in the middle order), all five Warwickshire bowlers picked up wickets in a solid effort.
At 77-5 in the 19th, that all seemed for nought, 287 no longer a middling target, but a distant one. Only the experienced Will Rhodes stood between the Pears and a Sunday showdown at Sophia Gardens. However, that would be denying a delight of this competition – the unearthing of new talent.
Cue Kai Smith, no innings longer than 44 balls in the competition so far and not even a first class game on the CV. With 31 overs available to bat, that’s exactly what the teenager did, making 130 of the 210 runs his team needed from number seven. What a knock!
3) No ball means no win for Hampshire
While that thriller was under way in Birmingham, an even tighter match went to the last over a few miles east at Leicester.
The first innings followed a similar pattern, Nick Gubbins the experienced captain who made a century, but Hampshire will feel that 290-8 was a little under par having gone into the last ten overs on 214-3, with Liam Dawson as well set as Gubbins. That it was Chris Wright who picked up two wickets in the 41st over to lead the Leicestershire fightback will have pleased many a cricket fan who sympathises with the veteran pacer after a harsh suspension had kept him out of the game until mid-July.
After a pair of 70s from two Test players, Peter Handscomb and Ajinkya Rahane, had provided a foundation, Leicestershire’s hero down the order was Liam Trevaskis, who joined wicketkeeper Ben Cox with 103 required at just over a run a ball. They got 94 of them before Cox left the crease, but that ushered in a very tense last couple of overs, Dominic Kelly’s no ball probably the turning point, as nerves frayed. The lad, who had a fine match otherwise, will be back stronger for that error.
4) Bears in the Gardens repelled
By dint of topping the group, Glamorgan and Somerset had earned a Friday off and home advantage in the semi-finals, and both were to cash in.
Ed Barnard’s superb form had continued, the opening bowler and opening batter knocking the head off the Glamorgan order with four wickets to leave home supporters worrying at 44-4. Colin Ingram and Billy Root steadied the ship with a partnership of 46 in 11 overs to stay in the game, but at 168-7 going into the last ten, it was Warwickshire fans who were checking Sunday timetables to Nottingham.
Dan Douthwaite is exactly the kind of cricketer this competition suits, able to affect a game with bat or ball, and few number nines have the nous Timm van den Gugten brings down the order. They put on 34 for the eighth wicket, before Douthwaite led an assault on the last three overs that yielded 41 crucial runs.
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Van der Gugten was back in the game with ball in hand, taking out Rob Yates and Will Rhodes on his way to 2-22 off his full allocation. Douthwaite wasn’t to be outshone, having Chris Benjamin and semi-final hero, Kai Smith, caught behind, before catching Michael Burgess whose 85 had threatened to overhaul the target.
5) Goldsworthy performance merits first place
I’m not sure Leicestershire’s Lewis Hill got the call right in choosing to invite Somerset to have a bat at Taunton. While you don’t want a raucous home crowd roaring the team home in a chase, you don’t really want them adding adrenaline to a target and mood-setting first dig either.
Lewis Goldsworthy, in at three during the 19th over, made 115 not out with five sixes which, supplemented by a 91 run opening stand from Andrew Umeed and George Thomas and a fine 71 from James Rew, set the visitors a daunting 335 for the win.
Handscomb continued his fine form with a century from number five, but the visitors were always playing catch-up and one felt that something special would be required from either Louis Kimber or Trevaskis at seven and eight if Somerset were to be denied. They got just two runs each and the home side had 23 runs in hand at the end of the 50 overs.
6) Train travel leaves fans to take the strain
To save Glammie fans the trouble, the first train into Nottingham on 22 September arrives at 12.53, after two changes and four-and-a-half hours travelling, available to you for just £79.40 one way.
To be even-handed in this column’s service to readers, the first train from Taunton arrives in Nottingham at 13.39, after two changes and over five hours, for the bargain price of £56.10 one way. This from the country that invented railways.
The carbon cost alone should rule out such public transport unfriendly scheduling. Remember that the next time the ECB trumpets its environmental credentials.