2008 Season Review: Nottinghamshire

Continuing our season reviews, 'OBR and the Nottinghamshire 606ers' offers an assesment of Nottinghamshire's season.

Final placings:
Championship Division One – 2nd;
FP Trophy – 2nd, Midlands Division (Beaten Quarter Finalists to Durham); Twenty20 Cup – 4th, North Division; Pro40 Division One - 4th
All stats are CC (unless otherwise stated)

Following on from promotion from Division two last season, once again Nottinghamshire’s season was a rollercoaster of joy, to despair, back to joy and more often then not ending up in despair. Thoughts at the start of the season were ones of how to avoid a struggle at the bottom of the County Championship and hopefully sneak some silverware in the one day competitions. In the end thoughts were one of ‘If only’ with Championship and Pro40 titles slipping away on the last day of each competition.

There were many changes towards the start with captain fantastic, Fleming moving on and David Hussey not sure how much cricket he would play for Notts, if any at all. The batting was strengthened with Matthew Wood coming in after being released from Somerset. The bowling department was also strengthened with the Stuart Broad coming in from Leicestershire, Darren Pattinson (more about him later) coming in after a recommendation from David Hussey and after a few games. Ex-Overseas player Andre Adams also came in, on a Kolpak agreement, as cover for Broad and Sidebottom, who were to be regulars in the England team. Once Hussey had made it clear that he would not play any cricket for Notts till at least July, Notts quickly moved to bring in Adam Voges and then when he made it even clearer that he would play no part at all, Ashwell Prince, came in as a replacement from Voges, who had to return to Oz in July. Chris Read took the captain’s armband with Fleming moving on.

So Notts went to Kent for the first game of the County Championship season without Broad and Sidebottom, who had been told to rest after a long hard winter (Cough!). With this in mind, many fans were just willing Notts to get up to the magical total of 155 points to avoid relegation and kick on in 2009. OK maybe that was just me but one or two other people agreed with me (I think!). But after 53.4 overs Kent were dismissed for 162 and fans everywhere were punching ‘Darren Pattinson’ in various search engines on the web to find out exactly who he was. He ended the game with figures of 36-15-85-8 and Mick Newell had unearthed a new bowling genius to add to the already cupboard stocked full of bowling geniuses. Notts finished the game with 22 points and but for rear guard actions from Key and Mahmood in each innings, Notts would have finished the game well inside 2 days.

After this game things stuttered along a little with a draw at The Parks, a win in Dublin in the FPT, an abandonment at Egbaston in the FPT, a draw at Headingley (when Notts were well on top). A D/L win against Northants was followed up by revenge for Kent at Trent Bridge. Whoever let Broad and Sidebottom play wants a stern talking to!

The first month provided an accurate pre-cursor as to how the season would pan out. A great start but a disappointing end, with the bowling being great but the batting was sadly not up to scratch.

As the season progressed the Notts fans were soon questioning the ability of openers Jefferson and Wood to provide a stable base from which to score big runs. The running joke being that Notts were starting their innings a wicket or two down, before they crossed to rope. Jefferson finished the CC season with 442 runs @ 22.10 and Wood 539 @ 26.95. Both players didn’t managed a century and both obtained a top score of 98. It was only when Shafayat (541 runs @ 41.61) came in for Wood at the top of the order did Notts get a substantial opening partnership, 157 against Sussex at Hove and that was late August!

Behind the top, two Mark Wagh proved to be Mr Consistency by eight fifties and getting past the one hundred mark twice. He ended the season with 1033 runs @ 46.95. Samit Patel didn’t quite make the 1000 run mark but ended strongly with scores of 135, 70 and 77 to end the season with 977 runs @ 51.42. Then came the Swann, Read, Ealham middle order that was either saving an innings or throwing it away. They ended up with 525 runs @ 37.50, 726 runs @ 45.37 and 329 runs @ 20.56 respectively. The two interesting things from these three is Ealham started the season with a 130* at Kent and then amassed 199 runs in the CC after that and Read’s ave was boosted by 5 NotOuts but his batting was sadly affected by the captaincy. The only two other notable contributors to the scorebook in the CC were our two Overseas players who managed 627 runs @ 36.88 and Prince 123 runs @ 30.75. This disappointing return from Voges and Prince along with Jefferson and Wood’s ‘contribution’ of 5 fifties and zero centuries, lead, in no small part, to Notts finishing second in the County Championship. As opposed to top where at one point they looked like finish.

The theme of starting well and finishing up poorly continued in the Friends Provident Trophy, Twenty20 and especially the Pro40. In the FPT we managed to finish second behind Leicestershire and then went out in a nail-biter to Durham at the Riverside, where the batting, Samit’s run a ball 114 apart, failed but Durham struggled to a win by one wicket, with Samit also picking up three wickets and the MOM award. The Twenty20 record after 6 games was W,W,L,D,W,W the next four had a consistent look about it L,L,L,L. Notts were then thrown a lifeline when Yorks fielded an ineligible player at Trent Bridge, in the decider and Notts were given the points to take them through to the Knockout stage.

That lifeline was rapidly taken away by the ECB as it somehow transpired that Notts shouldn’t be given the game points but Yorkshire should have their points taken away. This meant Glamorgan would go through to the Knockout stages after crying like babies. Strange that Glamorgan profited from this decision after the other remarkable decision of being granted the first Ashes test on an untried ground. Anyone would think that the ex-head of the ECB was Welsh or something. As for the Pro40 outings Notts won 3 from the first four games and one of the next 4, we all know what happened in the decider at Trent Bridge on Sunday the 14th September. I blame my brother who with Sussex needed loads off not many proclaimed that Notts had won and we could all go home. Murray Goodwin must have heard his big mouth and tried to ram the last ball down his throat on the middle deck of the Radcliffe Road.

In the end, as we all know, Notts threw away a great chance of sealing the CC total to make up for the Pro40 by collapsing in their first innings against Hants when they had them for the taking and the title went to Durham with their mix of imports and local stars.

I always like to end on a positive note so here it is; the bowling, Sussex game apart the seam attack of Shreck, Pattinson, Adams and Ealham was superb throughout the whole season. In the CC they ended up with 58, 47, 31 and 30 wickets each. Averages were 28.67, 24.65, 19.16 and a poor by Ealham’s high standards 29.56. They were backed up by the spin twins of Swann and Patel 32 wickets @ 27.03 and 12 wickets @ 37.91. Samit did manage to take 26 wickets @ 15.73 in List A games which catapulted him into the England ODI side and potentially on the biggest pay day of his career in the WI in November.

The 'Roof Tiler from Grimsby' as he was dubbed by the red tops was also selected to play for England in the Test at Headingley, leap-frogging the likes of Tremlett and Hoggard much to the dislike of 99.9% of the cricketing fraternity. He didn’t bowl too badly against SA, they just completely outplayed England but it would appear that Pattinson was made scapegoat for the defeat and would never darken the England dressing room door again. As I type he is on Cricinfo as saying he wouldn’t have picked himself. The point being that he didn’t pick himself the England selectors did and he was hardly going to turn them down was he now! It was only in the last game of the season did Pattinson and his seam/spin colleagues look weary. As much as our batting was fragile the bowling sextet always seem to pick up wickets early on and at the right times.

Overall 8/10

Player of the season:
Notts say it is Charlie Shreck and they are about right but not far behind him are Samit Patel and Mark Wagh from the batsmen and Pattinson, Adams and Swann from the bowlers. All the other players are far far behind and I include Read in this due to his poor batting and keeping at times. Hopefully the captaincy doesn’t affect him as much next season.

Most disappointing player:
Lots to choose from here Jefferson, Wood, Voges, Prince, Franks (a CC bowling ave of 50+!), Ealham’s batting post Kent,

Highlight:
The start at Kent, the last ball win against Leics in the FPT, the stuffing of Surrey, Samit’s innings in the same game, Samit’s allround play against Durham in the FPT Quarter Final. All things considered 2nd in the CC when we were playing Div2 cricket last season is a great achievement. Fletcher, Saleby and Hales all playing for England U19 in the same game.

Lowlight:
Oh where to start. Obviously Sussex in the Pro40 and Hants in the final CC game, Yorks, Lancs and Durham all at home and all on Sky. Four home Sky games and four defeats. Jefferson and Wood’s batting. The Overseas contribution, we expect them to score big and they didn’t. Newell’s inability to bring youth into the equation. The ECB T20 debacle, I know we didn’t deserve to go through but don’t tell us we are through and then listen to whinging Welsh people who claim to be sooooo hard done to.

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Championship - Week 20

It’s all set for a grandstand finish at both ends of the table in Division 1, while in Division 2, it’s all over as the Bears and Pears clinch their promotions.

Division 1
Starting with a battle at the bottom end of the table as struggling Lancashire faced Kent, who were also looking for their early season form. Kent put Lancs into bat, skittling them for just 107, extras top scoring with 32. 91 from Geraint Jones then took Kent to 233 and a substantial first innings lead. Lancs did better second time round, Stuart Law getting 79 while Glen Chapple held the tail together with 45 as they made 288. Needing just 162 to win, Chapple then came into his own with the ball, taking 6 for 40 as Kent made just 92 to lose by 70 runs. Lancs move a point ahead of Kent, and most critically five points out of the relegation zone. Both teams face title chasing teams next week and need decent points to keep themselves safe.

Suffering most from the Lancs come back were Yorkshire, who must have thought they would move above their Roses rivals after their draw with Somerset. Somerset batted first, knowing a win would take them to the top of the table. Having lost Marcus Trescothick first ball, they were indebted to an Ian Blackwell ton, with support from Peter Trego to reach 380. An Antony McGrath ton and 98 from Jacques Rudolph got Yorkshire to 414 and maximum bonus points. Somerset were then reduced to 39 for 3 as Yorkshire smelt victory. However, the time lost at the beginning of the game proved crucial and Somerset batted out to 317 for 8 and a draw. Yorks remain in the relegation zone with a trip to also struggling Sussex. Somerset entertain Lancs needing a win to stand any chance of taking the title.

Taking advantage at the top of the table were Nottinghamshire, who sent a woeful Surrey back to Division 2. Batting first Surrey made 267, by which point they knew that they had been relegated. Notts then went on to make 532, with Mark Wagh (141) and Samit Patel (135) putting on 242 for the 3rd wicket. Surrey then made just 122 second time round as they finished the season winless. Notts are in pole position and entertain in form Hampshire, who also have title ambitions.

Also in contention at the top are Durham, 380 who made against Sussex, Shiv Chanderpaul scoring a ton and Mohammed Sami taking five wickets. Chris Nash scored 96 as Sussex made 302 in reply. However, this was another game affected by the weather and Durham could only get to 125 for 2 as the game finished in a draw. Durham are 3rd, ten points behind Notts and face struggling Kent next week. Sussex play host to Yorks, knowing that a loser will almost certainly be relegated.

Prediction time: Very rarely this season has a team stayed at the top for more than a week (and most teams have topped the table at some point). I am therefore going to predict a Hants win over Notts, opening the door for Durham to take the title, whose win will relegate Kent, as Sussex and Yorks play out a draw.

Division 2
The match of the week was at Chelmsford where Essex needed to beat Warwickshire to keep their promotion push going. Batting first Essex made 341, with 18 year old Jaik Mickleburgh and Ryan ten Doeschate both making 72. The Bears then took charge in the form of Tony Frost, whose unbeaten 242 was the highest score for Warwicks against Essex. The Bears declared on 514 for 9 and then bowled Essex out for 316, John Maunders and Ravi Bopara both getting tons in a stand of 241 and Ian Salisbury taking six wickets as the last nine wickets fell for 69 runs. Warwickshire then made the 144 needed for the loss of 4 wickets to confirm their promotion. Essex face another season in Division 2.

Warwickshire’s win also promoted Worcestershire, who found themselves against a Middlesex team showing the form that I thought would lead them to the title at the beginning of the season. Tim Murtagh took six wickets as Worcester struggled to 265 despite a Stephen Moore century. Andrew Strauss (101) and Owais Shah (86) then put on 129 as Middlesex made 321, Gareth Andrew taking five wickets. Dirk Nannes took six wickets second time round to reduce Worcester to 122 and leave Middlesex needing 67 to win, which they did for the loss of 2 wickets. In the end, the result was not important to Worcester as now prepare for life in Division 1 and without Graeme Hick.

At the bottom of the table, Glamorgan took on Leicestershire. Batting first the Welshmen scored 450, with Gareth Rees and Michael Powell both getting tons. In reply, Leicester struggled to 201 and following on 311, despite Paul Nixon getting an unbeaten 106. Glamorgan scored the 63 needed for victory without losing a wicket and move above Leicester in the table.

Both Leicester and Glamorgan are above Gloucestershire, who played Derbyshire, bowling the home side out for just 188, David Brown taking 5 wickets. Graeme Wagg went one wicket better as Gloucester made 222. He then scored 72 as Derby made 431, Greg Smith top scoring with 92. Four more wickets for Wagg saw Gloucester bowled out for 280 and a Derbyshire win by 117 runs. Derbyshire move above Essex in the table while Gloucester remain winless and bottom.

England Player Watch
Michael Vaughan did better than Marcus Trescothick, although neither scored many and both got injured. In contrast, Andrew Strauss, Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara all got big scores in their matches and Matt Prior scored another half century.

Three more wickets for Steve Harmison in his excellent season, while Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid were both in the wickets for Yorkshire

Player of the Week
Some brilliant individual performances this week including Antony McGrath, Ian Blackwell, Mark Wagh and Samit Patel with the bat, Ian Salisbury with the ball and Graeme Wagg with both. In any other week, Glen Chapple would have been a shoe-in for the award. However, for an unbeaten 242 in promotion clash that saw his team promoted, the Player of the Week is Tony Frost