The Shorter Wisden 2013 (68 page)

County culture has always been more underneath the mainstream than against it, so it was perhaps fitting that the majority of the overseas recruits who did end up making an impact were of the
low-fi variety. Starc and Miller, both young and exciting but hardly names plucked from the firmament, were central to Yorkshire’s campaign, while Hampshire were inspired in going for the
Australian Glenn Maxwell – then playing for South Wilts in the Southern Premier League – as cover for Shahid Afridi. Scott Styris, a nomad of the format, scored the joint-third-fastest
hundred in Twenty20 history in Sussex’s quarter-final win over Gloucestershire. His 37-ball century was only the second of the tournament (the lowest number since the inaugural 2003 edition),
but was all the more eye-catching for coming at the knockout stage. James Fuller suffered most, conceding 38 runs in one over to equal the record in professional cricket.

In general, the runs flowed during the quarter-finals, with Sussex and Yorkshire passing 200, though three out of four went to form: only Nottinghamshire could not capitalise on home advantage.
Hampshire were their nuggety conquerors and, a month later at Cardiff, on another slow, low pitch, Mascarenhas’s side ensured that Somerset’s fourth consecutive finals day would be
another unhappy experience. In the other semi-final, a Jonny Bairstow blast was enough for Yorkshire to see off Sussex.

The final was a tale of innocence and experience, not necessarily in diametric opposition. Yorkshire had seasoned traditional grit with young talent in the form of Bairstow, Joe Root, Gary
Ballance, Azeem Rafiq and Moin Ashraf; Hampshire, the 2010 winners and semi-finalists in 2011, relied on five players over the age of 30, but still required mature performances from Danny Briggs,
21, and Chris Wood, 22. Miller’s belligerence hauled Yorkshire close, but they could barely touch Wood in the final over as Hampshire claimed a second Twenty20 title.

For both finalists, the Champions League beckoned in South Africa in October. What started out as a summer fling ten years earlier had become a throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-it drama. There may be
more angst to come.

FINAL

HAMPSHIRE v YORKSHIRE

H
UGH
C
HEVALLIER

At Cardiff, August 25 (floodlit). Hampshire won by ten runs. Toss: Hampshire.

An astonishing display of brutal strokeplay abruptly transformed a humdrum game into a minor classic. Eleven overs into their pursuit of 151, Yorkshire were languishing at 53 for four, bereft of
momentum or confidence. Bairstow, the morning’s star, had barely shone, and Miller had maundered to nine from 18 balls. Their last hope was an innings of comic-strip heroism, which was pretty
much what happened.

Miller, it turned out, was simply getting his eye in. Yorkshire had taken two runs from Ervine’s first over, but from his next four balls Miller middled three sixes, all in the V and
increasingly humungous. Anyone walking between the ground and the River Taff risked injury as white balls rained down. The volley of maximums put a dent in both the public footpath and the
asking-rate and, after 15 runs came from the 18th over, Miller had zipped to 65 from 40 balls with five sixes and five fours. Momentum? Confidence? You bet!

Yorkshire now needed a gettable 21 from 12 deliveries. In fact, since they were ahead on the six-over score, they needed 20 (provided they lost no more than one wicket), and it was Hampshire
searching for answers. Left-arm spinner Briggs came up with some, pitching shorter to Miller to limit his potential for straight hitting, and yielding just seven to leave the game delicately
poised: 14 (maybe 13) off the last over.

The trouble for Yorkshire was that Bresnan was on strike – though not for long: he skied Wood’s first ball to point, which did at least get Miller to the business end. Wood’s
next ball was full, and it was all Miller could do to scrape a single; momentum and confidence were ebbing away. Wood kept his length sensibly full, and as the runs dried up so Yorkshire hopes
vanished in a flurry of wickets.

Mascarenhas, keen to scupper his opponents’ successful strategy of setting a target, had chosen to bat – despite Hampshire’s habitual preference for chasing. Progress was
tricky on an increasingly slow pitch, and both Adams and Vince fell just as they seemed to be getting its measure. McKenzie, who had endured a poor tournament, was fined for dissent after
protesting he had edged a full toss from the combative Rafiq on to his pads. Impatience then did for Ervine, and Hampshire needed the nous of Katich to drag them to 150. That seemed about par until
Yorkshire’s top order played a series of panicky strokes. Once again Mascarenhas proved himself the master of cheese-paring medium-pace. Hampshire thought they had removed Miller on seven
when he flicked Dawson to McKenzie at midwicket, but the replays – as so often – failed to prove whether the ball had carried. Miller survived to light up the closing stages, and few
complained about that.

Man of the Match:
D. A. Miller. Attendance: 14,848.

Umpires: R. J. Bailey and M. A. Gough. Third umpire: N. G. B. Cook.

CLYDESDALE BANK 40, 2012

R
EVIEW BY
J
ON
C
ULLEY

A playing format familiar to domestic audiences in England since the debut of the Sunday League in 1969 does not endure so long without a strong body of followers. As 40-over
cricket receives the last rites, there is evidence its passing will sadden more than a few hearts.

The attendance at Lord’s for the Clydesdale Bank 40 final was relatively modest: 17,808, compared to the 25,000 who regularly flocked to the old 50- or 60-over showpieces. But around the
country, core support remained steady. For most counties, the average turnout varied from about 1,500 to 3,000 – not spectacular, but at least respectable in a damp summer with 14 outright
abandonments.

It remains to be seen whether the reversion to 50 overs in 2014 will have any serious impact on gates. When the Morgan Review – published in January 2012 – recommended English
cricket fall back into line with the one-day international format, the counter-argument put forward by many county chief executives was that Sunday afternoon matches, of a slightly shorter
duration, were more attractive to young families. The ECB decided they needed a wider range of feedback, and commissioned a survey into the entire domestic structure. Results from 25,000 cricket
followers expressed “no compelling preference” for the 40-over format – sealing its fate.

Scotland were resigned to being excluded from the new structure, for the first time in 25 years, and went in search of more fixtures against ICC Full Members and their A-teams. They were right
to do so: the ECB’s plans for 2014 included a streamlined 18-county group stage, with Scotland, the Netherlands and the Unicorns all elbowed out. The return of quarter-finals should cut down
on the meaningless raft of games at the tail-end of the CB40, which many fear are ripe for spot-fixing when shown on television – something the ECB belatedly recognised by appointing an
anti-corruption team to monitor the later rounds in 2012.

Hampshire’s thrilling last-ball triumph over Warwickshire at Lord’s was unusual in a season with few tickertape finishes, and completed a double for them in the limited-overs
competitions – the first by a county since Adam Hollioake’s Surrey won the Twenty20 Cup and National League in 2003.

With his innings of 35 in the final, Hampshire opener Michael Carberry nudged ahead of Lancashire’s Stephen Moore as the CB40’s leading run-scorer, despite missing two months of the
season with a knee injury. Only twice did Carberry fail to make a half-century, and six of his seven fifties were in a winning cause. He converted two to hundreds, of which his unbeaten 148 against
Scotland was the highest by anyone. Carberry’s tally of 16 sixes was bettered only by Eoin Morgan of Middlesex and Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance. And his average over nine innings was a
remarkable 85, to go with a strike-rate of 104.

Carberry did not win the title on his own, of course. His opening partner James Vince, with whom he shared two century stands, had his worst summer in first-class cricket, but his best in the
CB40. Hampshire’s two most exciting young bowlers, Chris Wood and Danny Briggs, took 19 wickets each, two fewer than the competition’s leading wicket-taker, Ajmal Shahzad, who played
all his games on loan at Lancashire. Like Briggs, Gary Keedy, who finished with 20 wickets, was often overlooked for selection in the Championship, but remained vital to his county’s one-day
success.

Given that Lancashire won more matches than anyone in the qualifying stage, topped Group A by four points, and had two batsmen – Moore and Steven Croft – scoring over 500 runs, their
disappointment at losing to Warwickshire in the semi-final was acute. If any county needed consolation, it was Lancashire: six days after that defeat, they were relegated in the Championship,
having won it so memorably in 2011.

A Lancashire player also produced the fastest century, although Tom Smith’s phenomenal 44-ball destruction of Worcestershire came in an abandoned game. Morgan needed just five more balls
to make his hundred against Lancashire at Lord’s. His strike-rate over four innings was nearly 147.

Lancashire’s wicket count of 100 was more than any other county, yet it was Warwickshire who possessed arguably the most efficient bowling unit. They took all ten wickets five times in the
group stage, and repeated the trick in the semi-final, with three Lancashire batsmen falling to Chris Wright, who supplemented his 62 Championship victims with 20 in this competition.

Luke Wright, of beaten semi-finalists Sussex, scored three hundreds, as did Durham’s opening pair of Phil Mustard – who had a strike-rate of 143 – and Mark Stoneman, who shared
three 150-plus stands at home; their team could not win away. Defending champions Surrey lost a crucial game at Southampton in August, a result overshadowed by a first-ball duck for Kevin Pietersen
in his first match since being dropped from England’s Test side for the texts saga.

Kent had most reason to grumble about the absence of quarter-finals. They beat Warwickshire home and away, and had a superior run-rate, yet were denied the last semi-final spot on fewer wins
– punishment for being the only team to lose to the semi-professional Unicorns. Darren Stevens, now aged 36, took 20 wickets, while Matt Coles began with six for 32 against Yorkshire. That
remained the best analysis of the competition, until Abdur Rehman claimed six for 16 for Somerset against Nottinghamshire in August.

For a while, it looked as if the real story would be the Netherlands. They won five of their first seven matches, including victories by one run over Gloucestershire and one wicket over
Lancashire. There was also a handsome win at Leicester, where Australian all-rounder Michael Swart scored a century and took three wickets.

His opening partner, Stephan Myburgh, began the competition with 77, 74 not out and 66. But after his hand was broken by Nathan Buck in the return match against Leicestershire, the Netherlands
fell away dramatically, losing their last five games – and were bowled out for 57 by Worcestershire and 68 by Lancashire. Their final points haul was worse than they managed in 2011. Despite
that, their record over three seasons in the CB40 was superior to four of the counties.

FINAL

HAMPSHIRE v WARWICKSHIRE

J
AMES
C
OYNE

At Lord’s, September 15. Tied. Hampshire won by virtue of losing fewer wickets. Toss: Warwickshire.

The Lord’s final, now in its 50th year, was stuck in a midlife crisis – but this game was uncommonly blessed. Contested by two teams in search of a double, it crackled with past,
present, or aspiring international cricketers, and was played in an autumnal glow out of step with a miserable summer. For a few hours at least, the imperfections of England’s one-day
competition could be forgotten.

Warwickshire required five to win off three balls. Blackwell had lost his head, and his stumps, possibly trying to achieve it in one blow, which brought Carter out to face Kabir Ali –
selected ahead of Hamza Riazuddin only at the last minute. Ali, unerringly full, almost had him lbw first ball, then overpitched with the next and was driven past the groping cover fielder for
four. One to win off the last: Carter needed only to make contact and Woakes – like Geoff Miller of Derbyshire in the 1981 NatWest Trophy final – would have been up his end in a
flash.

Crucially, however, Hampshire’s superb young wicketkeeper Bates was standing up, which minimised the chance of a stolen run. Carter prodded at a dipping full toss – which arrived a
bit wider than he thought – and missed; Bates gathered cleanly and quickly destroyed the stumps. Carter hadn’t even left his ground; so distraught was he at this fresh-air shot that he
simply turned round and marched back to the Pavilion. Hampshire had tied a match, again. But unlike Twenty20 finals day in 2010 and 2011, there was no need for confusion or super overs: they had
won because they lost only five wickets to Warwickshire’s seven.