My condiments to the wicket-keeper

Mere hours after I tipped Phil Mustard to be a contender for bigger things, Hampshire captain and future citizen of Germany Shane Warne has jumped on the bandwagon and tipped the Colonel to star for England. Predictably, he likened him to Adam Gilchrist, which must be something of a burden for a wicket-keeper, much in the same way that every England cricketer who showed the merest hint of being able to bat as well as bowl in the last two decades ran the risk of being labelled The New Ian Botham.

While it would be wonderful to uncover a English Gilchrist or Sangakkara, if there isn’t one in the counties then the selectors need to accept another kind of keeper. One option is to simply select the best gloveman, which would be an acceptable strategy if England had sufficient batting from it’s lower orders (a future line-up including Flintoff, Broad and Rashid might allow just such a strategy). Another option would be a keeper who can defend with the bat, rather than attack. Ian Bell didn’t have a good series against India, perhaps because he knew that as soon as Prior came in he was in a race against time to get some runs in before the lower orders got themselves out.

A keeper who could at least block out the bowlers would let the last batsman play his natural game, and be a useful nightwatchman too. England would benefit from a dull but dependable keeper who could reliably score 20 or so runs in an innings, rather than insisting on a run machine who may well not be out there.

Durham victorious

Durham cruised to victory on the second half of the FP final at Lord’s today. Hampshire showed little sign of making a serious attempt to chase down the runs as Collingwood and Plunkett picked off the batsmen.

The decision to let the final run onto a second day – unpopular with Aggers over on the TMS blog and no doubt with many Durham fans too – allowed Plunkers to redeem himself from yesterday’s disappointing display and finish with respectable figures of 3 for 42 and an economy of 4.66. I like Plunkett, but both Durham and England fans have learnt never to be sure what to expect of him. He can be wayward at times, and a leg-side full toss this afternoon was a stark reminder of that, but his very next over was a wicket maiden, an outstanding piece of cricket so late in a one-day innings. Hopefully a stint for his county will help him acquire the consistency that would make him a formidable and long-term part of England’s bowling attack.

Plunkett is not the only Durham player who may be a part of England’s future. Graham Onions continues to impress and it is hard to imagine that he will not have a chance to play for the national side soon. Equally, Mustard’s record should make him a contender to replace Prior if his poor form continues. And who can deny that they would relish the headlines that those two would engender?

Anyway, congratulations to Durham for their first title, and to Ottis Gibson for his man of the match award.

Durham in charge at Lord’s

In their sixteenth year of First Class cricket Durham have victory in sight at the Friends Provident final at Lord’s.

Entering the final as underdogs, Durham were handed a surprise boon by Shane Warne when he won the toss and elected to field. Wicket-keeper Phil ‘Colonel’ Mustard got the innings off to a flying start with a quick-fire 49, featuring 6 fours and a six and was unlucky to be given out LBW before reaching his half-century.

Shiv Chanderpaul – one of two West Indians to star for Durham – put on 78, reaching his 50 with a six, before being run out after misreading the field. Having gained a reputation as a slow accumulator during this summer’s matches against England his 78 runs came off just 79 balls, and was complimented by Coetzer’s mature 61.

Much was made in this morning’s papers about the clash between Paul Collingwood and Shane Warne, who had such fun together in Australia last winter, but in the end it didn’t amount to much. Colly made a scrappy 22 before being caught, but he’ll be relieved at least not to have been undone by the Warnester.

Ottis Gibson came in with only 13 balls left in the innings and made his intentions clear by knocking his first delivery for six, and the second for four, finishing not out with 15 runs off 7 balls. Durham captain Dale Benkenstein finished the innings in style by hitting three boundaries in a row and ending on 61. He will have been confident that his team’s formidable 312 – a record for a Lord’s final – would prove a tough target for Hampshire.

Gibson, no doubt buoyed by his batting cameo, cemented his place in the Durham fans’ affection when he struck with the first ball of the Hampshire innings to have Lumb caught at second slip. If that weren’t enough, he repeated the feat with very next ball, leaving Hampshire floundering on 0-2. In came Kevin Pietersen who could only manage a boundary-free 12 before becoming Gibson’s third victim, leg before wicket in the 9th over.

John Crawley was the only batsman to offer hope to the Hampshire fans, scoring 68 before Collingwood slipped a cutter past his bat in the 30th over and sent his leg stump flying.

Hampshire were on 153-5 and looking down the barrel of a comprehensive defeat when the three of the most depressing words in cricket, ‘rain stopped play*’, brought the match to an abrupt halt.

*Second only to ‘England batting collapse’.