Min Patel back with a bang
Canterbury - With his century against the New Zealand tourists Rob Key stole the limelight at the St Lawrence Ground, on Friday but another England discard who must have been celebrating was Min Patel.
Patel was on BBC Radio Kent on Wednesday, telling them that, given the right conditions, he still believed he was one of the best spinners in the country. Given that the 33-year-old Racing Post columnist hasn't been in the Kent 1st XI for more than a year, that seemed more than a little like hot air, even though he missed last season to have surgery on a back problem.
Two days later, the left-arm spinner had his first five-wicket haul since July 2002. New Zealand were admittedly looking for quick runs, but Patel was accurate and built up pressure, in a style apparently forgotten by the spinners who occasionally get a run in the England side.
Patel had a baptism of fire on the Test stage in 1996, from which he was never given a chance to recover. Sourav Ganguly, in his debut series, took advantage with a century at Trent Bridge, and Patel took 1-101. The one was Manoj Prabhakkar.
Back in action, Patel finds himself behind England hopeful James Tredwell in the Kent pecking order. Tredwell, who captained England A without success early this year, apparently has the dreaded doosra in his armoury – Muttiah Muralitharan's controversial leg-break, learned from the master himself when he had a spell at Canterbury last year. But observers here were unable to remember the last time a home-grown spinner had bowled accurately enough to command a close field like the one accorded Patel.
Stat of the Week
Durham found record breaking a habit this week. With West Indian Gareth Breese at the helm they reached the fourth-highest successful fourth innings total in Championship history – and the highest ever for the club - a whacking 453-9 to beat Somerset.
To celebrate they recorded the highest ever Sunday League score, 319-3 against Worcestershire, with Paul Collingwood hitting the fastest one-day century in the history of England's newest county, his 72 deliveries bettering by seven Aussie Dean Jones' effort against Lancashire 11 years ago.
Spotted
On the Kent dressing-room balcony, an England hopeful enjoying a not-so-cheeky cigarette. Two years ago he was telling anyone who would listen that he had learned in a sojourn in Perth grade cricket all about the hard work that was required to succeed at the highest level. Half the England middle-order enjoy the odd ciggy, so this wannabe could be in good company, but the England middle-order can afford to, while balcony-dweller is puffing to keep up.
Quote of the Week
"I just have to keep going out and doing that."
Rob Key, sporting an ironic grin, after hitting a first innings century against New Zealand. On Sunday he hit a second innings century.
Six Sense
1.The way I see it the International Cricket Council has three options to deal with Zimbabwe and their powder puff Test team:
i) Strip them of Test status and leave them to their own devices.
ii) Suspend Test status but ask other countries to host them as a touring side, playing first-class opposition to try and bring the team back up to the right level.
iii) Create a Zimbabwe-in-Exile Test XI, with Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower, Neil Johnson, Henry Olonga et al starring.
The third option is probably too fantastical, although some county grounds might be excited at the prospect of hosting next week's Australia v Zimbabwe Test. I'm hoping they will go for the second but I see some sort of fudge between one and two, and I'm not sure if Zimbabwe will be back.
2.Chucking is an emotive subject ad the Sri Lankan cricket board aren't helping by portraying the Muttiah Muralitharan row as racism. It doesn't help, though, that players can get away with something for ages, until they play Australia or England, when suddenly everyone kicks up a fuss.
3.Come to think of it, why wasn't there much of a fuss when Zimbabwe's pre-shavers took on the 1996 World Cup winners but when the 1999/2003 version arrives, the crisis was suddenly brought to a head.
4.Never let it be said that an international cricket captain ever has anything interesting to say after a match. Marvan Atapattu's Sri Lanka had just recorded their second Test victory by an innings over a team shorn of 15 leading players, resulting in opposition so weak that they became just the 12th side ever to concede more than 700 runs in an innings, and were bowled out for under 250 twice. Atapattu's response? "We did especially well to bowl Zimbabwe out twice on a wicket as good as this one was. That was a good effort."
5.And back to chucking, England's 4x100m relay team had their Word Championship silver medals taken back when it was proven one of their number had cheated. Step forward Michael Vaughan to receive the trophy for the Test series in Sri Lanka before Christmas. And while we're at it, Muralitharan has taken 68 Test wickets since first unveiling his doosra. Even if he took the majority with his more orthodox delivery, the doubt was there for batsmen. Turn back his clock and he is on 459; Courtney is still king.
6.On Friday I picked up a copy of Henry Blofeld's 1978 opus The Packer Affair, documenting the first year of World Series Cricket. Why is it that the English were particularly turned off by the whole thing? Was it just that the rampant commercialism (read "success") was a bit too foreign for their tastes? We had another example four years ago when ECB boss Lord MacLaurin suggested separating the County Championship into conferences. "It would be like baseball!" No it wouldn't – the batsmen don't wear silly trousers and the bowlers don't throw 90mph deliveries at chest height. Well, most of them ...
