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Day
3, Wednesday 14th September, 2011
Glamorgan
are 258-4 in reply to Kent’s 237. Kent
had won the toss
A
second
visit to Canterbury for the final game of the season with Kent
adrift second from bottom and in need of a win to overhaul Glamorgan into
7th spot in the second division. The principal interest, however, is the fact that this game has
been re-designated – at the request of the ECB, I understand – into a
day-night fixture starting at 2pm with official stumps at 9pm, and played
with the pink ball. This seems
to have drawn a better crowd, although there is some suggestion that some
may have been put off. More on
this experiment later.
The
cricket was not high intensity; in the absence of much at stake and many
first team regulars (Key, Van Jaarsveld, Tredwell, Joseph), Kent struggled
to impress having – out of necessity - put
much faith in the youngsters this season.
In the first/afternoon session, there was no great threat from
Kent’s bowlers despite effort from Coles, Azhar, Ball and Riley, the
young off-spinner, as Glamorgan consolidated their first innings lead.
Then, and this is often the way of these things, once Mark Wallace
fell to Azhar coming round the wicket – having got his 50 and looking
comfortable – Graham Wagg fell for a duck to same bowler and suddenly
two wickets had fallen for 301. Stuart
Walters (147) and Norman, however, dug in and when they were out, the tail
then took over to take Glamorgan to 423-9, whereupon they declared to
force Kent to bat either side of “tea” (or supper?), and tackle the
gloaming. This they did
not do too well, partly due to the superior energy and aggression
demonstrated by Glamorgan’s fielders and Graham Wagg in particular
(bowling more LAMF than his official “left arm medium” tag from
Cricinfo), and partly due to the increasingly difficult conditions.
Bell-Drummond
(opening in place of the injured Key) impressed in an all-too-brief
aggressive flourish, hitting three fours all pulled through midwicket in
his first over from Norman, then when Norman was replaced by Cosker’s
SLA at the Pavilion End, he set about him too with two lofted fours over
long-on (one might actually have been a six, but in the murk near the
boundary the umpire could be forgotten for not seeing it clear the rope).
Wagg, however, did for him and once he had gone the only effective
resistance came from Sam Northeast (fifth out for 51).
The only real surprise was that, although the ball seemed to be
moving about, seam claimed no more of the wickets with two apiece falling
to Owen and Cosker. Kent
closed on 148 for 5, still 38 adrift and looking unlikely to save the
game, yet alone overhaul the Welsh side in the table.
So
what of the day-night experiment? There was certainly an element of excitement as the night drew in
and the floodlights (which were switched on in bright sunshine at 5.30)
took over. But the novelty soon wears off and if the objective was to see how
physical conditions suited in the English game, then it is clear that the
dew and the cold made it both difficult to play and uncomfortable to
enjoy. As a commercial exercise (would people come to watch after work?)
that seemed to be a thumbs-down also: It was obvious that many people left the ground at or around
“tea” and were not being replaced by new arrivers, to the extent that
the ground had probably lost two-thirds of the crowd by 8.30 with still
around an hour’s play left. It must be challenging enough to play county cricket in front of
sparsely filled stands, never mind seeing them emptying out while you are
still in mid-session.
Overall
one was left with the feeling that they had wasted a lot of lovely
sunshine in the earlier part of the day and that switching the lights on
to play into the evening was a waste of money, unappealing to spectators
and detrimental to the game. The
only positive seemed to be, strangely, the pink ball which seemed
marginally easier for spectators to pick up during the day (and brilliant
in the floodlights). The other side of that particular coin, however, was
the unsightly black sightscreens. One
hopes one has been present at a one-off; something to tell the
grand-children (if they even know what first class cricket is).
Close:
Kent 148-5.
Postscript:
Kent reached 312 thanks to 70’s from Azhar and Jones, but this
only set Glamorgan 127 to win which they did comfortably for the loss of
just two wickets.
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n't like cricket...
