One last grand day out

If the buzz phrase ‘match day experience’ was to be applied to any venue in the world it would Lord’s. The famous Lord's hum, a hum of anticipation, a hum of the occasion and sometimes a post-lunch hum of satisfaction.

That buzz or hum is there even at half seven in the morning of the Royal London One-Day Cup Final. The last at this esteemed old ground before it up sticks to Trent Bridge next season. The rights or wrongs of the restructuring of the county season is for a different place though.

When you walk through the North Gate having gone through the security frisk there is activity everywhere. The stewards and St John's Ambulance are getting their briefings. The food kiosks are preparing for a day of non-stop sales.

In the place that it matters the hallowed turf the ground staff are busily preparing an assortment of lawn mowers mover across the blades of grass giving it a carpet-like texture while a roller prepares for a future battle. No notice is taken to the pitch that today's action will take place on. You can’t help but notice a green tinge but a dry looking surface underneath.

The stewards in the stands start to check every seat, turning them down before they spring back up. It will be the only Mexican wave that won’t be frowned upon all day.

The paying punter is still an hour away from surging into the ground, the chat the laughter mixing with the sounds of London mixing into the hubbub of it all.

Lord’s has a weird juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern, the famous pavilion, the bastion of the MCC and the old school tie at one end of the ground and the JP Morgan Media Centre at the other which is regularly compared with a spaceship (it landed 20 years ago.)

Adjustable floodlights stand on watch over the famous stands as the flashing advertising boards snake the edge of the outfield reminding the yet to arrive visitor of potential future visits to see the NatWest T20 Blast before it is shoved down the order of importance.

It is overcast but with little chance of rain although the main cover sits over the sponsor's logo on the outfield ready to pounce into action at the merest drop precipitation.

Things start to move up a notch, with the PA system tested and the food kiosks staffed and ready for business the MCC members are let through the gates. It’s not salmon swimming upstream as you are led to believe but a steady trickle. This doesn’t have the gravitas of a Lord’s test match after all.

A jazz band start to burst into life, and the day suddenly feels like it is starting to reveal its true purpose. The players have started to trundle over to the nursery ground where they start to go through their final preparations.

The Warner stand is starting to fill a shock of glass bursts through the top of a traditional looking stand overlooking the playing surface while at the back there is a mix of bright white painted steel and frosted glass.

The media centre starts to become busier, familiar faces and just as importantly voices start to appear. With England playing an ICC World Cup warm-up match at Southampton it would be easy for the media centre to be far from full.

With forty minutes until the toss, the players of both sides are on the outfield going through fielding drills or marking run-ups with long measuring tapes and buckets of paint.

The cloud that blanketed the skies earlier in the morning has burnt away as Isa Guha supervises the toss which Hampshire win. The stands are filling with fans of both sides.

The bell rings to signal the players are on their way. The Somerset fielders spread out and Hampshire’s batsman walk out with purpose. Craig Overton waits to run in and deliver the first ball of the day to Tom Alsop.

The ripples of applause punctuate the air in the early exchanges as both sides work each other out. That is until the third over when Aneurin Donald pieces a cover drive for the first four of the day. A big cheer marks it and we are into the game as Donald flicks the next off his legs to the boundary in the opposite side of the field.

The Somerset crowd roared back next over as Donald’s cameo of 11 from 11 balls when he drives a loose ball from Josh Davey straight at Roland van der Merwe.

Hampshire lost wickets at regular intervals. They needed Sam Northeast to bat all the way through. Northeast reached fifty before swiping across the line and was bowled by Somerset captain Tom Abell.

The biggest cheer from the Somerset fans came just three balls later. Chris Wood toe-ended a Jamie Overton Delivery to George Bartlett who grabbed his chance.

Hampshire's fans finally had something to cheer about when the ninth wicket partnership added 66 for the ninth wicket. Fuller reached his fifty with a second six from the final over of the inning. Mason Crane played a good supporting inning to ensure Hampshire used all their overs.

Hampshire finished on 244 for 8. It is by modern standards a modest total one that Somerset would have been happy with at the start of the day.

In the interval, the outfield near the Grandstand was replaced with youngsters in a range of colourful hats and even bright orange stumps. They got to play on the same stage as the heroes they were there to watch.

Tom Banton the Somerset opener looked at home at the home of cricket at set about tucking into the Hampshire opening bowlers who have international pedigree Fidel Edwards taking the brunt of the opening salvo by the young wicketkeeper. In the third over he smoked Edwards for four, six and four in successive balls.

The Somerset faithful were now in full voice. The boundaries were coming as thick and as fast as the consumption of cider. The usual hum was replaced by the noise of supporters enjoying the afternoon in song.

A chant of “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Banton” rang around Lord’s as the batsman reached his fifty in as many balls.

Edwards came back for his second spell and he soon saw off his early tormentor Banton for 69. Azhar Ali followed in Edwards next over. By that time the two openers had added 112 for the first wicket.

It was the Somerset stalwarts of Peter Trego and James Hildreth that made sure that Somerset didn’t get carried away and throw a great position away.

Hildreth batted for the rest of the innings for an unbeaten 69 from 68 balls. A player many feels was wrongly overlooked by England showed his true class and it was fitting that he hit the winning runs with 39 balls to spare.

There were 15746 in attendance to see the curtain fall on the domestic 50 over final at Lord’s. It was a shame really. Scheduled on the same day as England playing Australia and other scheduling matters meant the opportunity to go out with a full house was missed. This was a competition with the help of finals at Lord's help to create memories. Sat in the stands watching their heroes represent the county that means the most to them.

Goodbye old friend.

Somerset build lead on the back of Abell and Bartlett

When play started at 11 this morning it was honours even, just about. Nottinghamshire knew that early wickets in the first session would put them in charge. Somerset knew if they could see out the first session, they would be firmly in the driving seat.

The assistance for the bowlers yesterday fell away completely as Tom Abell and George Bartlett went about accumulating a mammoth fourth wicket partnership. The started the day as watchful as they had the previous evening. The first hour passed without and any drama.

74 for 3 at the start of the day became 174 for 3 at Lunch. Abell and Bartlett continued past as Steve Mullaney rotated his bowlers.

The Notts captain was without Samit Patel for the first session as Patel was celebrating the birth of a baby daughter. It was the only good news for Notts in those first two sessions until Luke Wood finally made the breakthrough.

The partnership of 223 was the highest for Somerset against Nottinghamshire for the fourth wicket beating the previous of 206 by Graham Burgess and Ian Botham on this ground in 1976.

Abell snicked off to Luke Wood shortly after he had past his century. It ended an innings of 101 from 198 balls. Bartlett was joined by Steve Davies and normal service was resumed and the two took Somerset into tea on 309 for 4.

If the first two sessions had gone Somerset’s way, then the last session was to belong to Nottinghamshire as they fought back to take 6 wickets after tea.

Somerset were on the hunt for bonus points before the cut-off point and wickets were there for the taking as the batting side looked to accelerate.

Bartlett was out shortly after tea shouldering arms to Luke Fletcher. Having been a last-minute choice before the first game of the season Bartlett had certainly taken his chance to cement a place in the Somerset side and his 133 from 223 balls with 17 fours was scored with the confidence of a first-team regular.

Josh Davey with 25 from 28 balls and Lewis Gregory 50 from 50 balls ensured that Somerset got to 400 and the full set of bonus points but they both fell in consecutive balls to Broad. Stuart Broad finished with figures of 5 for 73.

Somerset were bowled out for 403 and a lead of 140. Their bowlers had 13 overs to make early inroads to the Notts top order. Ben Duckett was on a pair when he burst a potential catch through the hands of Bartlett.

The young fielder was upset with himself, but he needn’t have been as the other century-maker Abell made amends taking a low catch to dismiss Duckett for 4.

Brooks finally had some luck go his way. It continued when he then got the wicket of Notts highest scorer Chris Nash for a duck.

Nottinghamshire finished the day on 25 for 2 trailing by 115 runs as Somerset take a grip of the game with two days left to go.

Notts and Somerset battle out enjoyable days play

In a competition between in form batsman and an inform bowler, it was the latter that took the honours today at Trent Bridge.

Lewis Gregory who helped turn Somerset fortunes in the first round of the Specsavers County Championship was at it again returning figures of 6 for 68.

Somerset liked the look of a pitch with a healthy helping of green grass on the surface. It was more for decoration than anything that would cause batsmen any real trouble. Tom Abell the Somerset captain was happy enough to have a bowl first up and the was no toss.

Abell’s decision was looking a great one when Jack Brooks saw off Ben Duckett on of Notts inform batsman. Duckett was heavy footed to a ball that straightened and had nowhere to go but the pavilion.

It wasn’t a happy time after that for Brooks, his first spell would see his four overs dispatched for 29 runs as Chris Nash and Ben Slater tucked into the shorter of the two boundaries.

Notts were plundering on a pitch that offered assistance to the bowler who got it in the right areas but anything slightly offline was going to the fence.

The Notts second wicket partnership soon passed 50 from only 51 balls before Slater edged one behind off Josh Davey and Steve Davies taking a comfortable catch behind.

Joe Clarke who started the season with 112 and 97 not out against Yorkshire soon followed for 2.

Nash who has a very good record at Trent Bridge and that form looked set to continue. He has always been good on the drive and when Brooks fed him early on, he was intent on getting his teeth into the Somerset attack.

For the fourth wicket, Nash again shared a fifty partnership with Steve Mullaney. 52 were added before Mullaney was lbw to Gregory for 26.

The Notts middle order all made starts without going on Samit Patel was bowled for 33 again by Gregory who removed two of Patel’s stumps to opposite sides on the pitch.

Patel along with Tom Moores were looking comfortable in their 58-run partnership.

Once Patel was gone Moores started to play and miss and a number of deliveries before Craig Overton and Marcus Trescothick combined to send Moores back for 47.

Luck Wood who last week had been on loan at Northamptonshire and he ensured the lower order didn’t crumble with a 64 ball 52 before being the last man out as Notts finished on 263 just after tea.

It was an interesting innings by Nottinghamshire. They maybe lack a batsman that can slow things down a bit in the middle order. The batsman dominated in spells but lost their wickets at times where they should have just hung in the game for another half hour. Nash being the perfect case of this as he pulled Gregory straight to Jack Leach at deep mid-wicket for 58.

Notts have the type of bowling attack to pull things around on this ground and Stuart Broad did just that. Alongside Jake Ball, neither bowler tried too hard and bowled good lines and lengths to make the openers think about what was to come.

Each of Somerset’s top three were dismissed for 10. First to go was Azhar Ali lbw to Broad. Trescothick who had batted for the best part of an hour was to be Broad’s second victim in a spell of 2 for 19 from 9 overs.

James Hildreth who has moved up to third in the order was caught behind off Luke Fletcher’s first ball to one down the leg-side. Captain Tom Abell and George Bartlett saw Somerset to 74 for 3 at the close. 189 runs behind Notts.

Reflecting on the day’s play Nash summed up the day perfectly when he said, “It has been a really good days cricket on a good cricket wicket and a quick outfield.”

Day two promises to be more of the same.