19.8.07

Hampshire Hammered

It was good to see Durham, the newest English first-class county, and one which brings through more than its fair share of good young players in this era of reliance on Kolpak players, win their first major trophy with a hammering of Hampshire in the final of the Friends Provident Trophy at Lord's.

You wouldn't want to single out anyone in particular, but Shiv Chanderpaul was his usual one-day self - taciturn, enterprising, fluent, often brilliant - and another West Indian veteran, Ottis Gibson, really set the victory up when he took wickets with the first two balls of the Hampshire innings in the Saturday afternoon gloom.

The local heroes included Paul Collingwood, Liam Plunkett, Neil Killeen and Graham Onions, all of whom have been around for a while and have received their share of recognition at one level or another. And then there was the young wicket-keeper batsman Phil Mustard, who set their innings on its way with a belligerent top-order 49 and then kept excellently as the screw was turned in the field.

It was also great to watch and listen to the interviews which Gibson gave to Sky and TMS before play this morning; full of personal reminiscences about growing up in Barbados, Malcolm Marshall, what happened to West Indies cricket and his feeling of needing to go on proving himself because he never made a go of international cricket.

Quite a guy, quite a club.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a Durham fan I was delighted by the result, and moreso by the performance. Mustard's performances this year in the one day game must surely increase his chances of soon moving up to the international scene (more likely for England A, but I wouldn't rule out an outside chance of a One Day/2020 spot if Prior's form doesn't turn around).

Gibson is a model professional & an example to all in his attitude & professionalism. I hope we'll see him at Durham again next season (although I fear we may lose him to a coaching spot somewhere)

Brian Carpenter said...

During the Sky interview Gibson mentioned that he was interested in/had applied for a job as West Indies bowling coach, so his days with you may be numbered. I hope for your sake he stays in the north-east. Mustard is going to be worth watching and I think Be Harmison might turn out to be pretty useful too.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, i've heard about Gibson applying for West Indies coaching spot. We'll have to just see what happens, though I dearly hope we can retain him.

Mustard is certainly doing well this season. He's the leading runscorer in the Friends Provident Trophy. He's taken more catches than any other keeper in first class cricket this year (I think I read somewhere that he'd taken 50 catches before any other keeper had taken 25).

Ben Harmison is someone I've watched for a while. He started out as a Bowler who could bat pretty well, but suffered an injury last year and since making his way back into the team, he's been played mainly as a batsman who can bowl a few overs (a bit like Collingwood). Hopefully he can improve both aspects and hold down a place in the Durham side as a full allrounder.

jakob1978

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