Andy Bull of the Guardian lists the runs per over totals of the fourteen overs it took for Aaron Finch and Jason Roy to score 194 for the first wicket, for Surrey against Middlesex in a recent T20 slamfest at the Oval:
14, 17, 23, 15, 14, 15, 15, 10, 12, 9, 15, 11, 10, 14.
Middlesex had scored what looked like a very formidable 221 in their twenty overs. Surrey demolished this target with four overs to spare.
Then, in the next game, Jason Roy …:
… managed the philosophically challenging task of getting stumped for a duck without facing a ball, as he overbalanced to a wide speared down the leg side …
I was indeed puzzled, as I perused the result of that game on my mobile phone. 0 runs scored, 0 balls faced. Stumped. But I worked it out for myself, so I guess I solved the philosophical challenge. Finch didn’t do much better, scoring a mere 16. But Surrey still won.
And in between, there was the little matter of England squeaking home against India. So, a good three days of cricket, which, with the magic of mobile phonery, I was able to combine with having a bit of a life.
Apart from the little fact that Joss Buttler, whom I earlier talked up, was the only total non-contributor to England’s win. He got out twice for a total of one run, facing all of four deliveries. Adil Rashid, whom I talked down, got three wickets, including the crucial one of Kohli in the first innings. Kohli had, by then, scored 148 runs. But if Rashid hadn’t then got him, who’s to say Kohli wouldn’t have scored another big pile of runs and given India a match-winning first innings lead?
At least I didn’t trash Stokes, who got the vital wickets for England at the end, or Surrey’s own Sam Curran, who got Man of the Match for taking five wickets and for turning England’s second innings from match-losingly terrible into, as it turned out, sufficient.
The second test starts on Thursday. And another Surreyite, Sam Pope, is in the England squad and could also play. I can’t wait, as GodDaughter 2 and her sister both say in such circumstances. Meaning: I can wait and I will wait, even though I would prefer it if I didn’t have to wait.