Round Seven
Zak Crawley’s highest score at county level of 238 from just 267 balls proved to be in vain as Kent suffered defeat at Somerset.
Having fallen first ball in the first innings, Kent were dismissed trailing by a massive 376 and needed something special to salvage any hope. Step forward Crawley, to pulverise the Somerset bowling attack.
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Across two innings, Kent scored 470 runs on the third day with Crawley’s aggression leading the way. He blitzed 31 fours and four sixes in an innings that threatened to change the momentum of the match.
Crawley’s only bigger score in first-class cricket came for England in a Test against Pakistan back in 2020, an astonishing 267. That innings took nine hours; this one lasted a little more than five.
It had not been a glamorous start to the campaign for Crawley, who had just 67 runs in his first seven innings after this week’s golden duck. But this performance will certainly serve as a confidence booster ahead of the international summer.
England’s Men’s Test captain Ben Stokes made his return to county cricket and he marked it in style, taking a five-wicket-haul with a red ball for the first time since 2018.
Stokes claimed 5/98 in the second innings at Blackpool, going alongside his 2/71 in the first innings. Perhaps more encouragingly for England fans is the fact that he bowled 38 overs in the match, a figure which included 10 successive overs in the second innings.
His role with the bat was limited, scoring just two and 18 – though the latter included this stunning, Headingley 2019-esque reverse sweep against Nathan Lyon. But as Stokes works his way back to full fitness to fulfil his role as an all-rounder, the volume of overs delivered, coupled with the wickets tkane, is certainly a positive sign.
