Keeper’s unbeaten 91 drives Hampshire reply after Somerset strike early
Hampshire 285 for 7 (McManus 91*, Northeast 67) trail Somerset 360 by 75 runs
Such are the privations of the Covid pandemic that Tractor Driver, Somerset’s most famous and voluble fan, has temporarily been banished from his traditional stamping ground on Gimblett Hill. So it was that his plaintive cry for Somerset to deliver wickets with the second new ball came from an unlikely vantage spot behind the Ondaatje Alcohol Free Stand, where presumably ‘Big T’, as his t-shirt identified him, was particularly careful not to breathe on its occupants.
David Foot, one of county cricket’s most romantic and empathetic writers, died last week at his Bristol home, at 92, and, for all his West Country affinity, he would have admired the workmanlike qualities of McManus’ innings.
As McManus’ resistance grew, it was natural for Somerset supporters to rue the absence of Craig Overton and Jack Leach, who are both in charge of hand sanitiser in the England bubble. In the old days, Somerset might even have indulged in a little gentle tomfoolery to remove him.
The county cricket media – denuded these days – has adapted to the determined, technology-driven professionalism of the age, but in Foot’s heyday a great affinity for county cricket’s players could come alongside a blithe disregard for watching every ball, especially if the day was warm and there was good company to be found for a couple of lunchtime jars at the Masons Arms where Jeremy Leyton kept the ale in decent nick.
Somerset’s 360 on the opening day had set Hampshire an exacting task, even though batting conditions were slightly easier. Their innings followed a similar path, half the side dismissed for 110 before McManus began to organise a worthy response on an interesting day which rarely captured the heights of the one before.
Sam Northeast and James Vince are the heartbeat of this Hampshire batting order – Vince’s position as low as No. 5 somewhat debatable considering that he once toured Australia as England’s No. 3. Vince buckled down to the task, but he was caught at backward point, square-driving, for 29. Northeast provided the most pleasing innings of the day, 67 from 145 balls, before he miscued a pull off Tom Abell and skied to the keeper. The ball took an age to fall and it felt as Davies held it that Somerset could gain a sizeable advantage.
Abell had passed McManus’ outside edge with his first ball; the next ball was edged just short of slip. Somerset’s captain marched back to his mark with straight-backed military bearing, convinced that the game was there to be won. The back never slouched, but the scoreboard did as McManus, staunchly supported by Keith Barker, found another 128 runs in the post-tea session, reverse-sweeping Roelof van der Merwe to reach his half-century.
The new ball was taken at 216 for 6 which told of Somerset’s discipline, but they looked weary in the final hour and, although they budged Barker, caught at slip to give Davey his third wicket of the day, McManus bedded himself in for the duration.
David Hopps writes on county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
Source: ESPN Crickinfo