County cricket: earliest ever start to a season throws up some old truths

County cricket: earliest ever start to a season throws up some old truths The first round showed us the benefits of bravery, the gap between the divisions and the unpredictability of cricket By the 99.94 Cricket Blog 3. Overton’s declaration overkill It’s a recurring gripe of this column that captains are too cautious in their declarations and too wary of defeat to seize the chance of victory. If there’s one county you would expect to take that criticism to heart, it’s Somerset, who have been runners-up in the Championship six times in this century alone. They welcomed Nottinghamshire to Taunton on the opening weekend. As day four dawned, the home side were in total control against the reigning champions, leading by 223 runs with nine wickets in hand. Nottinghamshire were staring at a deflating start to their title defence and a significant points gap to a real rival before the Easter holiday was done. The Somerset stand-in captain, Craig Overton, batted for another 34 overs to set a wholly unachievable 417 in 60 overs, inviting Haseeb Hameed to bat – which he and his teammates did. Of course, the pitch was benign. The Somerset centurions (Tom Abell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and James Rew) could attest to that and, with his own 26 overs producing only one dismissal, Overton knew wringing wickets from the surface wasn’t easy. Faint heart never won fair lady; Somerset drew a match they could have won. 4. Carlson falls short of checkmating Yorkshire Not far north, at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Kiran Carlson had other ideas. Perhaps thinking that Glamorgan would be forced into home draws by the weather later in the season, he knew he had to take every opportunity to grab a win if his newly promoted side were to survive in the top flight. Colin Ingram’s century, supported by some fine late middle-order batting, had been backed up by Mason Crane’s five-fer to yield a handy 76-run lead on first innings. Perhaps sensing blood given that his opposite number, Jonny Bairstow, was ou...