The greatest bits and pieces and cricketers of all time

< 1 minute read

At the time of writing, it looked rather like Lord’s was going to get its traditional Thursday start to a Test match after all.

Maybe the skies will unbruise, but until they do, here’s a thing we wrote for The Cricket Monthly a few months back about bits and pieces cricketers.

It’s a “High Five” piece which means we wrote about five players. Spoiler alert: one of them is Chris Harris.

Here’s a perfectly normal video we just found of Chris Harris playing cricket against himself in Hobbiton.

(Best line: “Top this, Gavin Larsen.”)

5 comments

Bail-out says:

August 14, 2019 at 4:54 pm

This was a great find, though I was moderately disappointed that as a proper right-arm slow, Harris wasn’t able to overtake his ball, pick up the bat and strike his own delivery – something like tennis players in an exhibition match jumping over or running round the net to hit their own return.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEj_ZySB4E

Admittedly that’s a Ukrainian boxer but you get the idea…
Bail-out says:

August 14, 2019 at 5:46 pm

In cricket matches that did go ahead today, Scotland made a roaring start against Ireland in Deventer. They then collapsed from 77/1 to 91/6, and ended up beaten by nine wickets. Their title rivals Thailand just had to avoid defeat against the Netherlands to win the Quadrangular T20.

Thailand scored 133/8, built around wicket-keeper and number 3 bat Nannapat Koncharoenkai’s 57 off 43 balls. That’s Koncharoenkai first ever fifty, in 25 T20Is… despite being only 18 years old!

Netherlands were all out for 40 in reply, giving Thailand a healthy 93-run victory. Like all the best collapses it had three run-outs and sadly one player absent hurt after a fielding mishap; the other wickets were shared between leggie Suleeporn Laomi (4-1-11-3) who wrapped the match up with a double-wicket maiden, and medium-pacer Ratanaporn Padunglerd (3-0-5-3).

Despite playing all six matches this tournament, this was the first time Wongpaka Liengprasert batted. Golden duck at number nine. And for the fourth time in six matches, she wasn’t bowled. The two times she did, it was for only one over and she didn’t get a wicket. She also finished the tournament with zero catches, nor was she credited in any run-outs. These are hard times to be a Wongpaka Liengprasert fan, or indeed, I fear, to be Wongpaka Liengprasert.

Still, despite playing far from home conditions, Thailand comfortably won the tournament with their only defeat a final-ball thriller against Scotland. They seem a cut above the other associate-level sides and beat full-members Ireland twice this tournament. Unfortunately women’s cricket has an enormous gap between the top associate/lower full-member sides and the fully professional set-ups, but it’s nice to see cricket spreading beyond the Commonwealth countries, and they seem to have some talented young players. Really hope some of them get a chance to develop in the English and Australian professional leagues.
1. A P Webster says:
  
  August 15, 2019 at 6:43 am
  
  In (tenuously) related news, is this a sign that we may have reached saturation point with T20 leagues?
  1. Bail-out says:
    
    August 15, 2019 at 12:16 pm
    
    There’s a certain kind of franchise cricketer who’s going to need either a cloning device or a teleporter if the current proliferation of T20 leagues continues.
Ged says:

August 14, 2019 at 6:02 pm

I’d like the closing line of that piece to be my own cricketing epitaph:

“Sometimes a team needs a balding man who chips in wherever he can.”

Must be something in the Harris blood.