Brits Abroad: Week 3

Welcome to week three, I start writing this with half an hour left in Monday, but it is a Monday feature, so it's against the clock. If you're reading this, hopefully I got it out on time.


This week I'm going to switch it round just for the hell of it and start in South Australian grade cricket where there are plenty of Brits milling around. The player who has had the best week for his club is Greg Smith, the former Derbyshire all-rounder, who has shown his class with 70 when opening the batting for Adelaide Uni versus Glenelg. Also at the same club is Gloucestershire all-rounder Ed Young, who has not impressed with his batting, his only significant contribution being 30 in a T20 game, but his bowling has been better with 12 wickets at 20.58 so far.

Another player having a good time of it is Port Adelaide (and Sussex) leggie Will Beer, who has finally got more overs under his belt, taking 2-26 in the first innings of a losing effort against Woodville, and 2-14 in a T20 game. Neil Pinner was playing for Woodville against Beer's Port Adelaide, and made 37 and 20*, batting at No.5.

Out of Australia now, as there are no significant contributions to report from Cox, Pardoe or Whiteley, and heading just across the sea to New Zealand where Steven Finn is in the middle of a Plunket Shield match for Otago with 0-34 off 12 overs all he has to show so far. Tune in next week for the completion of this match.

It's Zimbabwe time now, where the first class competition is taking a break, and the teams are playing warm up games for the T20 competition. We start with the Matabeland Tuskers and Adam Wheater, who scored a briskly paced 76* as the Tuskers declared behind against the Mid West Rhinos. Also ending not out in that match was Paul Horton who scored 64* - after making a duck in the first innings -  in a futile chase, the match ending in a draw.

Also playing in that match, on the other side, was the very much in form Zimbabrit (yeah I invented a word) Gary Ballance, who made another half century (62) in the first innings of the match. Since then the Rhinos have played their first warm up match for the Stanbic Bank T20, against Kenya, and Ballance continued his good form, notching a run a ball 43 to anchor the Rhinos chase.

Moving to the Mountaineers, Phil Mustard has quickly adapted to Zimbabwe, scoring 105 opening the batting versus Southern Rocks in a thumping innings victory. Ned Eckersley has been in less great form with the bat, scoring only 19 in the same match, but making up with it by taking 8 catches, then 2 catches and a stumping in the following T20 warm up game.

Peter Trego and Rory Hamilton-Brown have made their Mashonoland Eagles debuts in T20 warm up matches with some bits and pieces all round performances. Neither has been great yet, but it's just the warm ups.

Moving south slightly into Cape Town, and Owais Shah's spell with the Cape Cobras has improved slightly, but he's yet to make a significant contribution, scoring 27 and 16 in two Franchise 1-Day Cup matches this week.

Finally, we end in Pakistan, with Bilal Shafayat's spell at Habib Bank, where he has put in some decent perfomances, this week making 66 in the second innings against Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited, not enough though to steer his team to victory in their chase.

So, this week I've cobbled together an affair, and published it half an hour after Monday finished. I'll do better next week, promise. Sorry for the lack of links. Cheerio.