Friday 26 August 2011

Essex v Derbyshire day 4

As I suggested last night, there was no play at Chelmsford today, a state of affairs that is always depressing but especially as the end of the season approaches and realisation dawns that there will soon only be overpaid prima donnas in football stadia to watch for the next six months or so. Not a pleasant thought, though I'll continue to follow the Rams' fortunes to a far lesser degree than those of the cricket club.

Indeed, there was no play anywhere in the UK today, a big cloud pretty much enveloping the country, although elsewhere there was a century for Usman Khawaja for Australia in Sri Lanka, a very encouraging start for a throughly nice bloke and good cricketer.

In other news, Ant Botha finally accepted the inevitable today and announced his retirement due to a chronic elbow condition that makes batting a problem.

Botha was a decent cricketer, nothing more, nothing less. Batting and bowling averages of 24 and 34 respectively were the wrong way round for any greater praise and I would say that, like a good many more before him, that his best days were at Derbyshire.

He was a dogged tail-ender who could hit well on occasion and rescued a few one-day innings from total collapse. As a bowler he was steady without spinning it a lot and the frustration was that he rarely took advantage of conditions that favoured him. He would take his wickets and keep it tight on decent tracks, but at Northampton and Cardiff would be found wanting. Conversely, he was pretty successful in T20 and maintained a creditable career run rate of less than seven an over.

He was also a solid fielder and a decent bloke, so Botha's premature retirement is sad, though a contract elsewhere was unlikely, given the game's focus on youth today.

I wish him well with his planned new life in Australia.

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