Flintoff hoopla benefits everyone
The long-awaited Freddie Flintoff comeback leads this week's countdown of the things that mattered in the NatWest T20 Blast
It is hard to know how to gauge public support for Alastair Cook, aside from typing his name into Twitter and trawling through the endless criticisms of his captaincy and batting squalor. It is by no means a worthwhile or fruitful pastime. He can only win England fans around in his own, minimalistic way and, even then, there will be a large majority who see his part in the ostracising of Kevin Pietersen as unforgivable.
Player focus: Jim Allenby (Glamorgan)
There are a few names that those who spend their time watching grainy video highlights of county cricket talk of in reverential terms. One of those is Glamorgan's Jim Allenby. In Twenty20 cricket he has become one of the most consistent allrounders in the game. With the ball he uses guile and cunning to get wickets and when he bats he has found a way to score quickly and with little risk. He rarely hits the ball in the air unless he is confident of clearing a shorter boundary. He plays his way and rarely deviates from that plan. Allenby has found a formula that makes the most of the ability he has while offering excellent consistency. At Richmond against Middlesex, he scored 105 in a thrilling run chase - the fifth time he has passed fifty in this season's competition. Far be it from Glamorgan to rely solely on his consistency, but he deserves great credit for routine success in a frenetic format.
What is up with Glenn Maxwell? Eighty runs in seven innings is far from what we and he would have wanted or expected. The very nature of his game is 'all or nothing' but against Somerset at the Ageas Bowl there was a disconcerting deference to the bowlers and a furious smashing of his bat when he was sold down the river by Michael Carberry.
Charlie Shreck is regarded as one of the most popular figures around the county circuit. Since coming into the domestic game at the age of 25, the "Cornish Joel Garner" has notched more than 500 wickets across all forms of the game. But when he was handed the ball for the last over of Derbyshire's innings, a second waist-high full toss of the match resulted in him being taken out of the attack. Anthony Ireland was tasked with bowling the remaining five deliveries. Four wickets followed, including three in four balls for Ireland and a run-out off the last ball. Credit, of course, is due to Ireland for his first five-wicket haul in T20. But were it not for Shreck's selflessness - inadvertent or otherwise - he would not have had the chance for such a heroic feat. What a bloke.
Gloucestershire's impressive win over Sussex was somewhat, well, overshadowed by the drastically fading Bristol light. Despite being an international ground, it is without floodlights and Sussex were well within their rights to complain. To their credit, they got on with the task at hand, however futile it turned out to be.