In the unlikely event that Pablo Picasso had been asked to paint a portrait of a batsman, the resulting canvas might have borne some resemblance to the stance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Paul Edwards at Old Trafford21-May-2017
ScorecardIn the unlikely event that Pablo Picasso had been asked to paint a portrait of a batsman, the resulting canvas might have borne some resemblance to the stance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Admittedly there would have been a few extra eyes and a couple of disembodied bowlers’ heads wailing in one corner of the work, but the 42-year-old Guyanan’s confection of oblique and acute angles as he waits for the ball to be delivered may have found a resonance with the cussed old Cubist.Yet Chanderpaul is also one of cricket’s master craftsmen and his ability to unfold his square- on stance to play straight-drives or crisp clips through midwicket will be of great value to Lancashire this summer. On the second day of the Roses match he followed his eight-hour 182 against Surrey with a 288-minute exercise in obduracy which added 106 runs to Lancashire’s total and has given his side every chance of avoiding defeat.’I never expected this – Brooks’
Jack Brooks said he never expected to be celebrating a first-class century. For it to come in a Roses match made it even more surreal.
“It’s surreal, and it hasn’t really sunk in,” he said. “I never expected to get a hundred in my career, although I did say to the lads the other day that I’ve got one in me, but that was more in jest than anything. I ended up batting at nine in this game, and it’s weird how it’s happened. Cricket can be funny like that.
“I’m pretty elated with how it ended up. I didn’t really overthink it. I wasn’t actually that nervous overnight. I was quite excited. I slept pretty well just because I was knackered.
“I woke up at 5 in the morning busting for a wee because I’d drunk so much. Then I lay there thinking ‘I’m going to be batting in a little while’. I backed my game plan: if it was up, I was going to try and whack it.
“I didn’t need Jack Leaning getting out straightaway. Ben Coad is the most nervous man in the world and was panicking more than anyone. I don’t plan celebrations. They just happen off the cuff really. It was a release of emotion.”
Admittedly those innings were bridged by a month’s layoff with a hamstring strain caused by his exertions at The Oval but Lancashire have signed a cricketer in early middle-age and they will have to cope with that. It is probably a fair trade for a player who has now passed fifty on 213 occasions in first-class cricket.This certainly seemed the case on the third evening of this game when Chanderpaul and the excellent Ryan McLaren were adding 112 runs for the sixth wicket and all but completing a recovery that had seen Lancashire slump to 39 for three in 13 overs. Carefully Chanderpaul unpacked his cover and straight drives and put them to good use in taking three fours off an over from Jack Brooks. He added 67 for the fourth wicket with Dane Vilas and the only surprise was when Ben Coad ended his stand with McLaren by bowling Chanderpaul round his legs a few overs before the close.”I couldn’t believe I missed that ball,” he said, “I was really looking forward to batting on tomorrow. I was looking at the scoreboard to see how many overs were left and trying to see out the evening.” In Chanderpaul’s disbelief can be detected the hunger that drives him on even when he has more than 26,000 first-class runs on his CV.Yet if this great day of Roses cricket was distinguished by one batsman’s 75th first-class century, it was made equally memorable by Jack Brooks’ maiden century, a feat that was achieved by the addition of six singles to his overnight tally. The hundred was made possible by fine batting on Saturday evening but it was completed in company with Ben Coad, whose nerves when accompanying the incurably laid-back Brookes were greater than anyone’s.When he reached his landmark Brooks dropped his bat and bathed in the cheers of the players’ balcony. There was, of course, much badge-kissing and bat-pointing but the applause of the Yorkshire supporters was acknowledged, too. Yet even this seemed just a trifle understated for a player who is wont to celebrate a wicket by haring off towards cover with the demented air of a man who has that moment discovered that someone has smeared heat cream on the inside of his jockstrap and is reacquainting himself with Jerry Lee Lewis’s most famous ditty. Fiery Jack, indeed.Shivnarine Chanderpaul held back the tide once again•Getty Images
For their part, Lancashire players applauded, although it seemed an act of obligation for them, rather as it might be for members of the Women’s Institute on discovering that some brassy woman has won first prize in the annual Plum Jam competition.Three overs later Brooks was strolling off the Old Trafford outfield with an unbeaten 109 against his name and one hopes he will dine out on it. As far as the game went, Yorkshire had added 270 runs for the loss of their seventh and eighth wickets. Brooks, Andy Hodd and Jack Leaning had made it all but certain that Lancashire would need to bat out the best part of two days to save the game. Such tough cricket frequently takes wickets in the early overs of next innings and this happened once more as three batsmen were dismissed in the first hour of Lancashire’s innings.The most noteworthy of the trio, if only because so much is expected of the player, was Haseeb Hameed, who lost his off-stump to Brooks and trooped back to his dressing-room with an eight-ball nought to his name. The delivery which brought about his downfall was slanted in and held its own; the England opener would have played it comfortably had his bat been alongside his pad instead of in front of it. But Hameed is going through the first tough period of his first-class career and how he copes with it will tell us much about him.What he needs is time, yet we live in days of impatience and immoderation. Hameed’s promise in long-form cricket remains enormous, but if sportsmen are not being worshipped as saviours these intemperate times, they are, on occasions, dismissed as root vegetables. It is, one supposes, the price they pay for fame.Yorkshire’s bowlers, meanwhile, celebrated the removal of a batsman who had taken them for two centuries less than a year ago. Adam Lyth, though, was excluded from the celebrations because he had been whacked on the angle by the ball as it ricocheted from the stump and was hopping about like a stork on coals. The slipper’s mood was improved three overs later, though, when he caught Liam Livingstone off Ryan Sidebottom, and still more six overs afterwards when first slip Peter Handscomb pouched Croft’s ugly cut off Tim Bresnan.By then, however, Chanderpaul had begun the latest of countless vigils in defence of his wicket and his side. After 270 minutes he had that century to his name and had joined Brooks in making this golden Sunday precious. One hopes that Edgar Oldroyd is quietly applauding the pair of them.