Those who remember the mighty Ian Bishop in his pomp will have noticed a familiarity at New Road: the same giant body, the hustling, shuffling urgent run and the sort of pace that is an eye-opening rarity to those playing county cricket today.
Shannon Gabriel is the West Indian fast bowler who in Barbados a few months ago so brutally hammered the final nail into the coffin of Jonathan Trott’s Test career. Now, with the departure of Saeed Ajmal, he finds himself playing out the remnants of the season for Worcestershire, the 10th cricketer from the region, and the first since Kemar Roach, to represent the county in the championship.
Middlesex could not cope as he steamed in from the Diglis End. Sam Robson and Dawid Malan were ripped out with successive deliveries in his first spell – the latter’s third duck in succession and second golden – and later, with the sun out, and his tail up and a hint of September warmth on his back, he disposed of the tail with clinical efficiency to end with five for 31.
His figures were spoiled only slightly by the couple of late boundaries driven by the Middlesex wicketkeeper, John Simpson, as the bowler overpitched in search of the stumps: Simpson was to end unbeaten with 27, the top score of the innings, while there were five further ducks in addition to that of Malan.
Middlesex were all out for 98 in a shade more than 34 overs, which, with the absence of bonus points, will not have helped their imperative to ensure they finish in second place to the champions, Yorkshire, and secure £169,000 in prize money. Before play they were a dozen points ahead of Nottinghamshire. There was time, though, for them to embark on making inroads themselves into the Worcestershire innings and there was an early success when Daryl Mitchell, the Worcestershire captain, was well caught at slip off Toby Roland-Jones for the seventh duck of the day. Hope springs eternal: by the close Brett D’Oliveira (38) and Tom Fell (37) had taken the score to 79 for one.
There had been no play during the morning because of overnight rain and heavy showers and, when Mitchell won the toss, he would have had no hesitation in asking Middlesex to bat.
There was green in the pitch, cloud cover still and enough movement to challenge the edge of the bat. If batsmen got drawn into the shot, then there was nothing in the way of recklessness: they were dismissed fairly and squarely by good bowling rather than their own shortcomings.
Simpson aside, the most diligent batting came from Nick Compton, an ideal player for the situation, prepared to hang in, which he did for almost an hour and a half, making 19 before the first ball of a new spell from Joe Leach bounced a little and left him to take the edge.
