St Lucia - Tour averages tell their own story

The averages for the St Lucia trip do not make pleasant reading, but that is hardly surprising after a trip where we lost five of our six matches, were bowled out for our lowest score abroad (44) and only narrowly avoided our heaviest tour defeat.

The form batsmen of recent seasons, Alan Cope and Matt Crump, failed wretchedly, and managed 78 runs in ten innings between them. Crump, who bore the brunt of the new-ball attack, often batted down the order which in matches which were all between 20 and 35 overs in duration meant he never really got a chance. Cope, whose back meant he only bowled three overs, looked in good touch but only twice reached double figures.

Will Howard, who looked at his best when opening, was one of only two batsmen to pass 100 runs, with the other, Tom Crump, was by some way the leading scorer, batting throughout the Twenty20 loss under lights for a fifty. The other half century , earlier on the same day by Henry Watkinson, was in a winning cause.

Paddy Harman and Matt Crump took 21 of the 45 wickets to fall, sharing the new ball with Harman proving especially penetrative in his second spells. Watkinson was economical and skilled at picking up late wickets, while the surprises came from Jonny Gates and Tom Crump, whose short spells proved productive although, in Crump’s case, expensive. Michael Chetwode, who has taken more wickets abroad than anyone, was hard to get away but somehow only managed one wicket.