Glut of injuries dampens Somerset firepower

Somerset 270 v Sussex 589-7

Two career-best performan-ces, of 171 by Robin Martin-Jenkins and 91 by Mark Davis in an eighth-wicket stand of 238, a record for the county, exposed the lack of penetration in an injury-savaged Somerset bowling squad that is the main reason for their flirtation with relegation.

Bowling, however, is not the reason they are so far behind in this match. The culprit for that is their poor batting on the first day on a pitch that Keith Parsons described as "450-plus", but it is the reason why last season's runners-up could suffer the indignity of the drop.

"Bowlers win matches" is one of the most pertinent buzz phrases in cricket, and an examination of Somerset last season proves it to be true. Steffan Jones and Richard Johnson barely suffered a niggle or twinge and took 59 and 62 first-class wickets respectively last year. Add in Andy Caddick's dismantling of Yorkshire at Headingley in one of his few appearances and the 55 wickets picked up by the spinners Keith Dutch and Ian Blackwell and it is easy to see why they confounded many sceptics and finished in the prize money.

Now compare these statistics with this season's and it is equally easy to see why they are struggling. Johnson and Jones have been bedevilled with hamstring pulls and missed many games.

Jones, maybe lacking confidence after injury, seems a yard short of pace, something particularly noticeable during the morning session, when many deliveries found the outside half of the bat and went down to third man rather than zipping through with bounce, beating the bat or catching the edge and flying to the slips. He has 14 wickets in six matches and Johnson, hoping to return against West Indies A next week, has 15 in three.

The two spearheads have not played enough, either individually or together, and that has exposed the back-up bowlers and spinners. This in itself is a problem but has been compounded by injuries to the lesser lights. Matt Bulbeck was absent in the morning session with a hip flexor problem and has missed much of the season, Simon Francis has a broken finger, Joe Tucker a bad back, Graham Rose a pulled hamstring and Peter Trego missed the start of the season with a groin strain. Such a catalogue of ailments forced the club to re-engage Paul Jarvis.

Even when they manage to contain the opposition, as they did when Sussex slumped to 351 for 7, they lack the firepower to finish them off. "We've hardly got a bowler left standing," said Parsons. "Getting 20 wickets is hard enough, but when hardly any of the bowlers are fit it is almost impossible. Last year we made inroads into top orders with Johnson and Jones, and the other bowlers could feed off that, but this season we are struggling from the start.

"In one-day cricket we have regularly gone for 100-plus in the first 15 overs. You can't slag the bowlers off because some have tried to come back when not quite ready, and having six or seven injured is incredible bad luck."

The solution is to impose scoreboard pressure and keep the opposition tiring in the field for a day or two. "We should have done that in this match but we batted shoddily," concluded Parsons.

Sussex, initially through Tim Ambrose and Tony Cottey, and then Martin-Jenkins and Davis, did not.