Spinners who open

Last night we had the unusual sight of two England spinners taking the new ball, so that they could get a few overs in against South Africa in light that was too poor to allow Sidebottom and Anderson to go first. Monty Panesar and Kevin Pietersen had two overs each and then, naturally, when play resumed this morning it was back to the quicks doing what quicks are meant to do.

It got me thinking and researching about when England last opened the bowling with a spinner. It was actually only two years ago, when Monty opened the second innings against Pakistan at Headingley, but as you would expect it has been quite a rare occurence. Before that match, the previous time was when Ashley Giles opened with Matthew Hoggard against India at Ahmedabad (he was wicketless). Before that was in 1992 when Mark Ramprakash was given the dubious honour of bowling his off spin at Pakistan at the Oval when the away side needed two runs to win in the second innings. He began with a wide and then Aamir Sohail hit his first legitimate ball for four.

Phil Tufnell opened in the second innings against New Zealand at Wellington the previous winter in a dead game and John Emburey opened in the first innings against West Indies at Old Trafford in 1988 (perhaps because he was captain - it didn't work, he was wicketless). Phil Edmonds bowled first at India as they chased only 48 to beat England in Bombay in 1984, taking one wicket but not the ten that England would have hoped for.

You then have to go back 20 years for the previous time when England opened the bowling with a spinner. In fact it was a pair of spinners: Ken Barrington, who bowled leg breaks, and Fred Titmus's offies were used at Old Trafford because only two overs were possible at the end of a drawn Test with Australia. In 1952, however, England used two spinners as an attacking opening pair and it paid off. Malcolm Hilton, a slow left-armer, and Roy Tattersall, an off-break bowler, opened in the second innings against India at Kanpur, bowled 60 overs between them (supplemented by seven overs of off spin from Jack Robertson) and the three took nine wickets to give England a chance of victory.

Before then it was Len Braund and Colin Blythe in 1902 but maybe I'm now showing that I've got too much time on my hands...

Comments

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When you open with two spinners, the match smells stone dead or too one-sided. Apparently, Vaughan believed the latter. Or was he too enticed by Monty's first innings figures?
Meanwhile, I guess even though Smith has gone back to the hutch, he would be equally engaged, ensuring McKenzie has no problem taping his bat to the ceiling and the toilet seats are closed too. Leading a bunch of characters is not a matter of joke, you know.