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Mason Crane’s County Championship performances are roaring louder than ever – even if the wider cricketing world has stopped listening.
In the periphery of the Test match madness, the Glamorgan leg-spinner and forgotten England man has taken career-best first-class figures of 6/19 against Lancashire.
The spell from the man once tipped as the future of English spin bowling came just days after taking 11 wickets in a second XI match, as he proves he’s still a force in the longest format of the game.
Crane’s figures of 5-22 and 6-66 were paramount in Glamorgan’s Second XI 74-run victory over Kent, suggesting his talent never faded, only the attention did.
Fast forward six days, and Crane was back in the Division Two fold with the first team against Lancashire at Old Trafford: a ground that has offered little to spinners of late, as demonstrated by Liam Dawson’s sole wicket in the Test last week.
Glamorgan battled to 261 with Lancashire’s Chris Green claiming six scalps and captain James Anderson rolling back the years with an economical 1/34.
The hosts came out to bat and started well on a flat wicket, reaching 107 for three before Crane found his famous top gear – five wickets in 41 deliveries for just 12 runs, not bad for a forgotten man.
Despite his repeated periods of first-class excellence over the years, Crane remains one of England’s most easily forgotten one-and-done Test players.
It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years since Crane made his sole appearance at the Test arena; the final Ashes Test of the 2017/18 series at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Talk about getting thrown in at the deep end.
At just 20 years of age, Crane was thrown in with the lions, becoming England’s youngest specialist spinner in decades.
Debut figures of 1/193 were far from ideal, though hardly surprising when considering the magnitude of his sole bite of the cherry before England again rolled the dice with the likes of Dom Bess and Jack Leach.
Mason Crane: Not old. Not finished.
His limited opportunities on the Test stage are what make his recent appearances all the more compelling.
On a flat Lancashire pitch, identical to that of the Test match last week, Crane shone with rigid turn and bounce to dismantle the hosts and remind the selectors of the skill that earned him such an early Test cap.
Described as “world-class” by his captain, Sam Northeast, he’s not short of admirers in the English domestic game; instead, the silence from the selectors, pundits and ECB since that fateful week in Sydney.
Bazball is the way England now play, with Crane a classic leg-spinner who banks on his guile, smarts and rhythm to claim his victims.
But the new style rewards aggression and flamboyance – there’s no specialist spinner in the England Test XI for the final game against India at The Oval.
Still, he’s only 28. Not old. Not finished. And by no means out of ideas.
In first-class cricket, his 159 wickets and six five-wicket hauls speak for themselves, with Crane ensuring the message has never been clearer.
Mason Crane never went away – the cricket world just stopped paying attention.
READ MORE: Stuart Broad speaks out on why India deserved to bat on in Old Trafford draw
The post Forgotten England spinner resurfaces with career best figures after 11-wicket haul appeared first on Cricket365.
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