Sonny Baker began Thursday 27 August at Lord’s, in England’s squad for the second Test against Pakistan, and ended it at Sophia Gardens with two wickets in his first over for Hampshire. Released before the toss in St John’s Wood, he was driven to Cardiff and substituted into a County Championship match already in progress.
It is the sort of day that only happens to a fast bowler on the edge of an England side. The argument it makes is a straightforward one: Baker is close enough to be carried around the country, and not yet close enough to be picked.
What Sonny Baker did at Cardiff
Hampshire had been dismissed for 162 in 40.2 overs, Jake Lehmann unbeaten on 51 the only real resistance against Zain Ul Hassan and Mir Hamza, who took three wickets each. Glamorgan then recovered from 0 for 2 to 102 for 5 before Baker arrived, according to ESPNcricinfo’s report.
He was substituted into the match 32 overs into Glamorgan’s innings with the permission of the ECB, having been at Lord’s that morning. His third ball removed Chris Cooke. His sixth accounted for the half-centurion Ben Kellaway, who had made 57. Glamorgan closed on 111 for 7, a deficit of 51, with Baker’s figures 2-3 and Kyle Abbott’s 3-23 the best of the day, BBC Sport reported. Seventeen wickets fell in a day shortened by heavy morning rain.
The selection picture behind Sonny Baker’s release
Baker was added to England’s Lord’s squad in the week Brydon Carse was left out, as ReadCricket set out when Carse was dropped and Baker called up. He was not required in the final XI. England instead went in with an attack that included Jofra Archer and Ollie Robinson, and spent the opening day batting, reaching 248 for 9 in poor light after Mohammad Abbas took 4-56, as ReadCricket described when Jamie Smith and Jordan Cox dug in on day one.
Hampshire had planned for both outcomes. BBC Sport noted that Scott Currie started the match while Baker’s England release was pending, which is why the substitution was needed at all rather than a straight selection. The counter-reading is that a bowler released on the morning of a Test is a bowler the selectors wanted within reach, not one they have finished with.
Why the two wickets mattered to Hampshire
Hampshire are the bottom-placed side and need wins to survive, ESPNcricinfo noted. Glamorgan, remarkably, can still entertain both a title charge and a relegation scare. Bowling points in a match reduced by weather are therefore worth more than usual to both, and Baker turned a session that was drifting towards Glamorgan into one that closed with the visitors 51 runs ahead and three wickets from a first-innings lead.
Glamorgan took three points from the day to Hampshire’s two, having made changes of their own: Dan Douthwaite returned for his first red-ball game in two years in place of the injured Andy Gorvin, and Hamza came in as the overseas bowler in place of Ray Toole.
What happens next for Sonny Baker
The immediate task is a Championship match Hampshire have to win. The longer one is a Test debut that has now been deferred rather than denied. England resume at Lord’s on Friday 28 August nine wickets down with Pakistan yet to bat, and a third Test still to come in a series they lead.
Two wickets in his first over at Cardiff will not decide any of that. But a bowler released from a Test squad in the morning and striking in the afternoon has made the only case available to him.
