Lancashire 72 for 2 trail Somerset 361 (Rew 105, Henry 50*, Mitchell 3-32, Williams 3-71) by 289 runs

This is an Australian summer and therefore one of those times when many cricket lovers see other games through the prism of a five-match battle that is yet to be fought. At Cardiff, Marnus Labuschagne tries to help Glamorgan complete their victory against Worcestershire; at Derby, Marcus Harris fields for Gloucestershire and wonders when he might get his next chance to bat in what for has been a rain-sodden season for his team; at Chester-le-Street Jonny Bairstow makes 16 not out and attempts to prove that he should bat and keep wicket for England this summer, although, to Bairstow himself, this is already a self-evident truth; at Grace Road, Steve Smith is leg before wicket to Wiaan Mulder for 3; and at Emirates Old Trafford James Anderson stimulates a crazed ferment on social and other media by failing to appear for the second day of Lancashire's match against Somerset.

In precisely five weeks' time these five cricketers might be present at Edgbaston but for the moment they are playing - or in Anderson's case, not playing - for their counties in Championship matches.

And for many of those watching the cricket at Emirates Old Trafford this afternoon, it is those latter games that count. While they may note Lancashire's verbal statement that Anderson's "minor issue" is being dealt with by the county's physio, Sam Byrne, their main concern is that the issue is sufficiently major to prevent their best bowler helping his team combat the preternatural skills of James Rew. For others watching the game, the whole affair gives rise to sly humour. "Jimmy Anderson's up a step ladder changing light bulbs," said someone at lunch, thereby causing consternation until it was explained to the uninitiated that the bloke in question is actually an electrician in Lancashire's maintenance department.

Eventually the news dribbles out from undisclosed sources that Anderson, the bowler not the spark, has something amiss with his groin, although no one will say whether the issue is major or minor or even whether Anderson is to have a scan on the affected area. It barely matters. Twitter goes cheerfully berserk and some recollections go back four years to the Australian summer when Anderson went in the calf at Sedbergh and subsequently played just one Test and bowled four overs before quitting the series.

Four summers ago, though, Rew may well have been doing his GCSEs at King's College, Taunton and here he surely cared little for anything but the fact that Championship cricket is a game he can play. Anderson's absence mattered to him only in so far as he made his job of guiding Somerset's recovery from 135 for 5 to 361 all out somewhat easier. In any case, Lancashire are his favourite opponents. Three of his 13 first-class games have been played against them and his aggregate is 362 runs at an average of 72. But the side currently captained by Dane Vilas are not the only team he has made suffer. He is currently Somerset's leading scorer with 421 runs. For all that county cricket is no place for softies, this world must be especially fresh and lovely for James Rew at the moment. Time was when it held similar delights in store for Anderson.

For those Lancashire supporters who saw Rew batting at Southport last year or at Taunton three weeks ago, the composure and self-possession he showed on Friday morning were not revelatory. His main run-scoring areas are on the off side and he drives anywhere between straight mid-off and backward point with considerable ease. Reprieved on both 20 and 70 when Lancashire's slip cordon put chances down - in total Vilas's fielders dropped seven catches in Somerset's innings - Rew made good use of his escapes to help Kasey Aldridge add 106 for the sixth wicket.

When they didn't depend too heavily on their fielders, Lancashire depleted attack performed well on a pitch that had plainly eased since Thursday morning. In particular, Daryl Mitchell revealed something of what he might offer his new county by taking three wickets for 32 runs in 13 overs. Rew, who edged Mitchell to the substitute fielder, Rob Jones, at slip, was one of the New Zealanders' victims but it was Matt Henry, another New Zealander making his debut, who dominated the latter stages of Somerset's innings by hitting 50 off 39 balls, an effort that included three leg-side sixes in one over from Tom Hartley.

Encouraged by his own cheerful thuggery, Henry then parried a fiercely driven drive from Luke Wells before catching the ball in both hands and thereby giving the Somerset bowlers precisely the early breakthrough they needed. For most of the evening session, however, it seemed Tom Abell's attack would have to be content with that success but, having had a number of confident leg before appeals turned down, Jack Leach decided to dispense with the middle man and bowled Josh Bohannon for 31 three overs before the close. As is the habit of his trade, Rew scampered from behind the stumps to celebrate with his bowler and his broad grin will be an abiding image we can take from the day's cricket. In the morning, though, the young man might discover something about the price of fish. If he turns to the cricket pages of the national newspapers, he will find that the headlines are not about him.

James Rew demands spotlight as James Anderson injury gives rise to noises off

2023-05-12 19:43:50