Sri Lankans left Phil-oundering

Apologies for the terrible pun first and foremost. This isn't the start of a series where I review every single day of Test match cricket around the world. It's just that today's play gives me an opportunity to declare another of my cricketing biases and how today's play was relevant to it.

Having grown up in the cricketing backwater of Devon, I have followed Somerset CCC in English domestic cricket for a good number of years now. I was pretty disappointed when Murali Kartik left the club at the end of this summer, having guided us to numerous runners-up positions over the past couple of seasons as an overseas player. As a left-arm spinner, his replacement Roelof van der Merwe simply will not fill the void in first-class cricket, although he does have plenty to offer with the bat. However, VDM isn't available until June, so Brian Rose and Andy Hurry have spent the winter looking for an overseas player for April and May. They appear to have found their man in South African seamer Vernon Philander.

As I predicted yesterday, the Centurion pitch was a green top, with the Saffer seamers extracting plenty of movement to skittle the tourists for just 180, aided in part by some woeful stroke play. Philander was the pick of the bowlers with 5-53, although he can feel that at least two of these were slightly fortunate - Angelo Mathews played a booming and loose drive in the search for quick runs with the tail in, and Kaushal Silva got the faintest of gloves down the leg-side first ball, with only the DRS giving any indication that he was actually out. However, the dismissals of Tharanga Paranavitana (I won't be doing any analytical pieces on him for the sake of my fingers) and Thilan Samaraweera (likewise) showed what Somerset will be gaining in April. Both moved away from the right-hander in the air before nipping back, cleaning up Paranavitana (a leftie) through the gate, and getting another faint nick off Samaraweera's edge through to Mark Boucher. Moreover, this was Philander's 3rd 5-wicket haul in as many games since his debut against the Aussies in that ridiculous wicketfest in Cape Town.

In early season conditions, Philander can reasonably expect to find plenty of green tops both at and away from Taunton. With a seam attack that largely flattered to deceive in last year's Championship, Philander will be a key in getting us off to a flier, in the hope that youngsters such as Adam Dibble and Lewis Gregory can carry on where he leaves off when VDM arrives in June. The best part of all of this is that I texted my brother yesterday when the news of his signing broke, saying what a good acquisition he is (he can bat a bit as well), and to watch out for him in the Centurion Test match! I love it when I'm right!

From Edinburgh,

RM