ONE of Herefordshire’s cricketers will feel right at home when the county side begin their National Counties T20 programme with a trip to Sherborne School to take on Dorset on Sunday.
Skipper Matt Pardoe has, for several years, been the master in charge of cricket at the school so will be very familiar with the surroundings.
Alongside a number of familiar faces, there will be a couple of new arrivals in Pardoe’s side.
Seam bowler and lower-order batsman Adam Hines, who plays his club cricket at Barnt Green, gets his first Herefordshire call-up.
And there will be a debut, too, for middle-order batsman and seam-bowler Callum Bennett, like Hines a graduate of the Worcestershire age-group system, who this season will be playing his club cricket at Berkswell after moving across from Kidderminster.
Against Dorset last season at Colwall, after game one was cancelled due to rain, Herefordshire came out on top by 46 runs in the second of the day’s two scheduled matches.
Pardoe (46), Ollie Walker (38) and Roshan Venkataraman (31 not out) led the way in Herefordshire’s total of 141-8 on that day.
All three are in the Herefordshire squad on Sunday, as is young leg-spinner Zak Shah who marked his debut back then with a fine return of 4-30 as Dorset were bowled out for 95.
Shah will be picking up the spin-bowling duties from Alex Russell, who is now contracted to Northamptonshire.
And Herefordshire will also be missing another of the stars of last season’s T20 competition with Zain-ul-Hassan having signed on for Glamorgan.
This weekend’s visit to Dorset will be followed another away weekend over the early May Bank Holiday when Herefordshire will take on Devon and then Cornwall before rounding off their qualifying programme by entertaining Wiltshire at Eastnor on May 7.
Herefordshire (from): Matt Pardoe (capt), Nick Hammond, James Rudge, Adam Hines, Luke Powell, Roshan Venkataraman, Ollie Walker, Alex Hinkley, Charlie Williams, Callum Bennett, Connor Smith, Zak Shah.
Pic: Zak Shah will hope to repeat his success of last year against Dorset on Sunday. Pic from @RogerBPhotos
