In the latest episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, the panel of Jo Harman, Phil Walker and Yas Rana talked about players who for one day shone spectacularly in their secondary discipline, including the time Jonathan Trott once took 7-39.
Searching for examples beyond the obvious classics of the genre – Jack Leach’s 92 against Ireland in 2019 or Jason Gillespie’s double century in his final Test – Jo Harman recalled the time when Jonathan Trott took career-best figures of 7-39 for Warwickshire in a County Championship match.
What makes Trott’s performance particularly eye-catching is the game situation in which he took the seven-wicket haul. Kent were 534-3 before Trott’s dismissal of Matt Walker sparked a a peculiar collapse that saw the medium-pacer take all seven remaining wickets.
Here’s how the discussion between the panellists panned out:
PW: How about these ludicrous days in the sun, implausible days in the sun. Batsmen, bowlers who have no real pedigree in that particular discipline but on that particular day they are untouchable.
YR: So Jack Leach’s 92, Jason Gillespie’s double hundred, but more niche versions of that
JH: Jonathan Trott, his best first class figures are 7-39 against Kent in the County Championship. I’ve never seen any footage of this, I don’t really believe it happened but what were the conditions like for Jonathan Trott to take 7-39.
Later in the show, Jo dug up the scorecard from that day in Canterbury.
JH: Kent scored 594. Ed Smith scored 213, Matt Walker hit 121. At one stage, they were 534-3. Trott comes into the attack and takes 7-39, four of them caught behind the wicket by Keith Piper. It obviously started doing a bit.
YR: What was the collapse again?
JH: They were 534-3 and collapsed to 594 all out, Trott polishes them off.
You can listen to the full episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast on Spotify or the Podcast App.
