Steven Crook from Adelaide cripples Australia

Courtesy of ESPNcricinfo,

“To be part of that generation is pretty cool”

Steven Crook reflected on the generation of Australian cricketers with which he shared Under-19s dressing rooms before striking out as a county cricketer more than a decade ago. “I left quite a long time ago so it’s obviously looking out from quite a long way away to see how things are going over there,” he said. “They’ve got a good team, a good attack, and against Australia is quality, so I really enjoyed it.

“My Under-19s year had Shaun Marsh, Shaun Tait, Mark Cosgrove, Cameron White, Xavier Doherty, George Bailey, so we had quite a good crop of players. It’s interesting to see how those guys have developed and gone on to play all over the world. To be part of that generation of players is really cool.”

Crook arrived in 2002 to play league cricket then Lancashire offered him a deal as a local player – both his parents were British born. “I’m not sure how well it went down in South Australia,” he said of the move, “but if somebody says ‘here’s a professional contract’ it’s pretty hard to turn down. I always wanted to be a cricketer and that was my ticket.”

 Crook–Getty Images

	Northamptonshire 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	D Murphy†	c SE Marsh b Lyon	20	135	84	3	0	23.80
	BM Duckett	lbw b MR Marsh	50	94	70	8	0	71.42
	KJ Coetzer	b Lyon	86	164	131	12	1	65.64
	RI Keogh	b MR Marsh	17	78	60	2	0	28.33
	JJ Cobb*	c Voges b MR Marsh	0	2	1	0	0	0.00
	SA Zaib	c Smith b Lyon	21	31	26	2	1	80.76
	SP Crook	not out	142	127	96	24	4	147.91
	HG Munsey	c Lyon b Cummins	27	42	31	5	0	87.09
	BW Sanderson	c Smith b MR Marsh	3	38	16	0	0	18.75
	MA Chambers	b Cummins	0	5	4	0	0	0.00
	RJ Gleeson	lbw b Cummins	6	30	25	1	0	24.00
	Extras	(b 12, lb 11, w 1)	24
	Total	(all out; 90.4 overs)	396	(4.36 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-68 (Duckett, 23.1 ov), 2-109 (Murphy, 32.1 ov), 3-162 (Keogh, 51.5 ov), 4-162 (Cobb, 51.6 ov), 5-199 (Zaib, 60.2 ov), 6-212 (Coetzer, 62.6 ov), 7-273 (Munsey, 73.5 ov), 8-337 (Sanderson, 81.6 ov), 9-344 (Chambers, 82.6 ov), 10-396 (Gleeson, 90.4 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s
	PM Siddle	17	6	58	0	3.41	81
	PJ Cummins	20.4	6	64	3	3.09	97
	SR Watson	14	2	54	0	3.85	63
	NM Lyon	19	3	93	3	4.89	80
	MR Marsh	14	1	56	4	4.00	61	(1w)
	Fawad Ahmed	6	0	48	0	8.00	19

	Australians 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	SE Marsh	c Keogh b Gleeson	24	71	50	4	0	48.00
	DA Warner	c Crook b Chambers	6	17	12	1	0	50.00
	SPD Smith*	c †Murphy b Chambers	0	8	6	0	0	0.00
	AC Voges	c Duckett b Crook	21	59	50	3	0	42.00
	MR Marsh	b Gleeson	68	145	116	11	1	58.62
	SR Watson	lbw b Sanderson	20	30	19	4	0	105.26
	PM Nevill†	b Crook	25	81	55	2	0	45.45
	PM Siddle	c Sanderson b Crook	9	31	23	1	0	39.13
	PJ Cummins	not out	0	21	14	0	0	0.00
	NM Lyon	not out	0	7	7	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(lb 6, w 1)	7
	Total	(8 wickets; 58.4 overs)	180	(3.06 runs per over)

To batFawad Ahmed

---

Fall of wickets 1-13 (Warner, 4.2 ov), 2-13 (Smith, 6.2 ov), 3-49 (SE Marsh, 17.6 ov), 4-54 (Voges, 21.1 ov), 5-87 (Watson, 28.4 ov), 6-156 (Nevill, 48.5 ov), 7-174 (MR Marsh, 53.4 ov), 8-180 (Siddle, 56.3 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s
	MA Chambers	15	5	44	2	2.93	72	(1w)
	RJ Gleeson	16	3	57	2	3.56	73
	BW Sanderson	13	7	21	1	1.61	70
	SP Crook	11.4	2	38	3	3.25	52
	RI Keogh	3	0	14	0	4.66	13