The captivating patience of Matt Parkinson

NICK FRIEND AT LORD'S: This isn’t how Parkinson would have envisaged the last week of his summer, but it was somehow fitting that it should end with the same high-class exhibition of patience as at Canterbury, where his season began in earnest

Lord's (third day of five): Lancashire 78 & 171-6, Warwickshire 518 - Lancashire trail by 269 runs with four second-innings wickets in hand

Scorecard

Earlier this season, Matt Parkinson bowled 52 overs in the second innings of a victory over Kent.

He toiled away manfully, without much response from a Canterbury surface on which Luke Wood and Danny Lamb had already struck centuries. That experience changed him, maybe also altering external perceptions in the process. There wasn’t much spin on offer – and certainly none at the kind of bounce that might play into his hands – but he tricked and teased his way to seven wickets and career-best figures.

A week prior, he had gone viral, ripping one from outside Adam Rossington’s leg-stump and onto his off-bail. A fortnight later, the same again, but the reverse to the left-handed Delray Rawlins. Those were one-off deliveries, the kind that package up so well for social media, but actually don’t tell you an awful lot else other than supporting the CricViz statistic that no one in world cricket spins the ball as much or drifts it as far as Parkinson.

“Kent was massive for me personally,” he told The Cricketer earlier this year, “learning about myself that I can actually do that on a flat pitch. I think most people probably assumed when they saw that I’d bowled 52 overs for seven wickets that it was a ragger. But it wasn’t.

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“It’s probably the first time in my career that I’ve had long enough on an unresponsive pitch, where the pressure was on me to deliver and to be able to think about those plans for a long time. Normally, throughout my career I’ve had very responsive pitches where you don’t really have to think too much. You just bowl your best ball and the pitch will normally help you or there will be enough spin that you’ll be fine.

“Kent was the first time that I’ve really had to think in more detail than normal. There were periods of play where we tried to lob it up outside off stump – that obviously brought some reward. There was a plan to hit people on the shin by dragging them across. I think Kent was probably the most sustained period of planning I’ve had.”

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to describe that week as a defining moment. He fought for each wicket, dragging batters across the crease with a wide line, before trapping them on the crease with a straighter delivery. He tempted Darren Stevens to reach tantalisingly for a drive that he could only pop to extra cover. In isolation, they looked innocuous – almost more like bad batting than the consequence of Parkinson’s nuanced trickery, built up over long spells of stalemate.

He had never bowled more than 31 overs in a first-class innings before the start of 2021, but he has done so six times this season, most recently this morning when he put the finishing touches to a display that began on the first evening and spanned a gruelling second day when Lancashire’s seamers took just three wickets between them.

^{Matt Parkinson only concded five boundaries in 31.3 overs}

Parkinson was a constant threat, though, altering his pace and trajectory almost by the ball, putting into practice everything that had worked at Canterbury. Michael Burgess was stumped for his hundredth first-class wicket: a perfect leg-break that floated above the eyeline, dropped on Warwickshire’s wicketkeeper and then deviated sharply past his outside edge to leave him stranded. But in between, at times he bowled flatter so that a batting line-up that was otherwise making hay could never quite set itself against him. In 31.3 overs, he conceded four fours and a six at an economy rate of 2.48 that was significantly stingier than anything managed by his colleagues.

When Rob Yates ran down the pitch, Parkinson saw him coming and was rewarded by Luke Wells at slip, who later caught Tim Bresnan to give that combination its second success. His fourth dismissal came courtesy of a subtly beautiful piece of bowling; it looked as though Manraj Johal had simply played over the top of a full toss when, in fact, Parkinson’s drift and dip had befuddled the 19-year-old debutant. Facing Parkinson for the first time, one suspects, is different to most wrist-spinners, given the slower speed of his stock delivery that has so often been discussed.

There was even time for the airing of a googly that he rarely bowls on Wednesday. It didn’t come to anything, but it was another sign of his increasing comfort on surfaces like this, where he is confident in inching his way towards his wickets, well aware that the magic balls will be harder to come by.

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It seems remarkable that ahead of this year, he had only ever played two red-ball games before the start of June. This summer, he only missed three of Lancashire’s 14 County Championship fixtures. An un-leg-spinner-like economy rate of 2.30 has certainly contributed to that; only Tom Bailey bowled more overs for Lancashire, for whom Parkinson has developed as much into one of the country’s most threatening holding options as one of its prime attackers. In the same game as the Rossington delivery, he recorded second-innings figures of 3 for 39 in 32.3 overs. Half of them were maidens.

Unsurprisingly, 36 wickets at 20.55 apiece made him the country’s leading leg-spinner, four clear of Derbyshire’s Matt Critchley. Of the three finger-spinners to exceed that figure, one was his brother, Callum, who reached fifty for the first time. The others were Simon Harmer, predictably, and Jack Carson, less so.

The retirement of Moeen Ali from Test cricket doesn’t make his international selection a certainty by any case, though it would be a crying shame were he to miss out on selection for this winter’s Ashes tour: you’d think that Jack Leach is the likeliest immediate beneficiary, while Dom Bess has been selected in a Test squad more recently than Parkinson, a long-time friend. But what he has proven this year is an ability to do the dirty work as much as the spectacular, offering style and substance in equal measure.

^{Michael Burgess was Parkinson's 100th first-class wicket}

Here, he has done so in bitterly cold conditions as well: first-class cricket in the final throes of September has been all that one might expect, and play ended well before 5pm due to bad light.

Of course, this game hasn’t been about him – Lancashire will still have plenty to accomplish on Friday just to avoid their largest-ever defeat, having already fallen for their third-lowest total of the century on the opening afternoon – but he has managed to further his personal cause, even without the advantage of runs on the board or consistent, sharp turn.

This isn’t how Parkinson would have envisaged the last week of his summer – with Lancashire needing 269 runs to even make Warwickshire bat again – but it was somehow fitting that it should end with the same high-class exhibition of patience as at Canterbury.