Mason Crane

Mason Crane

October 30, 2021, 9:02 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

Latest player update – I have to say this is my big Hampshire grumble because I think he’s a player of huge potential in the first-class game but too often neglected; there again, I’m a bit biased because I love spin bowlers, especially wrist spinners, indeed I’m even managing to enjoy bits of the T20 World Cup, watching the bowling of Rashid Khan, Adam Zampa and others (with the sound down of course).

Mason Sidney CRANE (535) born Shoreham-by-Sea 18.2.1997.

Mason Crane is a leg- break/googly bowler and right-hand batsman, who was coached by Raj Maru at Lancing College, and played for England under-19s from 2014-2016. Although born and educated in Sussex he played for Hampshire’s age group sides from the under-15s onwards and made his first team debut in all three formats in 2015, taking 5-35 v Warwickshire at the Ageas Bowl, still his best Championship figures. He played more regularly in 2016, taking 31 Championship wickets, but in 2017, played in just seven Championship matches, with a best of 5-40 v Somerset in the first of those games. In 2016/17, he played first- class cricket for New South Wales, the first overseas player to do so for some decades. In 2017, he played for England Lions, then for the full England side in two T20s v South Africa, and he went on the ‘Ashes’ tour to Australia, where he made his Test Match debut in January 2018 in the final Test, taking 1-193. He then joined the England Lions in the Caribbean but came home with a back problem, which prevented him from playing any first-class matches that season.

He took just five wickets, in Championship matches in 2019 although he seemed back to his best in the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020 with 14 wickets in the five games at 13.57. He took 10 wickets at 35.0 each in the first three Championship matches of 2021 but was then omitted for six matches before returning for the vital game at Cheltenham where match figures of 5-110 helped Hampshire to qualify for Division One. He played in the first of those matches (3-87) was omitted from the next two and then having not bowled in the first innings at Liverpool came within a whisker of bowling Hampshire to the Championship with 5-41 on the final day. It was not quite enough.

He has often been most effective in T20 matches for Hampshire, and has 57 wickets from 35 games with a good economy rate of 7.26, plus 61 limited-overs wickets from 37 matches. Despite the injury in 2018 he played in the Royal London Cup missing only the semi-final and although less than fit in the Final he bowled seven overs (1-53) and effected a fine run-out but that ended his season; he played no T20 matches. In 2019 his 14 List A wickets came at just over six runs per over but he has not played in that format since – in 2021 he played in six matches in the Hundred for London Spirit Men, taking six wickets at 23.00 each. In the T20, he took 11 wickets in 2019 at 16.63, following that with nine wickets in 2020 at his best economy rate of 6.60, while in 2021 his 22 wickets at 23.63 was his highest figure in one season. At the end of the season he was one of seven players awarded his county cap. Squad number 32.  

His figures for Hampshire:

First-class: 40 matches; 400 runs at 10.25; HS: 29. 103 wickets at 38.64; BB 5-35.

List A: 37 matches; 109 runs at 27.25. HS 28*. 61 wickets at 31.11; BB 4-30.

T20: 48 matches; 57 runs at 21.50. HS 12*. 57 wickets at 21.28; Econ 7.26; BB 3-15.

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