Brief profile of Keith Parsons by John Dobson

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Player:

KA Parsons

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DateLine: 14th December 2006

 

Somerset native Keith Parsons represented England at youth level, though it is as a one day county specialist he has made his name. He first enjoyed a run of games with Somerset in 1993 but it was 1995 when he established himself with 821 first class runs. He also became a one day regular, introducing his now familiar combination of powerful late over hitting with a nagging, hard to get away, medium pace bowling style that has frequently undone batsmen in a run chase.

 

In 2000 he hit his highest score of 193 not out against the West Indian tourists and then took best bowling figures of 5-13 against Lancashire.

 

Parsons struggled to maintain a first team championship berth at times from 2001 onwards though. However it was in 2001 that he had a career high as man of the match in the C&G final when he pounded three sixes in the closing overs and then struck with two wickets when Leicestershire were seemingly cruising to victory.

 

Parsons enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in 2005. Recalled to the championship side he averaged just under 45 in eight games, while nearly hitting 40 in one day matches. In the Twenty20 Cup he excelled at scoring at more than run a ball, including 57 off 28 balls against Glamorgan, before on Somerset’s victorious finals day he bowled 6 overs for 28 runs.

 

2006 saw Parsons maintain his impressive batting form.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2006 John Dobson)