The Spin | Dangerous, decadent, depraved: cricket’s love affair with the cover drive

The shot has been described as the purest expression of batting and a destroyer of innings, matches and careers

Taunton, 3 April 2026. Somerset are hosting Nottinghamshire, the defending county champions, in their first fixture of the new season and are 20 for two having been sent into bat. It’s murky and cold. The batters wear cable-knit sweaters and the spectators in the crowd have wisely decided not to eschew their winter coats. Plenty peer out at the action from under tightly drawn hoods.

The hulking Notts fast bowler Dillon Pennington steams in towards Somerset’s James Rew. The pitch is lush and only a shade less green than the uncut strips either side, more “Shrek’s forehead” than “Kermit’s belly” in cricket’s internationally recognised Pitch Greenness Scale™ . By August it will be paler, baked and cracked – you guessed it, “Yoda’s shin”. For now, though, the conditions suggest everything is in the fielding side’s favour. Rew taps his bat and blinks towards the bowler.