Week 7 Rothesay County Championship Review

Championship cricket on Sky this week

With the halt in the IPL, Sky viewers were given some Championship cricket this week, the match between Surrey and Yorkshire being the game to feature. It was one of eight matches to end in a positive result and five matches were completed inside three days. The fact that bowlers seem to have the edge over batters, despite weather that would be thought to favour the latter, perhaps indicates the further erosion of batters’ ability to dig in and bat long. In seven of the nine games the captain winning the toss elected to bowl, again suggesting that they do not have faith in their team putting up a big first innings score.

While Division One leaders Nottinghamshire slipped up this week, Leicestershire in Division Two continued on their promotion bid with their fourth win of the season, their seam attack having the ability to brush aside the opposition batters.

Nottinghamshire suffered their first loss of the campaign, allowing Durham to register their second win. Haseeb Hameed continued his fine start to the season, his double century helping Notts to a first innings total of 407, having been asked to bat first. Codi Yusuf took 4/99, the South African signed by Durham for six Championship matches and the T20 Blast group stages. Brydon Carse was back in the Durham side following his toe injury, and took 3/64. In reply, Durham then amassed 664 thanks to centuries from Emilio Gay, Ollie Robinson and Graham Clark. Liam Patterson-White bowled 50 overs of left arm spin, taking 5/179. It was then a matter of whether Notts could bat long enough to thwart Durham. 119 from Joe Clark and 74 from Ben Slater helped take them to 347, leaving Durham needing 91 from 18 overs. Mohammad Abbas removed Gay and Ben McKinney for ducks, but Colin Ackerman saw Durham home with an unbeaten 53 and 10 balls to spare.

Warwickshire sat in second place going into this round of matches, but lost by 89 runs to a Hampshire side who bounced back from their loss to Notts last week. Hampshire were one of the two sides to choose to bat first, presumably based on the fact Edgbaston has been gaining reputation as a bowler’s graveyard, and went on to post 300. James Fuller was the only batter to reach 50, Ed Barnard taking 4/56. Kyle Abbott, as so often, then made life uncomfortable for the Bears’ batters, as they were dismissed for 194, Barnard top-scoring with 58; Abbott finishing with 5/47. Warwickshire then fought back through the bowling of Ethan Bamber (4/60) and Beau Webster (4/57), as Hampshire were restricted to 203, Fletcha Middleton making 76. Bamber has made an excellent start to his Warwickshire career, so far having taken 22 wickets in six matches. This left Warwickshire needing 310, but Abbott struck early, removing Rob Yates and Tom Latham with just 10 runs on the board. Alex Davies (66) put on 68 with Sam Hain (30) and Bamber completed another strong game, scoring 43, but wickets kept falling and the match finished shortly after tea on day three, the Bears all out for 220. Fuller ended with 5/56 and Abbott 3/44, the win moving Hampshire up to fourth place.

Surrey registered their second win, defeating Yorkshire by an innings and 28 runs. Yorkshire were asked to bat first at The Oval, and three wickets each from Tom Lawes and Jordan Clarke, meant they were dismissed for 255. Jonny Bairstow (89) posted his fourth half century of the season, and Adam Lyth made 55. In reply, Kurtis Patterson, who was included in the Surrey side this week, replacing Cameron Steel, led the way with 85, while discarded England keeper, Ben Foakes made 86, as Surrey posted 512. Foakes currently leads the Surrey run scoring with 519 runs at 86.5. George Hill took 5/66, his second fifer in as many games. Second time around the Yorkshire batting again struggled, only James Wharton (67) and Bairstow (77) making any significant contribution, as they were dismissed for 229. Clarke and Lawes were again the main destroyers with four and three wickets respectively. The win moved Surrey up into second place, and the other counties will be wondering whether normal service has resumed at the Oval.

Somerset were another side to move up the table this week, beating Sussex by five wickets. This is the second win in as many weeks, but all is not well at Taunton, perhaps highlighted by Lewis Gregory and Josh Davey walking out to open the batting, after Sussex skipper, John Simpson had put them in. However, at 79/2 the experiment might have been deemed a success. Archie Vaughan top-scored with 80, and 60 from Tom Lammonby contributed to a final total of 338, the highest since their 670 in the first game. That total was based on 371 from Tom Banton, but he has managed just 86 runs from eight innings since then. Nathan McAndrew took 4/71, in his first game for Sussex this season, having replaced Jayden Seales. Sussex were then bowled out for just 152, Craig Overton and Migael Pretorius taking three wickets each, and the follow on was enforced. John Simpson has instilled a fighting mentality in the Sussex side since he took over the captaincy, and he led the way with 80 as Sussex reached 335 in their second innings. This was following a century opening stand between Tom Haines (50) and Daniel Hughes (40), and a middle order collapse where five wickets fell for 29 runs. Jack Leach with 4/51 and Craig Overton with 3/90 were the main wicket takers. This left Somerset needing 150 runs, and they were indebted to Gregory’s 89 not out, having again opened the batting with Davey. The win sees Somerset clear of the relegation zone, just two points behind Sussex.

There was a ray of sunshine at New Road this week as Worcestershire enjoyed their first win of the season, seeing off Essex inside three days. Put into bat, runs from Kashif Ali (46), Rob Jones (54), Matthew Waite (73) and Tom Taylor (43) helped the Pears to 358, Shane Snater taking 4/78. This was the first time they had scored batting bonus points this season, and only their third innings score of over 300. In reply, Essex could only muster 157, Robin Das, in his second game of the season, top-scoring with 44. Essex were missing Jordan Cox, out with an abdominal injury and Paul Walter with a hamstring problem. Worcestershire did not enforce the follow on, and then struggled against the pace duo of Shane Snater (3/45) and Jamie Porter (3/30), alongside 4/37 from Simon Harmer. They were bowled out for 134, leaving Essex requiring 336, a target that ended up being well beyond them. Six wickets for just 19 runs from Matthew Waite helped dismiss them for 110, to give Worcestershire the win by 225 runs.

Division Two leaders Leicestershire continued their demolition of everything in their path as they saw off Middlesex at Lord’s. It was again their seam attack, led by the Division’s leading wicket taker Ian Holland, that held sway, and having taken the last six MIddlesex second innings wickets in the afternoon session of day three, were left needing to score just 102.

Middlesex were asked to bat first, and Holland immediately had the home side in trouble at 19/3. He went on to take 5/35 as the home side could only manage 232, Ryan Higgins and Jack Davies, both making fourties. The Foxes were then held in check by some good bowling from the Middlesex seamers, led by Toby Roland-Jones, along with four wickets from Zafar Gohar. Peter Handscomb made 87, but things could have been better for Middlesex if Handscomb had been successfully stumped when on 54. Leicestershire reached 274 and then exposed the batting frailties of Middlesex, bowling them out for just 143, three wickets-a-piece for Logan van Beek and Ben Green. The target of 102, was reached for the loss of three wickets.

Jimmy Anderson’s first appearance of the season drew attention to the game between Lancashire and second-placed Derbyshire at Old Trafford, but it was the visitors who chose to bowl first. Luke Wells led the way for Lancashire, as his 144 set the stage for a total of 458. George Balderson made 73, while there were half centuries from Matty Hurst and George Bell. In reply, all the Derbyshire batters made starts, but only Brooke Guest (77) passed fifty. They were grateful to a 68 run ninth wicket partnership between Zak Chappell and Ben Aitchison, Aitchison finishing on 45, his dismissal giving Tom Hartley his third wicket. Anderson was used sparingly, but took the first two wickets to fall, and one late on. Derbyshire finished on 314, avoiding the follow on and then half centuries from Luke Wells and Hurst saw Lancashire to 184/7 declared, leaving Derbyshire a tempting target of 328 from 88 overs. They reached 165/5 at tea, 63 from Harry Came the main contribution, but the equation was then 163 runs from 39 overs and it became a battle to hold on for the draw. The heroes were Anuj Dal, who faced 114 balls for 13 not out, and Jack Morley, who was unbeaten on nought from 36 balls. The game ended with Derbyshire on 220/8.

After a very disappointing first three games, losing two of them, Glamorgan seemed to have turned things around, this week defeating Northamptonshire by eight wickets. Glamorgan established a 239 run first innings lead, thanks to 95 from Ben Kellaway and half centuries by Sam Northeast and Kiran Carlson. Having chosen to bat first, Northants were bowled out for 185, Luke Procter’s 61 the only significant score, Asitha Fernando and Andy Gorvin taking three wickets each. At the end of day two, Glamorgan had time to take three more Northants wickets, and the expectation was for an early finish on day three. However some gutsy batting from Procter (56), Saif Zaib (71) and Lewis McManus (66) allowed Northants to reach 304, leaving Glamorgan needing 66. 12 overs remained in the regulation day’s play, and two wickets from Ben Sanderson had Glamorgan at 6/2, Marnus Labuschagne making just four, to go with his duck in the first innings. Sam Northeast joined Asa Tribe and they saw Glamorgan home, the umpires extending the day’s play by eight overs. Glamorgan occupied bottom spot after week five, but have now moved up to third.

Gloucestershire registered their first win of the campaign and the first home win for three seasons in Bristol. The visitors, Kent had been asked to bat first and thanks to a career best of 182 from Grant Stewart, posted 424. His runs came off just 189 balls and he rescued Kent from 137/6, putting on 264 for the seventh wicket with Chris Benjamin (93). Gloucestershire pace man, Ajeet Singh Dale took a career best 7/110. Centuries from Cameron Green and James Bracey then saw the Shire to 516 and a 92 run lead. Second time around, Benjamin top-scored for Kent with 58, but they only managed 253, Ben Charlesworth wrapping up the tail with a spell of 3/5. Needing 162 for the win, it was not all plain sailing for Gloucestershire as they were reduced to 57/4, but Green steadied the ship and his 67 not out saw them home with three wickets to spare, Nathan Gilchrist taking 4/43. This was Kent’s third successive defeat and sees them down in sixth place.

The sleeping giant that was Surrey early season, seems to have awoken and they are now just three points behind Notts. However, with seventh placed Somerset only trailing Notts by 24 points, plenty of sides will still see themselves as contenders.

In Division Two Leicestershire are now 30 points clear of second placed Derbyshire and look strong favourites to go up. The only issue may be how muted their attack might be by the upcoming use of the Kookaburra ball and late season pitches. There looks like being a keen battle for the second promotion spot, with Glamorgan and Gloucestershire closing on Derbyshire. Meanwhile Lancashire are still looking for their first win of the season.

Standings

Division One

Division Two