1) Burns hot on the trail of a third pennant
Back for a final tranche of five matches, the Championship began its Act Three like it had never been away: some iffy weather, studied indifference from most of the media and Surrey cruising to an easy win at the Oval.
It looked a mismatch on paper, Lancashire’s callow youth against Surrey’s grizzled veterans, and so it proved, Rory Burns leading from the front with 227, supported by Ben Foakes’s 82 en route to 444 for nine declared. With the visitors’ top three (Keaton Jennings, Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon) back in the hutch with just 66 on the board (73 in the first dig), it was only a matter of time and so it proved.
That Conor McKerr, hitherto surplus to requirements in red ball cricket and recently loaned to Yorkshire, could slip into the XI and return six wickets for 68 runs alongside the ever reliable pace pair of Dan Worrall and Jordan Clark speaks volumes for the coaching and leadership at the Oval. Lancashire’s two debutants, Rocky Flintoff and Joshua Boyden, will have learned a lot about what it takes to play in Division One, even if that looks less and less likely for Lancashire next year.
2) To bat or not to bat …
Somerset lead the chasing pack after a weather-affected draw frustrated both sides at Edgbaston, Warwickshire needing points at the other end of the table.
Starting the fourth day 277 runs in front, five down, but with their captain Alex Davies already into three figures in the company of Dan Mousley, with Michael Burgess still to come, Warwickshire would have been looking for quick runs in order to set a target of 350 in 80 overs or so. But Jack Leach got among them with a fivefer and the tail found it hard to advance the score quickly, bowled out to set the title-chasers 369 in 68 overs.
Quite how to judge the balance of attack and defence in such a situation has become much trickier in the age of power-hitting and ultra-positive batting. When Davies was dismissed, Warwickshire had a lead of 316 with two recognised batters at the crease. The next 16 overs garnered 52 runs as the chances of either side winning receded and the draw became a strong favourite. Perhaps this season’s eight points on offer for a stalemate should go back down to five to discourage teams looking to bat the opposition out of the game first and win second, especially if the calendar is to stay as it is.
3) Hogg greedy for wickets
Durham welcomed Nottinghamshire to the Riverside knowing that a win for either county would yield a cushion of points above the relegation zone while condemning the other to hover a little longer above the doo-doo.
When Haseeb Hameed called correctly, he took the attacking option favoured by many captains these days and asked his bowlers to get on with the job of taking 20 wickets. Alex Lees (145), Ben McKinney (121) and Ashton Turner (114*) helped the home side pile up 531 for seven and Hameed must have taken a couple of deep breaths as the opener sought to repair the damage his call had invited.
Neil Wagner, the old warhorse, led the charge in the first innings, but the debutant Daniel Hogg, 19 years his junior with just a couple of second XI run outs and a brace of white-ball appearances, got the job done after the follow-on was imposed. He stepped into the breach caused by the Wagner’s unavailability to bowl and bagged seven for 66 from 25 overs. Dream debut is the cliche, but it’s not wrong.
4) Leach battles on in his mid-30s
Despite a heroic double hundred from the opener Tawanda Muyeye, who had set off with his team 276 behind on first innings, Kent slumped to a fifth consecutive defeat to leave them 34 points adrift at the foot of Division One. All is not lost with four matches to play, but red lights are flashing in Canterbury.
Sentiment will be very different at New Road after back-to-back wins, Brett D’Oliveira leading a very solid batting display with 97. The tone for the match was set by Joe Leach’s six for 52 on day one, which battered the visitors’ already bruised morale and set up Worcestershire’s march to victory. I was surprised to learn that the epitome of the county pro will turn 34 in October, but that’s a testimony to years of unobtrusive excellence from Leach that have yielded almost 500 first class wickets at a commendable average of below 27.
after newsletter promotion
With England looking beyond achievement in Championship cricket as a key criterion for selection in the bowling attack (probably rightly), it’s important to celebrate the likes of Leach, Ben Coad and Sam Cook, without whom our game would be much diminished.
5) White Rose in bloom
If the top flight is in danger of become a procession in September, Division Two may turn into a dogfight for the two promotion slots, as it often does. Sussex remain top after their first defeat since mid-May, but their vanquishers, Yorkshire, are just nine points behind in third and charging after three wins in a row.
It was a splendid match at Scarborough (another I regretted not making the effort to attend along with, I suspect, many others) with Tom Alsop and Daniel Hughes the only resistance to the home side’s relentless five-man attack in the first innings, all of whom picked up at least one wicket. With Shan Masood away playing for his country, the stand-in captain Jonny Tattersall received a similarly strong response from his batting unit, his reward a first-innings lead of 137. But Sussex are not table-toppers for nothing and, despite Ben “Betsy” Coad’s five-wicket haul, the visitors gave themselves a sniff of a victory to comfort the long trip home, setting the Tykes 103.
Yorkshire used two nightwatchmen, betraying nerves, but Adam Lyth stood firm until the finishing line was in sight. Jonny Bairstow’s duck after a first-innings half century didn’t matter and Sussex were left rueing the lack of 50 or so extra runs that would have made things very interesting by the seaside.
6) Middlesex in the middle
Middlesex are second, wedged between the Scarborough foes after a crucial win over Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylor’s, Northwood.
They got there with a final session chase of 111, Sam Robson crashing 10 fours off 33 balls, but the match belonged to his captain, Toby Roland-Jones. Aged 36, with his cruelly curtailed Test career seven years in the past, this classical English seamer still has a lot to offer, never really having much pace to lose, as his five for 49 and six for 58 off 42 overs can attest.
Middlesex, still in the backwash of financial problems (they don’t own Lord’s, remember) probably don’t have enough to sustain the promotion challenge all the way to the wire; it’s telling that Sussex are captained by John Simpson, their longserving wicketkeeper, but they’re giving it a helluva go. More power to them.