Just for a change, I’ll start my weekly review of the county cricket action at the foot of Division Two. The reason is that Leicestershire have finally won a Championship match for the first time since September 2012. When Lewis Hill nudged the single which took them past Essex’s target, you’d think they’d won the World Cup! Maybe now the hoodoo is broken, they can kick on. They actually have some decent players. Unfortunately, the team they beat at Chelmsford are looking very weak. The top order can’t score and without Topley and Masters the young Essex attack lacks experience.
The top two played out a boring draw on a bat-friendly Oval pitch. There were centuries for Jason Roy, Rory Burns and, for the first time, James Faulkner but only two runs for the returning Kevin Pietersen. Surrey narrowed the gap behind Lancashire by just one point, but Glamorgan are now only eight points adrift of second place after defeating Northants by ten wickets. Craig Meschede’s 107 and 3-19 made the difference.
At Derby, Jack Taylor struck his debut hundred for Gloucestershire then after a couple of last morning declarations, his miserly 2-19 almost secured victory over a second-rate Derbyshire. Dilshan has yet to produce the killer innings and only Billy Godleman and Shiv Thakor exceeded 20 in the second innings. However, Gloucester could take only eight wickets and a draw ensued.
In the top tier, Middlesex leapfrogged Durham despite drawing with Warwickshire, but Nottinghamshire enjoyed a victory over a promising Sussex side. Despite poor weather, it was all over inside three days, and there were several performances to savour. Pity Steve Magoffin: 12 wickets yet finished on the losing side. Former Notts favourite Bruce French has a new family star. His nephew Jake Ball took 9-67 in total, Samit Patel hit 100 but teenager Luke Wood fared even better. With Notts reeling at 98-7, he surprised everyone by thumping exactly 100 in 96 balls. Allied to five wickets, he did more than anyone to ensure his county escaped the relegation zone.
In the other match, Hampshire dug themselves out of the mire on day 4 to avoid losing against fellow strugglers Worcestershire, for whom captain Daryl Mitchell hit an unbeaten 142.
It may not have been a vintage week in the Championship but last weekend, the NatWest Blast competition really came alive as some of the IPL superstars joined at the party. There’s no bigger name in T20 than Chris Gayle. Not only did he bring in thousands through the turnstiles at Chelmsford and Taunton but he also sent local residents - human and fish – scurrying and swimming to safety amidst a blitz of sixes. Against Essex, his 92 in 59 balls laid the foundation for a last-ball victory for Somerset. Then, facing a huge Kent total courtesy of Sam Northeast, he smashed an unbeaten 151 only to miss the target by just three runs! What would we do without him?! Hats off, too, to Paul Stirling and Dawid Malan, for giving Middlesex fans plenty to cheer about in the short format game, too. After three weeks, there are no clear favourites; almost every team has won at least one match. Only Kent – with four wins in five – have established some sort of winning sequence.
Team of the Week: Gayle (Som), Stirling (Mid), Northeast (Ken, *), Patel (Not), Watling (NZ), Roy (Sur), Ronchi (NZ, +), Raine (Lei), Wood (Not), Ball (Not), Magoffin (Sus)
