While the endless stream of sixes sailed into the stands in the England v NZ ODIs, runs were harder to come by in the County Championship and Nat West Blast.
In Division One, Durham owed much to Gordon Muchall for their defeat of Sussex. He contributed almost 200 runs while most of the top order struggled. Chris Rushworth took 6-49 in the first innings then, following Muchall’s lead, Hastings and Coughlin weighed in with valuable late runs to make Sussex’s job even harder. Luke Wells reached three figures, but it wasn’t enough.
Warwickshire kept in touch with Durham by slamming neighbours Worcestershire by an innings. Ian Bell enjoyed a rare run-out for his county, hitting 111, while Keith Barker combined an unbeaten 50 with seven wickets. At Taunton, Somerset looked down and out yet again after conceding a 200-run first innings deficit to Nottinghamshire. Surrounded by a ridiculously ageing team (what is going on in the new regime?), Tom Abell looked the most mature batsman of all while Abdur Rehman’s spin was completely outclassed by Notts’ 19 year-old debutant Matthew Carter who took 7-56. That’s the best first innings haul by a first-time slow bowler for eighty-odd years! Sadly for him, it was all in vain – as was Brendan Taylor’s opening 152 - as Somerset at last showed some resolve. Trescothick, Abell, Myburgh, Trego and Allenby each scored half-centuries to reach the 402 target with two wickets to spare. Phew! Had we lost that one, we really would be checking out the route to Leicester next year!
Lancashire continued their promotion procession with an innings defeat of Leicestershire at Old Trafford. Ashwell Prince added his fourth hundred of the season and Kyle Jarvis was the pick of a solid attack. Leicester spinner Jigar Naik claimed 8-179. Behind Lancashire, Glamorgan closed the gap on Surrey with a seven-wicket victory at leafy Guildford. The horrific T20 fielding collision which hospitalised Burns and Henriques allowed Arun Harinath to be promoted from the Surrey Seconds. He grasped his opportunity pretty well by scoring a century in each innings. Nevertheless, despite being useless at T20, Glammie bowler Graeme Wagg took 4-64 then struck 11 sixes in a score of 200, by far his best with the bat. He and Michael Hogan shared a century stand for the tenth wicket before Hoges produced another five-for to speed the Welsh club to their third win of the campaign. Alongside their two T20 wins, it’s been a good week for Glamorgan and their results are finally reflecting the quality of their squad.
Their was another innings triumph in Division Two, this time for bottom-placed Essex. Well, they’re up to sixth now after hammering Derbyshire. Alastair Cook top-scored with 80 while young James Porter helped himself to six cheap wickets. In his short first-class career he has taken 32 at barely 20 apiece!
In last weekend’s T20 fixtures, Gloucestershire’s Michael Klinger made identical three-figure scores – 104 – against Essex and Glamorgan while in the latter match, Jacques Rudolph also thrashed a ton. In Hampshire’s defeat of Kent, James Vince was stranded on 99 not out and they are now at the top of the South group with Kent.
Team of the Week: Harinath (Sur), Klinger (Glo), B Taylor (Not), Bell (War), Prince (Lan), Muchall (Dur), Wallace (Gla +), Wagg (Gla), Carter (Not), Naik (Lei), Hogan (Gla).
