While England were giving Pakistan a hiding in Test cricket, the remaining county players were involved in a week of the white ball stuff. Most sides played a couple of Royal London Cup group fixtures before a Friday night of T20 Blast.
Yorkshire are top of the North group in the 50-over competition and heading for the Blast quarter-finals, too. Travis Head and Jack Leaning shared a county record stand of 274 against Leicestershire the young Aussie left-hander making 175 in 139 balls. Leaning also thrashed a 29-ball 64 against Northants later in the week. If the specialists didn’t make the runs, then the likes of Tim Bresnan stepped up to the mark.
Jesse Ryder starred with the bat for Essex, who lead the South division with Somerset. The latter won both their games, gaining revenge for recent defeats at the hands of Middlesex. Peter Trego doesn’t bowl much these days but against the Londoners, he followed a century with a useful 2-27. A shame Somerset are struggling so badly in the Blast. With no chance of qualifying for the knockouts, they fielded a very unfamiliar team against Hampshire and received a sound beating. Liam Dawson took 5-17.
Northants had a mixed week. Lying second in the Blast North division, they welcomed back Ben Duckett after his prolific one-day performances for the England Lions. He didn’t score any more centuries but contributed quite a few runs to the cause. Instead, Richard Keogh struck 134 in 110 balls in the win over Durham.
There were other ton-makers, too. Sam Hain also hit 107 for Warwickshire (against Durham again), while Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Worcs), Paul Stirling and, in a rare outing, Eoin Morgan for Middlesex, Riki Wessels (Notts) and Joe Denly (Kent) also got in the act. Surrey’s opener Jason Roy hit the highest T20 score of the week – a 62-ball 120 against Kent – but special plaudits go Colin Ingram’s way. He reached three figures in each format for Glamorgan, although sadly his 101 off the Essex attack was in vain. The Welsh side endured two no-results, although they were already guaranteed a place in the quarters.
Bowlers pitched in, too. In addition to Dawson, there were five-fors from Gareth Batty, Rikki Clarke and the Northants pair Azharullah and Gleeson. Kent’s Matt Coles was recalled and nabbed six Hampshire wickets, albeit for 56 runs.
So what next in the Blast? For all Roy’s heroics this week, and Surrey’s encouragingly large crowds this summer, the county narrowly failed to qualify, edged out by Essex whose last game was abandoned thanks to rain. In a few weeks’ time, Essex now face a trip to Trent Bridge, where the Notts batsmen have been in fine form this year. Northants will host Middlesex, Gloucestershire play Durham, while Glamorgan will welcome Yorkshire to Sophia Gardens. That could be a real cracker, especially if Ingram and Head come – er - head to head.
Team of the Week: Roy (Sur), Hain (War), Head (Yor), Leaning (Yor), Ingram (Gla), Trego (Som), Ambrose (War +), McLaren (Ham), Bresnan (Yor), Coles (Ken), Gleeson (Nor)
