Wednesday, 24 May 2017

Cook and Porter steer Essex into Pole position

In a week when the Mumbai Indians fashioned an unlikely one-run triumph in the IPL final it was Essex who made longer-form cricket appear relatively easy in England.

Not only did they top their Royal London Cup group, thus advancing directly to the semi-finals, but their innings victory over Hampshire also took them to the top of the County Championship. Alastair Cook scored another century, while Jamie Porter’s 5-24 wrecked Hampshire’s first innings, from which they couldn’t recover. The newly-promoted side are beginning to look like potential 2017 champions, although the real test will come when Cook is absent later in the summer.

The Roses clash ended as a draw, with Handscomb, Leaning and Chanderpaul trading hundreds. Jack Brooks was a more unlikely centurion, doubling his previous best score, but he took only one wicket. Jimmy Anderson’s injury scare not only blunted Lancashire’s attack but also could weaken England’s cause in the forthcoming Test series.

The other local derby, Surrey’s trip across the Thames to Middlesex, was also inconclusive. The home team’s James Franklin was in cracking all-round form, but Kumar Sangakkara produced centuries in each innings, taking his first-class career tally to sixty. It seems a shame that the Sri Lankan legend has since announced his retirement from the red-ball game when he is stroking the leather around as fluently as ever.

Marcus Trescothick is two years older, but he signalled his determination to serve the Somerset four-day cause for a bit longer by scoring his sixtieth hundred for his county, taking him past Harold Gimblett’s long-standing record. Earlier in the week, he also passed the 25,000-run landmark in all first-class cricket, an achievement which I am sure will become extremely rare in the future. He was unable to help Somerset beat Warwickshire, though. Another ex-England star with a mental illness, Jonathan Trott, trumped him with a first-innings 175, and the Midlanders may well have taken the sixteen points for victory had the first two days at Taunton seen more play.

This weekend, eyes will focus on the clash between first and second, as Essex host Surrey at Chelmsford, which should be a cracker if the weather doesn’t break on Sunday.

Worcestershire made it three wins out of three in Division Two, giving Derbyshire a real hiding on their home turf. Daryl Mitchell and Brett D’Oliveira shared an opening stand of 243, but it was Joe Leach’s second-innings 5-32 which proved most decisive.

Nottinghamshire remain top of the table and could have opened up a significant lead had Glamorgan’s Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke not combined to thwart Broad, Patel et al throughout the entire final day. Indeed, the Cardiff outfit looked doomed when forced to follow on, but the in-form Ingram rose to the occasion yet again.

Another man who constantly delivers the goods for his county is Darren Stevens. After rain messed up days one and two, and Leicestershire racked up 420 all out, he thrashed a rapid 100 for Kent but there was insufficient time to find a way of generating a positive result, leaving Kent in second spot.

The highest scores of the week, both team and individual, were seen at Hove. Durham scrambled their way to 287 then on Saturday, Luke Wells and Stiaan van Zyl put on a whopping 376 for the third wicket. Wells alone scored a career-best 258, the highest score of the season to date, including 34 fours and seven sixes. Jofra Archer and Vernon Philander also enjoyed a powerful partnership, taking fourteen wickets between them, and Durham couldn’t quite bat out the final day.

All ten counties in Division Two are in action on Bank Holiday weekend. The most interesting may well be the traditional Tunbridge Wells encounter between Kent and Sussex, and Nottinghamshire versus Gloucestershire.

Team of the Week: Trescothick (Som), Mitchell (Wor), L Wells (Sus), Sangakkara (Sur), Ingram (Gla), Wessels (Not +), Franklin (Mid), Leach (Wor), Abbott (Ham), Archer (Sus), Porter (Ess)