Northamptonshire
remain third after drawing at home to Gloucestershire and Leicestershire still
haven’t won all season. They drew against Durham, for whom young opener Cameron
Steel whipped up a top score of 224 and Tom Latham contributed 124. Had the
match lasted a full four days, I doubt whether the home team would have avoided
defeat. After notching a few wins in 2016, the look back to their old feeble selves.
In the top
flight, the weather helped the seamers no end, with a couple of low-scoring
results. Essex are now hot favourites to win the title in their first season
back in Division One, thumping Yorkshire by eight wickets at Scarborough.
Mohammad Amir claimed two five-fors and career-best match figures of 10-72,
while Jamie Porter took 7-85. The Pakistan left-armer has been just the fillip Essex needed to push on for the Championship pennant. At the other end of the table, Warwickshire are finally off the mark having seen
off Middlesex by 180 runs. Their all-rounders Keith Barker and the returning
Chris Woakes were heavily involved. England, too, were particularly thankful to
see Woakes back from injury and looking good.
Poor weather
prevented any positive outcomes at Southampton and Taunton. I was at Somerset’s
County Ground for the first time in ages on Monday and, before the heavens
opened during the tea interval, was rewarded by some excellent strokeplay from
Tom Abell (96) and, against his former county, Steven Davies (142). In the
afternoon, they made the Curran brothers look very ordinary indeed. The
following day, Surrey's Mark Stoneman’s 50 ensured his call-up to England did not look
misplaced.
In the
shorter stuff, Notts are also top of the North group, thanks to their defeat of
closest rivals Warwickshire. Samit Patel’s unbeaten 78 was the decisive factor.
In his favoured format, Hales was out first ball! Yesterday, Glamorgan guaranteed progress to
the quarter-finals. They went to Taunton and beat Somerset by just one run.
With just eight runs required, Peter Trego couldn’t quite find the boundaries he
wanted and so the Cidermen slip out of the top three. Essex have leapt from
bottom to third inside a week but are three points behind second-placed
Hampshire who enjoyed an easy win over Glamorgan.
T20 stars of
the week must be Yorkshire skipper Tim Bresnan, who took a stunning 6-19, and Surrey’s
Aaron Finch, whose century against Sussex included 30 off one Wiese over.
The next week
will decide who finishes in the top four of each group, and the race to Finals
Day gathers momentum. Nottinghamshire’s form in red and white-ball cricket must
surely give them an edge. But of course in T20, anything can happen…
Team of the
Week: Steel (Dur), Latham (Dur), Nash (Sus), Hales (Not), Davies (Som +),
Woakes (War), Barnard (Wor), Hutton (Der), Bresnan (Yor), Jarvis (Lan),
Mohammad Amir (Ess)
