It was an
impressive week for Worcestershire. They also moved off the bottom of the
Championship Division One with an innings thrashing of Yorkshire at
Scarborough, where for some reason the home side always seem to struggle. Moeen
Ali struck 219 and Daryl Mitchell 178, comfortably the highest individual
scores of the week. Moeen also weighed in with eight wickets.
On the fourth
afternoon, my eyes rarely strayed from the online score updates as Somerset and
Surrey battled to bowl out their respective opposition. At Taunton, the home
team clinched victory against Essex in mid-afternoon. Jack Leach twirled
unchanged for 32 overs and finished on 8-85, easily out-bowling his England
spin colleague Dom Bess. Sadly for me and the Westcountrymen, Lancashire couldn’t
quite hold on against a rampant Morne Morkel. Surrey edged it by a paltry six
runs and must be odds-on to win, consigning Somerset to another bloody
runners-up spot. Lancs’ loss leaves them bottom.
In the other
game Hampshire attained a vital victory over third-placed Nottinghamshire.
James Vince timed his 74 and 147 to perfection given the England Test squad announcement,
while overseas pacemen Kyle Abbott and Fidel Edwards did most of the bowling
damage.
In Division
Two, it’s a much tighter situation at the top. Warwickshire despatched
Gloucestershire inside two days. Rhodes and Sibley shared a 165-run stand while
the visitors’ batsmen struggled horribly, not the first time this summer.
Meanwhile at Hove, Sussex stayed within four points of the leaders with a
243-run success against Derbyshire, while Kent achieved their sixth win of the
season at Leicester with major contributions by Sean Dickson and paceman Ivan
Thomas.
Glamorgan’s dismal
disarray continued, suffering another humbling innings defeat, this time at the
hands of Durham. Had it not been for rain, the misery would have been complete
inside two days. Captain Hogan and coach Croft can’t take all the blame; the batting
has been awful recently. The Welsh side are now 14 points adrift at the foot of
the table, behind Northamptonshire, who lost to Middlesex despite a maiden
century by young ‘keeper Ricardo Vasconcelos.
It’s back to
first-class cricket later this week. Surrey will surely notch victory number
eight at home to Notts, while Somerset head to Headingley to keep in touch.
Lancashire’s fixture against Worcestershire has a relegation battle writ large
over the Southport sands. Warwickshire also travel to the seaside, facing a
despondent Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay while close rivals Sussex nip up the M23 to
Lord’s for some late-August fun in the sun.
Team of the
Week:
Mitchell (Wor),
Dickson (Ken), Moeen Ali (Wor), Vince (Ham), Vasconselos (Nor +), Gregory (Som),
Harris (Mid), Abbott (Ham), Leach (Som), Morkel (Sur), Rushworth (Dur)
