Essex and Leicestershire achieve landmark victories

Amidst all the Easter eggs and bunnies, the County Championship launched its 2023 season with some fascinating contests up and down the land. Anticipating a serious outbreak of Bazball, batting sides now have to score more heavily to secure bonus points and there is less incentive to settle for a draw. Is it working? 

Well, in Division One, not a single side secured the maximum batting points! Essex achieved a rare victory at Lord’s but it was a rollercoaster affair. Dan Lawrence’s hundred eased Essex to 199-3 before Toby Roland-Jones ripped through the lower order with 7-61. In reply, each of Middlesex’s top four were dismissed for ducks and 127 out of a total of 170 came solely from the Higgins/Simpson partnership. Jamie Porter and Sam Cook ensured the home team fell well short of their second-innings target. 

It was another low-scoring affair at Canterbury, where Northamptonshire needed a Rob Keogh century to take the game into a fourth day and an outside chance of victory. It was not to be; Ben Compton’s 114 not out eased Kent to a seven-wicket triumph. Hampshire’s margin over Nottinghamshire was even greater (8 wickets) at Southampton, Mohammad Abbas claiming nine wickets. 

The other two fixtures were drawn. After a day one washout, Somerset struggled at home against Warwickshire, whose tons by Alex Davies and Sam Hain ensured a healthy lead. However, their attack failed to capture more than six wickets on the final day. Surrey also had the upper hand in Lancashire, led by batters Cameron Steel and Ben Foakes. Set a 444 target, Josh Bohannon’s 108 and a gritty 56 from Steven Croft frustrated the Surrey bowlers and even Ollie Pope was given an (expensive) over. 

After their last-gasp relegation in 2022, Yorkshire began their new campaign with defeat to Leicestershire. At least there were plenty of runs. Finlay Bean and Dawid Malan reached three figures to take their first innings total beyond 500 and the home county felt confident enough to set Leicester 389 to win in less than a day. They regretted it. Rishi Patel’s maiden ton (125), another strong performance by Peter Handscomb and a late flurry of Chris Wright boundaries saw Leicestershire to an historic win with just seven balls to spare. It was their first Championship success at Headigley since 1910! 

It was an even tighter affair at Hove, where Sussex eked out a two-wicket victory over Durham. Skipper Pujara’s first-innings 115 and Fynn Hudson-Prentice’s 4-27 ultimately proved the difference. Worcestershire were more decisive at Derby, winning by eight wickets, all-rounder Matthew Waite the star. At Cardiff, Timm van der Gugten’s 5-26 and centuries from Carlsen and Root put Glamorgan in a commanding position only for Marcus Harris (148) and Graeme van Buuren (110 not out) to turn the tables leaving a draw the only outcome, even if it only came with a five-point reward! 

Team of the Week:-  Harris (Glo), Libby (Wor), Pujara (Sus), Steel (Sur), B Root (Gla), Handscomb (Lei +), Waite (Wor), Roland-Jones (Mid), Z Chappell (Lei), Mohammad Abbas (Ham), Porter (Ess)

Somerset Take Surrey Revenge

In May, Surrey ended Somerset’s unbeaten start in the Championship, albeit with a draw. This week in the reverse fixture, Somerset took revenge at Guildford with

a 102-run victory. In a low-scoring match, George Bartlett’s 137 seems mighty
impressive, while Craig Overton (5-38 in the first innings) and Jack Brooks
(5-33 in the second) made the champs’ star-studded line-up look weak indeed.
Success at Kent next week will set my heart a-fluttering, albeit with three months
to go.

Yorkshire needed a win to go second but a soggy Headingley prevented any chance of a
positive result against Essex. It was also tough on Gary Ballance who was unbeaten
on 51 when play ended early in the afternoon within reach of a century in each
of his five Championship fixtures. Dom Bess’ loan from Somerset bore fruit with
an unbeaten 91 and three wickets but all in vain.

Bottom clubs Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire met at Edgbaston and the home team
dominated the first three days. Adam Hose struck his maiden first-class ton and
Jeetan Patel claimed 6-16 before Ben Duckett and Chris Nash shared a stand of 199
to save Notts’ bacon. With all counties having played five, they’re still in
the relegation spot, though. Next up are Hampshire at home.

But who will replace them? Lancashire remained in pole position despite being held
to a draw by a resilient Leicestershire. Liam Livingstone followed his 114 with
a 36-over bowling stint on the final day which conceded a meagre 40 runs but
the wickets stubbornly refused to fall.

On paper, Derbyshire appeared to have a nailed-on points bonanza at
Chester-le-Street. In the event, struggling Durham made an exciting fight of
it. Matt Critchley’s runs and Ravi Rampaul’s wickets seemed to have put Derby
in the driving seat but when Alex Lees carried his bat for 107 Durham were back
in the hunt. On the final day, Chris Rushworth and Ben Raine took charge and
the county scrambled their first success of the summer by just 29 runs.

If you’d said Glamorgan would be runners-up in June, I would probably have
laughed. Yet that’s exactly where they sit after an innings victory over
Northants. Billy Root’s 229 was easily the highest individual score of the week,
‘keeper Tom Cullen contributed runs and seven catches, and Michael Hogan was
back in his old mean form with the ball. Heady days!

Sussex advanced to third, giving Middlesex a bloody nose at Lord’s. Stiaan van der Zyl
spent more than seven hours at the crease and Ben Brown made another century as
the South Coasters opened up a massive first innings lead. James Harris and
John Simpson showed more resistance second time around but Ollie Robinson finished
on 7-98 to cause the Londoners more problems. Amazingly Malan’s team are a
pathetic eighth and need wins against Leicestershire and Glamorgan to get a
promotion challenge underway. Lancashire next meet Worcestershire, whom they defeated
quite easily just a fortnight ago.

Team of the Week: Lees (Dur), Duckett (Not), Van Zyl (Sus), Root (Gla), Bartlett (Som),
Brown (Sus +), Critchley (Der), C Overton (Som), Patel (War), Robinson (Sus),
Hogan (Gla)

Leach spins Somerset to the top

At Trent Bridge it was not so much a game of two halves as one of three thirds. After inserting Nottinghamshire on the opening morning, Somerset let the seamers do some damage, with Lewis Gregory (6-68) in particular maintaining his April form. The visitors could have suffered the same fate were it not for a double-century partnership between Tom Abell and George Bartlett before Broad polished off the tail. On the third day, new signing Jack Brooks chipped in with 4-22 but it was spinner Jack Leach whose six-for wrapped up a maximum-point victory, hoisting Somerset to the summit of Division One., just as the month break for the One-Day Cup kicks in. Ho-hum…

Last week’s leaders Hampshire returned to Earth with a brutal bump. They were beaten by an innings on home turf by Yorkshire, for whom Gary Ballance and Joe Root were again in the runs. Leaning and Tattersall extended the total to an impressive 554-7 declared. In reply, Sam Northeast fell one short of a second successive century and Liam Dawson followed his 60-over bowling stint with two fifties but Patterson and Coad wrecked Hampshire’s attempt at rescuing the match.

Kent also racked up 500+ and enforced the follow-on against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Zak Crawley and 20 year-old stand-in ‘keeper Ollie Robinson each reached three figures, as did the home side’s opener Dominic Sibley whose 132 was his fifth hundred in consecutive first-class fixtures. The second innings was heading for a disaster until Tim Ambrose and teenager Henry Brookes put on 141 for the eighth wicket and forced Kent to bat again to clinch the win.

The last two champions, Surrey and Essex, played out an evenly-matched draw at The Oval. The Londoners’ big guns all garnered some runs but Essex relied heavily on Dan Lawrence and skipper Ryan Ten Doeschate to compete in the first innings.

In Division Two, Worcestershire opened their account with a handsome victory at Leicester. Mitchell, Rutherford and Cox all scored centuries in a total of 553-6 but Leicestershire found it tough to emulate them. Charlie Morris claimed a career-best 7-45 and applied the coup-de-grace on the final morning with Paul Horton’s men still eighteen adrift.

Meanwhile, Sussex consigned Durham to a second successive defeat in a low-scoring contest at Chester-le-Street. All was fairly even-Stevens until Stiaan van Zyl held his nerve in the second innings, just managing to make a century as Sussex won by six wickets. Two of the favourites for promotion met at Lord’s and it was Lancashire who prevailed easily. After two miserable seasons, Haseeb Hameed finally struck a first-class hundred, but it was Glenn Maxwell’s off-breaks which proved decisive on day four.

The Cardiff pitch came in for justified criticism as it was a terribly one-sided affair. Batsmen filled their boots – six striking tons – and Northamptonshire piled on 750, the highest score ever seen at Sophia Gardens, spanning 227 tedious overs. Northants opener Ricardo Vasconcelos top-scored with 184 while for Glamorgan Billy Root achieved his maiden hundred for his new county, out-performing his brother Joe for a change. Mind you my dear departed grandmother could probably have driven a few boundaries on such a batting track!

To be honest, there weren’t many more wickets falling at Bristol although there were no records broken. The final day saw Derbyshire aggregate almost 300 runs for the loss of just one wicket, as Wayne Madsen cruised to a double, and Alex Hughes 109 not out. The result with Gloucestershire may have been a tame draw but it does place Derbyshire top of the table as we head into one-day territory. Enjoy it while it lasts, lads!

Team of the Week: Vasconcelos (Nor), Hameed (Lan), Ballance (Yor), Madsen (Der), Van Zyl (Sus), Robinson (Ken +), Gregory (Som), Wiese (Sus), Morris (Wor), Murtagh (Mid), Leach (Som)

Middlesex lose the four-way relegation battle

In a dramatic final week of County Championship action, the battle to avoid the drop went to the wire. In 2016, Yorkshire, Somerset and Middlesex went into the final day of the season with a chance of the title. This year, all were at the other end of the table playing for their Division One lives.

At Chelmsford, the White Roses scraped a mere three bowling bonus points and couldn’t even muster 200 runs in total as champions Essex were merciless with the ball. Simon Harmer and Jamie Porter each claimed five victims and ended as the division’s top wicket takers, while their county ended the season unbeaten and with twice as many wins as their nearest rivals. You can’t say Essex didn’t deserve to be champions!

So, with a day remaining, Yorkshire were stuck on 148 points. Somerset were in the driving seat against Middlesex but unable to top 147, while Hampshire were facing defeat at relegated Warwickshire. As a Somerset fan I was mightily relieved when a combination of a rare James Hildreth century and brilliant bowling by Jack Leach dealt Middlesex a fatal blow. We were safe, finishing a single point ahead of the Lords brigade. All Middlesex could do was anxiously track Hampshire’s second innings travails at Edgbaston. In the end, they managed to block and nudge throughout the day to secure the draw they needed, reach 148 points and consign the champions to Division Two status next summer. Phew!

In the other game, Lancashire inflicted only the second defeat of the summer on Surrey. Incredibly the latter finished third despite winning only twice. The reason was the mountain of runs provided by Kumar Sangakkara, Mark Stoneman and Rory Burns but for some reason they frequently failed to bowl sides out twice.

In Division Two, Worcestershire beat Durham by 137 runs to top the table. Daryl Mitchell produced his seventh century of the summer then Ravi Ashwin rounded off his brief spell at New Road with a five-for to take the title. Predictably, Northamptonshire came back from Leicester with a ninth victory. Sanderson and Gleeson nabbed fifteen wickets between them, and opener Luke Procter accumulated 176 runs – more than anyone else this week – but still it wasn’t enough to overhaul second-placed Nottinghamshire.

Hove was the only venue this week where batsmen were mainly on top. Sussex plundered 565 first innings runs and Notts replied with 477. Michael Burgess’ inaugural three-figure score and Chris Jordan’s 147 led the way for the home team, but Billy Root and Chris Read – in his last ever match – responded with centuries of their own. Neither county could win from that situation and so the ever-popular Read could retire with a promotion and a five-point cushion. It was a bitter-sweet outcome for Northants whose five-point deduction for a slow over-rate in the recent contest with (ironically) Notts ultimately cost them dear. Northamptonshire’s poor batting also let them down.

Elsewhere, Michael Hogan finished the season impressively with ten wickets, taking him above 500  in a long first-class career, in Glamorgan’s triumph over Kent at Canterbury. Derbyshire also made hay on their travels, beating an unfamiliar Gloucestershire outfit by five wickets. They needed centuries by Madsen and Hughes and some declaration bowling, but a win’s a win.

And, to summarise, final congratulations to skipper Ryan Ten Doeschate and coach Chris Silverwood for steering Essex to such an impressive Championship campaign. Nottinghamshire enjoyed a fruitful summer, too. As for my predictions back in April, they were mostly wildly adrift as usual. Only my tip for Worcestershire to go up proved correct and, fortunately, my pessimism for Somerset’s prospects proved unfounded, but it was touch and go. Watch out for my forthcoming County Team of The Year review!

Final Team of the Week: Wells (Sus), Procter (Nor), Denly (Ken), Hildreth (Som), W Root (Not), Burgess (Sus +), Jordan (Sus), R Patel (Mid), Harmer (Ess), Leach (Som), Hogan (Gla)