Durham’s Openers Streak into the One-Day Cup Semis

Durham ended the group stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup in fine style, winning all three fixtures this week. The first proved decisive, as the two-wicket defeat of closest rivals Essex ensured they topped the group and therefore sail straight into the semi-finals. 

Alex Lees struck a fine unbeaten 126 in that match, while fellow opener Graham Clark’s run-a-ball 141 did the job against Hampshire. He is easily the tournament’s top scorer so far, with Lees right behind him. Dutch all-rounder Paul Meekeren and the evergreen Chris Rushworth starred with the ball. Essex didn’t have a bad week either. Batsmen at very different stages of their career ere in prolific mood. Sir Alastair Cook reached three figures in the tied match against Sussex while the 22 year-old from Whipps Cross, Feroze Khushi enjoyed successive knocks of 109 and 77. Ryan Ten Doeschate also rolled back the years, taking 4-34 against Sussex, eighteen years after his county debut. 

Lancashire completed the week with the third highest points tally but, following their void fixture with Covid-hit Derbyshire, Gloucestershire progress with a fractionally superior points per match figure. Their comprehensive defeat of bottom-side Kent was aided by an unbeaten third-wicket stand between Chris Dent and Graeme van Buuren. However, the highest partnership of the week was the 219 shared by Sussex pair Ben Brown and Tom Haines in the entertaining contest with Middlesex at Hove. Chasing a formidable 333, the visitors gave it everything at the end but they fell just three runs short. 

In Group 1, Somerset totally blew it, slipping from second to seventh thanks to three consecutive losses. I guess I won’t be heading for London to see them defend their title this year. They didn’t even play against any of the counties who did qualify for the knockouts. Glamorgan, Surrey and Yorkshire each ended up on ten points. The Welsh side topped the group, thanks largely to their demolition of Nottinghamshire who they bowled out for 73. Joe Cooke, Michael Hogan and James Weighell all look in good nick with the ball. If Nigel Selman could get more support amongst the top order, Glamorgan could be serious contenders. 

Surrey’s Ryan Patel and Tim David have certainly seized their opportunities in this competition. Both aggregated almost 200 runs this week, including a ton apiece. The most spectacular innings came from Singapore-qualified David, whose 70-ball 140 not out against Warwickshire included nine fours and eleven sixes! South African paceman Conor McKerr’s 3-43 at Derby advanced his wicket total to a tournament-leading sixteen. Yorkshire completed the ‘quarter-final’ line-up after edging Glamorgan by four runs a Cardiff on Thursday. 

They now meet a formidable-looking Essex while Surrey host Gloucestershire. The knockouts chase to a conclusion on Thursday when the first trophy of the domestic season will be decided. I think Essex will take some beating, but Surrey should be second-favourites. 

Team of the Week: Clark (Dur), Lees (Dur), Swindells (Lei +), R Patel (Sur), David (Sur), Khushi (Ess), Ten Doeschate (Ess), Van Meekeren (Dur), Mike (Lei), J Cooke (Gla), Rushworth (Dur)

3 in 3 for Worcestershire

While the big names have been diverted to the Hundred the One-Day Cup has given some of the lesser lights of the county circuit to showcase their skills. Worcestershire are the only side to have won their first three fixtures, thanks to last night’s rout of Essex by 182 runs. Jack Haynes and Brett D’Oliveira shared a county record opening stand of 243, and the latter also chipped in with three cheap wickets, as did Joe Leach. The impressive Haynes accumulated almost 300 across the week.

Warwickshire’s Rob Yates passed fifty three times, team-mate Matt Lamb struck his maiden List A century and there were similar achievements from Leicestershire’s Rishi Patel, Surrey’s Ryan Patel (ten sixes in his 131) and Yorkshire’s teenager Harry Duke. 

Somerset enjoyed two victories, including an exciting one-run nail-biter against Glamorgan. Earlier in the week, it was veterans James Hildreth and Steven Davies who starred with the bat but in their Severn Estuary derby clash it was young captain Ben Green (87 and 2-32) and rookie seamers Sonny Baker and Kasey Aldridge who just about did enough. A devastating early spell by Michael Hogan, old enough to be their dad, had given the Welsh a chance but Andy Gorvin could only strike a four not six from the final ball. 

Perhaps the best match of the week came at Scarborough. Graham Clark’s second ton in three games helped Durham to a challenging 335-4 but Bracey and Charlesworth kept Gloucestershire in the hunt at the death. Nevertheless they still needed 16 off the final over, from the redoubtable Chris Rushworth, but two sixes and a four by Jack Taylor gave the West Countrymen their first win. All-round performance of the past seven days must be that of Hampshire’s Nick Gubbins. In a comfortable defeat of Sussex at Southampton, he produced an unbeaten 131 then his part-time leg-spin yielded an excellent 4-38. 

Next week, the juiciest ties include Worcestershire’s hosting of Middlesex, Lancashire’s trip to Durham and the Surrey-Somerset encounter next Thursday, by which time the One-Day Cup will be warming up nicely. 

Team of the Week: Haynes (Wor), G Clark (Dur), Yates (War), R Patel (Sur), Gubbins (Ham), Cullen (Gla +), D Lamb (Lan), Hudson-Prentice (Der), Leach (Wor), Aldridge (Som), Hogan (Gla)

Goodbye Twenty, Hello Hundred

This week’s big story inevitably concerned the delayed launch of The Hundred. I’m sorry but there’s a strong sense of déjà vu. I remember twenty-odd years ago when the ‘new’, ‘exciting’ and ‘innovative’ cricket format was promoted to attract young family audiences who’d never consider watching long-form cricket. Cue pictures of girls, blokes in fancy dress, young Asians with bat and ball in the street, bright lights and pop bands. 

It wasn’t the IPL, it wasn’t The Hundred but the groundbreaking Twenty20 Cup in England. The parallels with this week are extraordinary. Of course, the counties have been displaced by city franchises and, in the only genuine positive innovation, women’s teams have equal billing, but it’s still just the same game but with twenty fewer balls on each side. From the first couple of fixtures, it’s also reassuring that the BBC can still attract vastly higher audiences than Sky. This is the only thing that might possibly lure me into the Hundred’s over-hyped hysteria in the evenings schedules. 

I’m no great fan of Twenty20 either but I did pay attention to the final group matches of the Blast last weekend. Nottinghamshire dominated the North division, Ben Duckett their star performer in the last two games. Lancashire leapt into the top four with two victories, including a low-scorer against Yorkshire at Old Trafford where Luke Wood claimed 4-20. 

Both Roses counties qualified for the quarter-finals, while the Birmingham Bears squeezed through in fourth. Leicestershire failed to make it, despite a thunderous 118 not out against Worcestershire by Leeds-born Aussie Josh Inglis. 

Following their Covid problems the week before, Kent topped the South league despite losing to rivals Sussex. Thanks largely to James Vince’s 204 runs, Hampshire triumphed in all three of this week’s fixtures, ending the hopes of Surrey and Gloucestershire. The latter would have reached the last eight at Taunton had Somerset’s Tom Lammonby not crashed a 36-ball 90. 

Somerset will have to defend their 2019 Royal London Cup with a depleted squad, but in the coming weeks other counties will also lose their best players to The Hundred. Durham were off to a flier, smashing 405-4 against Kent at Beckenham. Graham Clark and Alex Lees shared an opening partnership of 242 on the team’s way to a record 50-over total. There’s a long way to go, of course. I wonder what future lies ahead for The Hundred… 

Team of the Week: Inglis (Lei), Vince (Ham), G Clark (Dur), Bedingham (Dur), Lammonby (Som), Bopara (Sus), McManus (Ham +), Harmer (Ess), Cullen (Mid), Briggs (War), Wood (Lan)

Bell and Cook Reel Back the Years

Four counties ensured their progress to the Royal London Cup quarter-finals with a game to spare. Worcestershire lead the North division despite suffering a heavy defeat to Lancashire at Old Trafford. Yorkshire slipped to second after a surprise 5-wicket loss to Warwickshire, for whom Ian Bell was in superb form all week. He passed 90 in each of his three matches, including his first century for a year. Coventry-born Grant Thornton weighed in with seven wickets but the county’s normally formidable attack has looked rather threadbare, and they could well finish bottom of their group.

Yorkshire skipper Gary Ballance thumped 152 in 118 balls against struggling Northamptonshire while Alex Hales reached three figures in Nottinghamshire’s lost game against Durham. Victory over Northants will see them safely through to the knockout stages. Despite being docked a point pre-season, Durham may yet join them, and they will have local academy product Graham Clark to thank. Opening with Jennings, he notched up scores of 93 and 114 this week.

In the South group, Somerset ceded the lead to Essex when Ten Doeschate’s men enjoyed a fruitful trip to Taunton on Sunday. Tom Westley (100) and Ravi Bopara (92 not out) dominated in that match but across the week, it was the steady influence of Alastair Cook which caught the eye. He followed a century against Sussex with 60+ scores in the next two fixtures.

He wasn’t exactly hammering sixes. That was left to Darren Stevens, who struck fourteen of them in his brutal innings of 147 for Kent against Glamorgan. And yet he finished on the losing side! Chasing a testing target of 357, he was out with seventeen overs remaining, and the tail couldn’t quite finish what he started. Credit to the Welsh side, for whom Chris Cooke took five catches and the in-form South African Colin Ingram contributed eight sixes and his second successive century. Glamorgan have an outside chance of reaching the last eight, with David Lloyd and paceman Marchant de Lange also shining.

Gloucestershire’s Chris Liddle claimed a couple of five-fors, including 5-52 against his old mates at Sussex, and left-arm seamer Paul Walter took 4-37 for Essex against Middlesex. In only his second List A appearance, the 22 year-old who went to school in my old town of Billericay removed Compton Voges, Simpson and Franklin in a decisive victory.

Elsewhere, the pick of the batting performances must be the 138-ball 178 produced by Hampshire captain James Vince at the Rose Bowl versus Glamorgan. This eclipsed the previous Hampshire limited-overs best by Gordon Greenidge but, like Stevens’ incredible blitz for Kent, was in a losing cause as that man Ingram cleared the boundary a further seven times en route to 115. It was probably the most exciting encounter of the week, as Cooke steered the Glammies to a 3-wicket win off the penultimate ball.

Surrey will progress if they beat Gloucestershire at Bristol while other contenders Sussex and Hampshire meet at Southampton on Wednesday.


Team of the Week: Clark (Dur), Cook (Ess), Bell (War), Vince (Ham), Ingram (Gla), Thakor (Der), Cooke (Gla +), J Overton (Som), Walter (Ess), Liddle (Glo), de Lange (Gla)