Team of the Week: Lyth and Faf put their sides in charge

It was a funny old week involving mountains of runs and an England fightback. Joe Root built up steadily across the week, culminating in a rare ODI century and even rarer triumph for Cook's men at Headingley. Ajinkya Rahane struck a splendid century in India's winning cause before falling for a third-ball duck in the final match. Durham played Nottinghamshire twice, emerging victorious both times, taking them into the Royal London Cup final against Warwickshire and also potentially deciding the fate of the Championship title.

That now seems destined for Yorkshire, who beat Roses rivals Lancashire by an innings at Old Trafford with a record innings score of over 600. Adam Lyth scored 251 and Adil Rashid an unbeaten 159, together with his eight wickets, as Lancs subsided on home territory.

Another double-centurion was Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams. He put on 253 with Michael Carberry for the first wicket as the county consolidated their promotion place in Division Two. Leaders Worcestershire suffered a second consecutive defeat, this time to an energised Derbyshire, for whom Wayne Madsen contributed 56 and 98 and newly-bearded all-rounder Wes Durston a career-best spin haul of 5-19.

Angus Robson, Sam Hain, James Taylor and Usman Khawaja each reached three figures in the Championship yet fail to make my team of the week thanks to dismal showings in their other innings, but Glamorgan's Chris Cooke ended his first-class century drought in style. His 171 kept his county in the match early on, then Graeme Wagg's 116 not out ensured a draw with Kent, although he was assisted by the fact that all eleven Kent players had a bowl on the final afternoon!

Two red-haired Durham all-rounders also make my Eleven. Paul Collingwood struck 123 runs and claimed a 3-26 in the Championship fixture while Ben Stokes thrashed an excellent 164 in 113 balls in the 50-over semi-final. No doubt he gained confidence from his 3-47 and batting cameo for England, following his three successive ducks earlier in the series. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's brilliant 2-14 in England's trouncing at Edgbaston also merits a place ahead of Dale Steyn and Thisara Perera.

My wicketkeeper is Alex Barrow. While still only 22, he has been in the shadows of Kieswetter and Buttler for a few years at Somerset, hampered by an inability to score runs. However, against Northamptonshire, he made a career best 88, including eighteen boundaries, without which the Taunton side may well have witnessed the visitors' first Championship success of the season.

I conclude with the outstanding batting sequence of the week, served up by South Africa's Faf du Plessis. He scored 126, 121 and 96 as the Proteas won the triangular ODI tournament in Zimbabwe. With just one more boundary in the final he'd have become the first man ever to score four centuries in an ODI series. Gutted! However, he did aggregate an impressive a record 464 runs in the five games and until last week had never reached three figures in 50-over cricket. What a way to break through!

And so my team reads:- Lyth (Yor), Adams (Ham *), du Plessis (SA), Madsen (Der), Cooke (Gla), Collingwood (Dur), Stokes (Eng/Dur), Rashid (Yor), Durston (Der), Barrow (Som +), Kumar (Ind).

Hampshire undisputed one-day Kings!

AFter losing that last-ball thriller at Lord's, Jim Troughton and Warwickshire can at least look back on the season with huge fondness. They won the one that mattered, the County Championship, although a league and cup double sounds even more impressive. Meanwhile, Hampshire have shown how to win cup finals yet again, and twice within three weeks, too.

On the face of it, they are the stand-out side in short-form cricket, yet they weren't the most impressive in either CB40 or T20 group stages. However, they deserved to triumph at the Cardiff Finals Day, when Dmitri Mascarenhas, Neil McKenzie, Sean Ervine and Chris Wood led the troops to victories over Somerset and Yorkshire.

In the 40-over competition, they smashed highly-fancied Sussex in the semis but it was always going to be a tight match today, especially as Jimmy Adams had neither Mascarenhas or spinner Danny Briggs to call upon with the ball. On paper, Hampshire definitely had a squad to return to Division One of the Championship, but the btasmen scored too few runs and the bowling was too inconsistent. In knockout cricket, consistency is less important; you just need a few match-winners. And Hampshire have so many who could put in a good performance, from Carberry and Vince to Katich and McKenzie, Dawson and Briggs. The former pair both finished amongst the most prolific batsmen in the CB40 season, while the bowling spoils were more evenly shared.

Sean Ervine admitted that the controversial tied final with Somerset in 2010, the one Marcus Trescothick confesses still haunts him (and me!), was even tighter but the pressure imposed by Jimmy Adams and Kabir Ali proved too much for Neil Carter to get the touch needed to win for Warwickshire. Two trophies, but they really need to escape Division Two in 2013 to prove they're not just a useful one-day outfit. Of ourse, the cash from a successful Champions League T20 run would come in very handy, and if Hampshire could put one over the favoured IPL franchises it would be a big boost to the whole county game.