County Cricket: My Team of 2025

While I must admit that the highlight of the domestic cricket season was the sterling five-Test contest between England and India, the county season threw up a few welcome surprises. Surrey’s stellar squad failed to win anything, last season’s strugglers Nottinghamshire pipped them for the title at the death, my Somerset boys converted white-ball talent into Blast success and Worcestershire combined Championship relegation with victory in the One-Day Cup. Oh, and Jimmy Anderson tried – with mixed results – to reinvent himself as a supreme Twenty20 exponent. The IPL franchises were unimpressed but Lancashire were more obliging.

Now for my annual review of the stand-out performers on the county circuit. The Hundred doesn’t count, obviously. In arriving at my final Eleven, I looked at consistency across formats while prioritising the Championship ahead of the Blast and then the 50-over competition which was bereft of the one-day aces who preferred to spend their August earning larger salaries in The Hundred. 

Openers 

Ben Compton’s 1,386 runs at an average of 60 were the rare jewels in Kent’s miserable summer. Talking of which, Derbyshire’s Caleb Jewell was the top scorer across all three county competitions. He made only one of my Teams of the Week but accumulated his runs efficiently and consistemtly. Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hameed may have been discarded by Engand selectors years ago, but they were the outstanding openers in Division One. Sibley reached a triple-century out of a massive 820-9 against Durham but in the same match, Alex Lees scored a ton in each innings. Lees just failed to notch 1,000 runs in the four-dayers but had a fruitful T20 campaign. Tom Banton astonished everyone by cracking 371 against Worcestershire at the start of April but couldn’t maintain that throughout Somerset’s season.

Middle Order

Old favourites Wayne Madsen and Colin Ingram showed no signs of slowing down. The 41-year-old Derbyshire stalwart averaged 57 in Division Two adding 431 in the short stuff. Ingram’s Glamorgan colleague Kiran Carlson had an excellent 2024 but was even better this year, especially as the county achieved its first promotion in yonks. Northamptonshire had a rotten time, but nobody scored more Championship runs than their 27-year-old left-hander, Saif Zaib. Max Holden had a few golden moments for Middlesex, James Coles of Sussex made plenty of runs, as did Essex’s Tom Westley, while Hampshire’s Toby Albert topped the batting charts in the Blast, and his counterpart Nick Gubbins did the same in the One-Day Cup. However, my next member of the team of 2025 is Jack Haynes of county champs Notts. He struck four first-class hundreds and boasted a healthy strike rate in one-day cricket, too. 

All Rounders 

Ryan Higgins and Liam Dawson weren’t quite up to their traditional levels but there was no shortage of quality batting all-rounders on the circuit. Notitnghamshire’s Lyndon James included a double-century in his 2025 CV while Tom Lammonby of Somerset saved his best performances for when they really mattered. Lewis Gregory continued to deserve Somerset fans’ adoration, particularly when he whacked the winning six in the Blast final. Ben Kellaway and Rehan Ahmed added considerable runs to their customary spin bowling, and young Ethan Brookes of Worcestershire looked a useful player in both red and white-ball formats. However, my pick is Warwickshire’s Ed Barnard, mostly for his runs in a year when Hain, Davies and Yates didn’t often deliver.

Wicket-Keeper 

Lewis McManus claimed more victims (20 than anyone else in the Blast, while Garth Roderick topped the charts in the Championship, but their batting wasn’t quite up to scratch. James Rew of Somerset looked back to his best and even enjoyed some useful middle-order partnerships with younger brother Thomas. However, like last year, the wicketkeeping slot comes down to a fight between James Bracey (Gloucs) and John Simpson (Sussex). A third of Bracey’s runs came in the One-Day Cup but the South Coast skipper contributed everywhere, excelling in first-class cricket, both with gloves and willow, averaging 60 in his side’s push for fourth place.

Bowlers

Five men took at least fifty Championship wickets, and three of them make my XI. It wasn’t an easy decision. Ben Sanderson (Northants) and Riley Meredith (Somerset) were the most prolific in T20, Ben Allison (Worcs) in the One-Day Cup, while Ben Green (Leics) picked them up in all three competitions.

The evergreen Kyle Abbott ended the Championship season with almost identical figures to those of 2024 and is an automatic selection. Ben Raine’s seam bowling bailed Durham out of a few holes, also contributing useful lower-order runs. George Hill (Yorks) and Luis Reece (Derbys) achieved the half-century with eye-catching sub-20 averages. Spin wasn’t really to the fore this summer. Even Simon Harmer struggled so, for a second consecutive year, I am delighted to induct Somerset’s Jack Leach into the 2025 Eleven. He rarely featured in limited-overs but in the long-form the ex-England left-armer worked hard all season. Surprise bowler of the season must be Tom Taylor. Before April was out, Worcestershire looked doomed, but the 30-year-old plugged away throughout. Nobody took more wickets – 78 in total, including fifteen in the Blast. 

Like the whole country, players and fans alike, I have no idea what the hell is happening to county cricket next year. However, here is my hotly-awaited County XI of 2025;- 

Jewell (Der), Lees (Dur), Haynes (Not), Carlson (Gla), Barnard (War), Zaib (Nor), Simpson (Sus +), Abbott (Ham), Raine (Dur), Taylor (Wor), Leach (Som)

Just missed out: Brookes (Wor), Madsen (Der), Bracey (Glo +), B Green (Lei)

County Cricket: The Runfest Continues….

820-9, 722-6, 679-7, 305,….It was a week when numbers seemed to encapsulate the latest round of County Championship matches. With the Kookaburra ball and hot, dry pitches almost everywhere, it was a double-whammy for batsmen. There were even more centurions than last week, making it extremely difficult to decide which to omit from my Team of the Week. And the hapless, put-upon bpwlers? Pity poor George Drissell of Durham. His 45 overs were plundered by Surrey for 247 runs, with just the solitary wicket of Sam Curran as compensation. 

Surrey compiled a county record 820-9 declared, anchored by Dom Sibley’s triple-hundred. Jacks and Curran also weighed in with tons, but Dan Lawrence’s 149-ball 178 was the most eye-catching. Dan Worrall (4-60) helped dismiss Durham for 362 but, despite the massive deficit, the visitors’ openers cruised to the close without losing a wicket. Alex Lees struck his second hundred of the game, while Emilio Gay struck twenty-five boundaries in his unbeaten 156. 

Nottinghamshire also failed to win, despite having a first-innings advantage over Somerset at Taunton, and slipped a point below Surrey at the top of Division One. Slater and Haynes reached three figures while Jack Leach twirled away for 53 overs but on the final day Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s 147 not out was crucial in preventing defeat. 

Bottom club Worcestershire have struggled for first-innings runs all summer so it was a shock when their third-wicket partnership went on….and on….and on. Captain Jake Libby was the quiet partner while Adam Hose provided the fireworks. Both swept past 200 and the stand totalled 395. They even collected maximum bowling bonus points as Hampshire slumped to 221 all out. Second time around, Ben Brown et al pulled up the drawbridge and crawled to safety.

Sussex remain third after another high-scoring game at Hove. They, too, topped 500, both Hughes and Coles hitting the 150 mark but, like Somerset, Durham and Hants, Warwickshire batted out day four with little hardship. 

The only victory in the division came at York. For the first three days, there wasn’t a great deal separating Essex and Yorkshire, with Westley and Revis exchanging tons. However, Ben Coad and Jack White tipped the balance and polished things off by ten wickets. In doing so, Yorkshire leapfrogged Essex out of the relegation positions. 

In the second flight, the form book was tipped upside-down. Both leaders were beaten by basement residents. Runaway table-toppers Leicestershire lost to Middlesex by an innings. While Sam Robson (133) and Ben Geddes (137) propelled the Londoners to 534, seamers Tom Helm and teenager Naavya Sharma helped restrict the home team to 205 and 202 and their first loss of the season. 

At Chesterfield, Lancashire recorded their first triumph so far, crushing Derbyshire by 261 runs.  Their star performers were all-rounders George Balderson and Chris Green, although Ashton Turner and Keaton Jennings also scored centuries. 

Northamptonshire racked up the highest score at Canterbury, 722-6, including an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 298 involving Saif Zaib (196*) and Justin Broad (157*). Although responding to Kent’s formidable 566-8, the pair sensed a possible victory so accelerated the run rate on the last morning, giving their bowlers sixty-odd overs to bowl Kent out. They almost succeeded. Spinners Chahal and Harrison worked their way through the batting, but Joey Evison defended admirably, and the injured Muyeye limped on as tenth man to aid the survival effort, but it was nerve-shredding stuff. 

Another 500+ total was delivered by Glamorgan at Cardiff against Gloucestershire. Colin Ingram and Ben Kellaway contributed almost half of those runs, then the latter added six wickets. However, the visitors held on comfortably for the draw. 

It is now back to the Blast for a few weeks. At least in this format spectators won’t mind so much if the boundaries flow unchecked. 

Team of the Week:- Sibley (Sur), Lees (Dur), Libby (Wor), Hose (Wor), Lawrence (Ess), Bracey (Glo +), Kellaway (Gla), Saif Zaib (Nor), Balderson (Lan), White (Yor), Helm (Mid) 

County Cricket: Notts and Leicester extend their leads

Unlike last week, runs were harder to come by, and wicketkeepers struggled with the bat. Somerset and Glamorgan each notched their third wins in succession, while Division One is looking very tight. 

Following their reverse against Durham, Nottinghamshire bounced back with a 163-run triumph against Yorkshire, their first at Headingley for fourteen years. They didn’t have it all their own way. New Lions recruit George Hill took 5-40 for the home side, before Mohammad Abbas swung things back with a commanding 6-45. Joe Clarke’s second half-century of the match helped Notts set a difficult target of 464 which they rarely looked like approaching. Five wickets from Dillon Pennington and six catches by ‘keeper Kyle Verryenne ended the resistance to deliver nineteen points to the leaders. 

Surrey remain in second place despite failing to beat Essex at The Oval. In fact, rain on the final day may well have saved them from defeat. Centuries by Paul Walter and Charlie Allison had left Surrey chasing over 400 to win on the last day. Michael Pepper stumped both openers off Harmer’s spin, then Jamie Porter claimed five more wickets, including that of Sam Curran, whose return from the IPL yielded two 70+ scores. Another England white-ball specialist, Jason Roy, bagged a sorry pair but the match ended with three Surrey wickets intact. 

Sussex are third, defeating Hampshire by nine wickets inside three days. The only batting partnership of note was the 173 shared by Sussex skipper John Simpson (106 not out) and Fynn Hudson-Prentice, while the off-spinner Jack Carson inflicted much of the damage to Hampshire’s second innings, ending on 5-26. Bowlers were also on top at Durham, where Somerset’s third win on the bounce came against the odds. Mitchell Killeen’s 5-38 on debut placed Durham on the driving seat then, although the visiting seamers restored some balance, Somerset still faced a tricky chase of 265. Thanks to Tom Lammonby and Tom Abell, they succeeded, making runs look almost easy. 

Despite this winning streak, Somerset are only fifth, one point adrift of Warwickshire, whose bid to go second was wrecked by the Worcester rain. Sam Hain found some form at last, twice passing eighty, but it was a welcome return, too, for Chris Woakes and Chris Rushworth. The latter claimed 4-37 and 3-30 as Warwickshire pushed to bowl out their neighbours. However, Waite, Brooks and Taylor proved stubborn, and the weather ended proceedings with Worcestershire on 181-8. 

Leicestershire maintained their unexpected grip on Division Two, thumping Lancashire by an innings and reaching the halfway stage fifty-one points clear at the summit. Test spinner Rehan Ahmed is still only twenty and is now making his mark in the county game as an all-rounder. Batting at three, he compiled an assured 136, putting on 256 with Lewis Hill, then dismissed the Lancs tail-enders to polish off the second innings. Keaton Jennings’ 112 was his side’s only score above 40 and not even Marcus Harris could lift them. 

They are not the basement county, though. Kent’s appalling run has dropped them to an ignominious eighth after a crushing loss to Derbyshire. At least Ben Compton could hold his head high, adding 205 runs to his season’s tally, but Derbyshire’s total of 587-5 declared proved insurmountable. 41-year-old Wayne Madsen notched another ton, but star of the show was opener, Caleb Jewell. The Tasmanian left-hander struck a career-best 232 spanning almost nine hours. 

Like Somerset, Glamorgan made it three in a row, advancing to third in the table by taking Middlesex to the Cardiff cleaners. Sam Northeast and Kiran Carlson each achieved three figures before their attack took twenty wickets, something they rarely managed last year. No Kellaway this week, but left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann popped up from Australia to win the match with 6-53. 

At Northampton, another classy Aussie, Cameron Green, struck his third hundred in five matches for Gloucestershire in a more old-fashioned contest between bat and ball at Wantage Road. Northamptonshire, for whom Saif Zaib accumulated 215 runs, tended to dominate and were putting severe pressure on their visitors until rain took control on the fourth afternoon. With Bracey, Green and Hammond back in the pavilion, Gloucestershire would have been the most relieved. 

So that is it for the County Championship for four weeks. It hands over the spotlight to the Vitality Blast, in which anything can happen. No doubt some big overseas names will dip in and out with mixed results, while homegrown stars will shake things up. Champions Gloucestershire begin their defence at home to Kent while runners-up (grrr) Somerset face former nemesis county Surrey. 

Team of the Week:- Compton (Ken), Jewell (Der), Rehan Ahmed (Lei), Lammonby (Som), Hain (War), Saif Zaib (Nor), Verreynne (Not +), Carson (Sus), Mohammad Abbas (Not), Kuhnemann (Gla), Rushworth (War)  

Nottinghamshire Thrash the Champions

It was a good week for the bowlers, especially on the first day. Indeed Saif Zaib’s 135 was the highest innings of the week. Saturday was nearly a national washout, which ruined half the games as contests, but the rest ended in convincing victories. 

Just a fortnight ago I’d have split my sides at the suggestion of Essex being thrashed by hapless Nottinghamshire but after breaking their three-year duck last week, Notts turned the tables by twice bowling out the champions for a sub-300 aggregate. Steven Mullaney top-scored with 117, while Luke Fletcher’s career-best 6-24 did the damage in Essex’s first innings, followed by Lyndon James in the second. Pity poor Shane Snater. In only his sixth Championship outing, he took 7-9 and still ended up on the losing side. Incredibly Nottinghamshire now top Group 1 ahead of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, who drew at Edgbaston where Rob Yates and ‘keeper Michael Burgess made hundreds. 

Gloucestershire’s winning ways were maintained at Lord’s where Middlesex were their fourth victims of the season so far. This week’s hero was left-arm seamer David Payne who captured eleven wickets for only 87 runs. At Southampton Somerset were bossing it at halfway but an obdurate four-hour 44 by Joe Weatherley on day four tested their patience. Fortunately for my lot, Josh Davey finished the job started by Craig Overton and they claimed equal shares of the ten Hampshire wickets. The other Group 2 fixture saw Leicestershire being held by Surrey despite their first innings featuring no fewer than three centuries, by Evans, Harris and Swindells. 

In Group 3, it’s still the Roses rivals occupying the top two positions. Rain on both sides of the Pennines prevented any result in Yorkshire’s match against Kent and Glamorgan’s visit to Lancashire. In contrast, Northamptonshire rebounded after their heartbreaking one-run loss last week by drubbing Sussex at home by an innings and 12. The aforementioned Saif Zaib Northants’ charge but it was the combined efforts of veteran Gareth Berg and Ben Sanderson, taking nineteen wickets between them, which proved decisive against the South Coasters. 

Next week, they meet neighbours and fellow strugglers Kent at Hove, while Yorkshire will take charge of the group by avoiding defeat at Glamorgan. The same goes for Somerset, who host Surrey in their quest for a fifth triumph out of six. Gloucestershire sit it out which may prove fortuitous give the rotten weather forecast. The top two in Group 1 are also resting so if Worcestershire record a maiden success in 2021 against Durham they will leapfrog both Notts and Worcestershire. 

Team of the Week: Evans (Lei), Stoneman (Sur), Harris (Lei), Saif Zaib (Nor), Burgess (War +), Mullaney (Not), James (Not), Berg (Nor), C Overton (Som), Payne (Glo), Sanderson (Nor)