Yorkshire Still on for the Treble

It’s amazing what a couple of wins can do. Suddenly, from the fringes of relegation, Somerset find themselves in second place in the County Championship having won a low-scoring fixture against Durham. I don’t know whether it was a deliberate ploy to negate the power of Durham’s seamers but Taunton’s traditional batter’s paradise was transformed into an extraordinary spin-friendly surface, and Jack Leach and Rolaf van der Merwe duly took advantage, nabbing fifteen wickets between them.

Runs were also hard to come by at Headingley, and again it was a spinner who outshone the rest. Yorkshire beat Warwickshire by only 39 runs, with Adil Rashid taking 7-61 in total, ably assisted by Jack Brooks and the evergreen Ryan Sidebottom. The 38 year-old returned after his dressing-room football injury (yes, really!) to take his 400th first-class wicket for his county.

The White Roses now sit fourteen points behind Middlesex with a game in hand. The London derby ended as a draw, with Jason Roy and George Bailey swapping centuries, and ‘keeper Ben Foakes contributing a couple of unbeaten 60s. However, the biggest individual score of the week by a mile was Will Smith’s 210 for Hampshire against Lancashire. They forced a follow-on but a draw was almost inevitable.

In Division Two, Kent moved within a point of leaders Essex after beating Worcestershire by ten wickets. It was a real team effort but credit to Sam Billings for taking seven catches in the first innings. Glamorgan remain bottom after being humbled by Northamptonshire. Nicholas Selman carried his bat for 122 in the first innings but he was one of many second innings flops as Ben Sanderson claimed a career-best 7-20.

Promoted to five, Ryan Ten Doeschate scored 83 and 109 for Essex in their draw with Sussex at Colchester. There were a couple of late-order centuries, too, thanks to Chris Jordan and Graham Napier, both of whom did well with the ball, too. Leicestershire also failed to overcome Derbyshire, but it was Ned Eckersley, batting at seven, who made three figures in each innings.

The week also featured the T20 Blast quarter-finals. Yorkshire remain in the hunt for the Treble after bowling Glamorgan out for 90, Rashid’s 4-26 he pick of the figures. David Willey’s 38-ball 79 almost won the match on its own. Northants also progressed against Middlesex, Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel took 4-20 to beat Essex while Mark Stoneman top-scored for Durham in their defeat of Gloucestershire.

Meanwhile, the Women’s T20 franchise competition hotted up. Nat Sciver and new England captain Heather Knight were in fine form, but Katherine Brunt’s hat-trick for the Yorkshire Diamonds against Lancashire was perhaps even more notable. She ended up with 3-6 in three overs.

Next week sees quarter-finals in the Royal London Cup as well as another round of Championship fixtures. The highlights could be the Roses match at Old Trafford, but the Middlesex-Durham clash at Lord’s could go a long way to decide the title. With so few games being won, anyone putting together two further victories could snatch the pennant. Maybe even Somerset!

Team of the Week: Smith (Ham), Selman (Gla), Sciver (Sur Stars), Bailey (Mid), Ten Doeschate (Ess), Billings (Ken +), Eckersley (Lei), Adil Rashid (Yor), Jordan (Sus), Leach (Som), Sanderson (Nor)

Team of the week: Will Smith is the fresh prince of Hampshire

Often it's hard to find two outstanding performances by openi batsmen but this time there was an embarrassment of riches from which to pick. Thus I had to omit Chris Rogers (Middlesex, 203 not out), Jake Libby (Notts, 108 in only his third first-class match), Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent, 153) and Kane Williamson (two fine T20 innings for Northern Districts). In their place come Sussex's Chris Nash and Hampshire's Will Smith. Nash aggregated 263 runs in the victory over Nottinghamshire, including his first century of the summer. Smith's contributions were 11 and 142 not out, but that second innings score was the difference between draw and a defeat which would have left the county even more vulnerable to Essex in the promotion chase. In the context of Hampshire's whole season, that was superb.

Ed Joyce has enjoyed a great summer and in the penultimate round of Championship games, his second knock of 149, at almost a run a ball, set up what at the halfway stage had seemed an unlikely victory. James Hildreth has been a disappointment for Somerset in 2014 but he crafted a valuable 182 at Taunton against Middlesex. In the Test against Bangladesh, Shivnarine Chanderpaul boosted his career average even further with unbeaten scores of 84 and 101, but you can't accuse him of Boycott-esque greed this time; it was all in the cause of a routine win.

Ben Stokes contributed no weight of runs or clutch of wickets but he did OK in Durham's win against Northants and his 2-25 and 38 saw his side home to success in the Royal London Cup Final. My other all-rounder is the considerably less well-known Ben Raine. No, me neither! However, in the final of the Second Eleven competition at Chelmsford, the 23 year-old representing Leicestershire scored 208 and took 3-37 on the way to victory. The way the first XI have played this season and with their best players lured away by the big boys, watch out for him in the first-class arena in 2015.

In a week of excellent performances, Harvey Hosein's must be up there with the best, not only this week but the whole summer. At The Oval, the 18 year-old wicketkeeper claimed no fewer than eleven catches for Derbyshire - on his debut! Nobody has ever come near that, and only Bob Taylor has ever taken as much as seven in an innings for the county in their history. And he played for them for more than twenty years!

Derbyshire's Mark Footitt was the beneficiary of five of those dismissals, and he added nine wickets to his already impressive haul, more than anyone else in the Championship. However, my two remaining bowlers stand out; each took fifteen wickets in a single match. Chris Rushworth has plugged away all summer for Durham but nobody was expecting his 9-52 and 6-43 in the trouncing of Northants. He also contributed a useful 2-24 in today's cup final. Saqlain Sajib is another unsung hero, whose spin claimed 9-82 and 6-50 for Bangladesh versus Zimbabwe in an A international.

Congratulations, one and all:- Nash (Sus), Smith (Ham), Joyce (Sus, *), Hildreth (Som), Chanderpaul (WI), Stokes (Dur), Raine (Lei 2nds), Hosein (Der, +), Sajib (Ban A), Rushworth (Dur), Footitt (Der).

Sussex Re-Joyce and Durham in a Rush-worth

In the penultimate round of Championship fixtures, neither of the top two played, but Nottinghamshire failed to make an impression in their last match. They were roundly beaten by Sussex who bounded up to fourth place with a superb final two days. Chris Nash produced his first century of the summer, but a maiden hundred from Jake Libby and an eighteenth by James Taylor gave Notts a slender first innings lead. Sussex then went for broke, passing 400 at almost a run a ball, with skipper Ed Joyce leading by example, before Steve Magoffin claimed 4-51 to ensure a dismal conclusion for the home team.

Durham simply steamrollered sorry Northants at Chester-le-Street. Borthwick and Collingwood each outscored the opposition on their own - twice! - while Chris Rushworth snatched 15 wickets for 95. James Middlebrook led the side but they looked demoralised from the start, and Northants' two innings combined lasted barely 40 overs! At Taunton, Somerset racked up 523-9 thanks largely to James Hildreth's 182 and Peter Trego's 91. Great to see Craig Kieswetter back after his horrific facial injury earlier in the year. He scored a useful 69, too. That Middlesex recovered from 64-7 to 223 owed much to a century stand by Morgan and Roland-Jones. A fine unbeaten 203 by Chris Rogers staved off defeat and means his team should avoid relegatin provided they avoid a heavy defeat by Lancashire next week.

In Division Two, Essex turned the screw on Hampshire by notching a fourth consecutive victory, this time against a Leicestershire side who capitulated inside two days! James Foster made 132, while David Masters and Jesse Ryder claimed thirteen wickets between them Josh Cobb's men now face the ignominy of failing to record a single win in two full Championship seasons. I don't think that has happened since WW2, although they used to play more games in those days.

Hampshire were forced by Kent to follow on at the Rose Bowl, with only Sean Ervine's 121 preventing an even greater first innings deficit. Will Smith then almost single-handedly rescued the home team by carrying his bat for 142. Tomlinson's 26-ball 2 not out at the other end kept Riley and Tredwell at bay before time was called. Those extra points for a draw could prove critical as they lead Essex by ten going into the final week. A win at Glamorgan will be enough.

In the other game, Derbyshire were surprisingly good value against lacklustre Surrey. Apart from Billy Godleman's partnership with Pujara in the fourth day run chase, it was a game for the bowlers, notably Mark Footitt, who extended his wicket tally for the season beyond 70, including a 6-60. Nevertheless, the star of the show was an 18 year-old debutant Harvey Hosein. The lad from Chesterfield's haul of eleven catches was a record for a 'keeper on his first-class debut. Meanwhile, Surrey could slip to sixth if Kent and Derbyshire win their fairly easy fixtures. I'll try not to laugh too loudly.....