The current round of county championship fixtures is drawing to a conclusion. Some games are already over, either through definite results being achieved or through weather induced abandonments. This post has a look round some of the grounds.
ESSEX v WORCESTERSHIRE
This match did not make it as far as the lunch interval, but did make it further than looked like being the case at one point. Worcestershire resumed on 185-6, still 110 short of victory. Jamie Porter bowled superbly, and at 202-9, with 93 required to win it looked done and dusted. Ethan Brookes batted superbly, with number 11 Jacob Duffy blocking every ball he was left to face, and the target started to come down. Brookes was in sight of a century and the deficit was down to 28 when Porter took a low return catch to claim the final wicket, his sixth scalp of the innings and eighth of the match. Brookes stood there, but eventually the umpires told him to go and the match was confirmed as over. The final margin was 28 runs, and Brookes, in a match where almost everyone had found batting a challenge had scored 88, almost half of them in sixes. While Porter was the best bowler on either side in this match the key contribution for Essex was Paul Walter’s second innings century, which helped Essex to top 300 in that innings and left Worcestershire a target that was just too tough for them. Brookes is definitely one to watch for the future, as is young Essex all rounder Noah Thain. Paul Walter has been a revelation this season after Essex moved him up to open – while his 104 in this match was his first century of the season he had mad big contributions in both Essex’s previous matches.
THREE WAY
BATTLE AT LORD’S
Middlesex have had by the far the better of things against Glamorgan, but the third participant there, the weather, may be having the final say – the players were taken off for bad light just before tea with Middlesex only 39 runs from victory with nine wickets standing, and since then the threatened rain has actually materialized which may well have saved Glamorgan.
THE WHITE FEATHER
This week’s cowards are Gloucestershire, who, in full control against Kent, batted on and on until their lead was 410 and there was almost zero possibility of them bowling Kent out a second time.
A DELAYED START
Nottinghamshire must have been worried that they would not get the chance to attempt to take the last four Warwickshire wickets to seal an innings victory but that game has just got underway. Five overs have been bowled since the resumption, 31 more are possible and Nottinghamshire still need four wickets. There is an even more delayed start scheduled – Lancashire v Leicestershire will get underway at 4:30PM with Leicestershire needing seven wickets to win it.
CONFIRMED DRAWS
Yorkshire v Durham and Derbyshire v Northamptonshire have been confirmed as draws, Sussex v Surrey and Somerset v Hampshire are surely destined to go the same way.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Today being damp has brought the snails out in force…
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