Nottinghamshire are officially confirmed as county champions. This post looks at just what is going on.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE v WARIWCKSHIRE
Officially the title was sealed beyond dispute when Nottinghamshire passed 300 inside 110 overs against Warwickshire yesterday. I was at work and missed the moment, but I heard the clip of Dave Bracegirdle’s commentary. It is a great triumph for Haseeb Hameed as captain, and he has been excellent this season both in that capacity, where his decision making has attracted considerable admiration from many commentators, and in his role as opening batter where has contributed four centuries to the cause. Head coach Peter Moores, who has now overseen triumphs at three separate counties, and bowling coach Kevin Shine, who has been namechecked by a number of his grateful charges, also deserve credit. From reaching that 300 Nottinghamshire went on to 374, a first innings lead of 116. They then bowled Warwickshire out for 133 in their second innings (last night they started superbly, reducing Warwickshire to 7-3, with both openers and night watcher Ethan Bamber back in the hutch, and they clearly did not let up today). They completed the job without the loss of a wicket, and it was Hameed who set the seal on their season with a boundary to bring up the winning runs. Scorecard here. There had been a good moment at the start of the Warwickshire second innings when their opener Alex Davies, who overlapped with Hameed in their Lancashire days made a point of removing one batting glove and walking over to shake Hameed’s hand to congratulate him on his success. Nottinghamshire as of now have 225 points, their over rate has not been bad enough to be punished, and the Trent Bridge pitch will not be docked points either, so they will be champions by a big margin. Exactly how big will be decided at Southampton…
HAMPSHIRE v SURREY
Hampshire have largely had the better of this match, with Surrey weakened by a combination of the ECB and the illness which has temporarily deprived them of Jordan Clark. However 17 year old Ralphie Albert on his first class debut scored a fighting 63 to help Surrey to 281 in their second innings, leaving Hampshire to score 181 to win. At 61-0 it was looking comfortable, but then things started to happen. By the tea interval Hampshire were six wickets down, four to Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar and two to part time off spinner Dan Lawrence. Since the interval Chahar has been donated his fifth scalp of the innings, that of his compatriot Washington Sundar who played a wild drive, edged and was well taken at slip by Rory Burns. Hampshire as I type are 118-7 needing 63 to win. The eyes of Durham (especially them given the situation at Headingley and in the table) and Yorkshire will be on this – if the collapse continues and Surrey win the two northern counties will merely need a draw for both of them to stay up and Hampshire to go down, while a win for Hampshire would mean that Durham would have to engineer a win to stay up, sending Yorkshire down. Scott Currie has just fallen LBW, giving Chahar his sixth scalp and making it 121-8, 60 still needed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
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