Key events
OT update
And on the covers come….
Aha! Re Khushi’s big bat and with thanks to Romeo.
“It’s possible Khushi was using an old, pre 2018, bat. The Law was
changed with effect from October 2017 to limit the thickness of the
edges and umpires have a gauge the bat must pass through.
”There was an article in the Guardian at the time:”
Hmmm, Essex in a spot of bother, only 69 runs ahead and already four wickets down, Cox for a duck. Westley still there though. Two wickets a piece for Hutton and James.
Arrive at OT to see ground sheets billowing like spinnakers and a 12.30 start on the cards, lunch to be taken at half past one.
Right, I’m going to hop on my bike to Old Trafford to watch the umpires stare at the pitch. Very much hoping the wind is behind me. Back shortly.
A hat-trick for Sam Cook!
It’s the second of his career, after taking one in the Vitality Blast last summer! pic.twitter.com/xiYeRa4zu7
— Vitality County Championship (@CountyChamp) April 6, 2024
A couple of quick wickets at Edgbaston too, with Dan Mousley (62) and Michael Burgess (7) sent on their way.
No big bat to save Dean Elgar, whose stumps are splattered by Lyndon James. Essex 78-2
Bat-gate
This slipped past me yesterday. At Trent Bridge, Feroze Khushi’s bat was confiscated by the umpires for being too big.
FYI: when Nic Maddison’s bat was discovered to be too big in 2022, Durham were docked ten points. I don’t really understand how this happens – surely all bats are made to fit the regulations?
So, we’ve got five games in progress: at Canterbury and Trent Bridge and Edgbaston in Division One. And at Lord’s and Hove in Division Two.
An interesting read from Raf on England women’s tour of New Zealand:
Sam Northeast on yesterday’s record-breaking score
“It’s a privilege to play here and to break a record like that is just beyond my wildest dreams, to be honest. It blew my mind. I got pretty nervous out there at the end, when I was nearing it.
“I didn’t really think about it until I was on about 330. A member told me as I was walking out and I sort of forgot about it (the record) – then when I got near, I started thinking about it again.
“It’s a special day. The game situation was what I was thinking about at that stage but then a personal milestone like that – I had to make sure I got it.”
Day three abandoned at Durham
The only consolation for Durham that they are away next week, at Edgbaston, which gives them a good shout of at least getting on the pitch. Hampshire will be back down south, entertaining Lancs.
One to chew over with your morning coffee:
Using a Kookaburra in England in April and telling counties they should produce 90mph fast bowlers and world-class spinners is like telling a Championship football club on a wet Stoke night that they should play like Man City. There are only so many world-class players around.
— David Hopps (@DavidKHopps) April 7, 2024
Just browsing through all the quotes from yesterday: This was nice from Cameron Steel
“We’re very very pleased. When they were 150 for two, it wasn’t on anyone’s radar to bowl them out today. But credit to everyone for the way they went about it: Dan Lawrence bowling on his debut into a proper gale-force wind had a great day and the seamers held them to two and a half runs an over.
“It was one of my best days but I have worked extremely hard. I’m pleased it’s all paying off but Gareth Batty has said to me for a while that I’m not far off getting a ton of wickets so it was nice to get the rewards today. I like playing at Surrey because of the backing you get in all forms. It was nice for him to bowl 28 on the bounce in April and me to bowl 11.”
And some Josh Bohannonn to soothe Lancs brows:
“We were good for the majority (of today) and it’s pretty obvious we got it wrong for period at the end. That’s going to happen at the start of the season. People are finding their feet and in a way, it’s good that it happens now and not later down the line.
“We’ve got one of the best spinners in the world and one starting his international career who is getting better by the day. It’s going to be really exciting to watch – especially for me at short-leg – and it will be really good if we can get some more cricket in tomorrow. Hopefully the weather holds off for us.
“We are looking at how we can get a result in potentially two and a half days. There’s enough tackiness in the pitch which is pretty similar to our nets and both Nathan and Tommy bowled beautifully there this week, that’s why we chose the team we did.”
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Chester le Street: Durham v Hampshire no play on days one or two
Canterbury: Kent 284 all out v Somerset
Old Trafford: Lancashire 202 v Surrey 11-0
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 293 v Essex 253 and 65-1
Edgbaston: Warwickshire 292-5 v Worcestershire 360
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire v Gloucestershire no play on days one or two
Lord’s: Middlesex 138-1 v Glamorgan 620-3dec
Hove: Sussex v Northamptonshire 292-7
Headingley: Yorkshire 72-2 v Leicestershire 354
Saturday’s round-up
Sam Northeast, the Glamorgan captain, collector of mammoth scores, strode to the highest first-class score at Lord’s, eclipsing Graham Gooch’s iconic 333 with an unbeaten 335, containing 36 fours and six sixes against Middlesex. He reached the milestone with a shuffle-flick off his toes, raising his bat to a host of empty white bucket seats but rapturous applause from the balcony and the crowd lucky enough to be there.
The bolshy backline-of a-ballet-class action of Dan Lawrence and the leggies of Cameron Steel provided energetic entertainment at Old Trafford, where things finally got underway after lunch on day two, and Lancashire lost eight for 52 in an elongated evening session.
Lawrence, Surrey’s one big signing of the winter, had been talked up pre-season as a “genuine all-rounder” by the head coach Gareth Batty. But Batty can’t have expected his prediction to have come true in Surrey’s very first match.
Rory Burns pulled Lawrence into the attack in the ninth over at the James Anderson end, and he made the first breakthrough shortly afterwards when Keaton Jennings clipped the ball low and Lawrence pounced to his left. Josh Bohannon then put on 67 with Luke Wells and 57 with George Balderson, before Lawrence (four for 91), and Steel (a career-best five for 25), proceeded to rip through the Lancashire batting on a day where the crosswind threatened to tear off your trousers and unbutton your blouse. There was time enough for Surrey to face five overs under floodlights with a ring of noisy close fielders, and Nathan Lyon, playing alongside Tom Hartley as promised by the new coach Dale Benkenstein. Lyon, who made a golden duck, dropped quickly into the grove, with time for a classic drop-kneed appeal and there was a last over from Hartley bowling in what had suddenly become an almost supernatural luminescence.
Nottinghamshire suffered a similar collapse at Trent Bridge, slipping from 259 for four to 293 all out as Sam Cook collected a hat-trick and Essex restricted the hosts’ first-innings lead to 40 despite a century for Joe Clarke.
A fifty from Karun Nair and 92 from Luke Procter took Northamptonshire to 292 for seven at Hove. There were three wickets for Jaydon Seales, and Ollie Robinson collected a deserved wicket after 19 overs of toil for Sussex. While some stoical tailend batting helped Kent limp to 284, thanks to 85 from last man out Joey Evison. The Somerset captain, Lewis Gregory, pinged for 20 in his first over, finished with four wickets, and there was no space for England spinner Shoaib Bashir in the Somerset XI.
At Edgbaston, Ed Barnard made a sprightly 89 for Warwickshire against his old county Worcestershire, and Ben Mike did the same against his former county Yorkshire with a swashbuckling 90 at Headingley for Leicestershire.
It was a washout for the second day in succession at Derbyshire and Durham, where the groundsman was dubious about play tomorrow because of the saturated ground.
Preamble and weather watch
Good Sunday morning! After a rain-sodden early morning the sun has spruced herself up and is currently razzle-dazzling the Manchester sky. There will be a pitch inspection at Old Trafford at 11.30am.
Elsewhere, the poor groundsmen at Derby and Durham plug on. No play before lunch at Derby and although the sun seems to be shining at Chester-le-Street, no news yet on the chances of play. They’re going to take an early lunch at 12.30 at Headingley. But hey, things look perky at Canterbury, Trent Bridge, Lord’s and Hove.
