County cricket talking points: Notts stay top but Surrey are on the prowl

The Guardian

20-05-2025

At the end of day one, Haseeb Hameed had carried his bat for 206, his team had posted more than 400 and Nottinghamshire's position at the top of Division One was secure. At the end of day four, all of that was still true but quite a lot had happened in-between.
James Minto, Durham's 17-year-old left-arm seamer with a grand total of 40 runs in his previous four first-class matches, took guard for the first time this season and made 67 as a nightwatching opener. Alex Lees made 82 at the other end; Emilio Gay delivered a second century for his new county; Ollie Robinson made 141; and Graham Clark cashed in on coming to the crease at 402 for 5 with a ton of his own. Liam Patterson-White's five wickets cost him 179 runs, but no bowler had figures to be proud of and a shellshocked Hameed walked to the middle a second time a scarcely-believable 257 in arrears.
That deficit had been reduced to 190 for the loss of just one wicket by the start of day four and the obituaries for the pitch were being drafted. The match still looked likely to finish as a draw even after a couple of quick wickets, as Ben Slater was set and Joe Clark was en route to the fifth ton of the match, but Kyle Verreynne got out for his second middling score of the game and the tail's resistance was swept away by Ben Raine.
Durham's batters had 18 overs to get the 91 they needed in the last session of the match and they weren't all going to fail. Colin Ackermann's 53 got the job done and left the visitors with a long drive south to lick their wounds. Nottinghamshire stay top of Division One but they'll need to rise from the canvas at Headingley on Friday.
Surrey have woken up and are looming in Notts' rear-view mirror. It was like their spluttering start to the season had never happened as a phalanx of seamers (this time Nathan Smith, Matt Fisher, Tom Lawes and Jordan Clark) encountered resistance only from Yorkshire's old pros, Adam Lyth and Jonny Bairstow. A mention must also go to Dan Lawrence, whose eccentric off-breaks chipped in with a couple of wickets. He has now bowled the second most overs for the champions – I bet they didn't tell him that when he signed up at the start of last season.
It was a familiar story. No batter made three figures but they all made two, as Kurtis Patterson introduced himself with 85, and the locals piled up more than 500 in the south London sunshine. George Hill was the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 66, but only Bairstow could hold off the inevitable in the Tykes' second dig and his 77 merely delayed the innings defeat.
Surrey's ability to rotate players as impressive as Lawes (3-77, 3-47 and 37 not out) shows how strong they are from No 1 to No 22. Were they really just teasing us with those four draws?
Worcestershire, off the back of four defeats, were invited to bat at New Road and the story was a familiar one until Matthew Waite marshalled the tail to add 166 runs for the last three wickets. Late-order runs count the same as any others, but they can lift morale and frustrate opponents – they're worth more than they look.
Essex were suddenly 9 for 2 and on their way to 157 all out, with the home fans' spirits soaring. Seven LBWs soon flattened the optimism – Jamie Porter, Shane Snater and Simon Harmer in no mood for charity – but Ethan Brooke's 38 from No 9 had pushed the target out to 336 and the Pears were looking ripe for a first success of the season.
Matthew Waite starred again with 6 for 19 as Essex folded quicker than a cheap deckchair in a Clacton gale. The Yorkshire-born all-rounder is finally getting a run of matches injury-free and his 296 runs at 29.6 and 23 wickets at 17.5 speak for themselves. He'll need some help to get his team off the foot of the table though, with local rivals Warwickshire up next to finish the Championship's first tranche of matches.
Somerset's second win on the bounce has lifted them to seventh place, just nine points off Warwickshire in third. Lewis Gregory and Josh Davey formed an unlikely pair of openers, but they provided a foundation for a first innings of 338, perfectly acceptable after being asked to bat. Archie Vaughan, another increasingly resourceful Somerset cricketer, top-scored with 80.
Sussex never got going against an extremely experienced home attack first time round but, as is so often the case, they did rather better after being asked to follow on. Skipper John Simpson led the late order in adding 206 for the last four wickets as the Somerset bowlers, with the main five in their 30s, understandably tired. Not so Gregory, who led from the top with 89 of the 150 his team needed for the win.
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Ian 'Dutchy' Holland is having the season of his life, the bowler with the most wickets at the lowest average and lowest economy rate in Division Two taking Leicestershire 30 points clear at the top of the table.
Thirteen years on from winning the Cricket Superstar reality TV show in Australia, the USA international is turning into Grace Road's very own Harry Styles (maybe not, but I'm infected by the T20 Blast marketing hype that is getting into full swing).
At Lord's, his first fivefer of the campaign rolled Middlesex for 232 before Peter Handscomb did for Leicestershire what he could seldom do when playing for the Seaxes – make a crucial score. His first-innings 87, having had a stumping reprieve, was the only half-century of the match, and looked even better when the home side collapsed from 65 for 1 to 143 all out in their second innings.
The Foxes' Australian skipper was at the crease when the winning run was scored and he would hardly have been human had he not allowed himself a little smirk in the Long Room as he reflected on how life can turn around after his miserable time as captain at Lord's in 2020 and 2021.
There are only two ways to win a first-class cricket match – score the run that lifts your team one above the opposition or break the second-innings' 10th-wicket partnership before they do that to you. But, such is the gift of hindsight, there are many ways you can fail to win a cricket match.
Amid the relief at stopping the rot with a decent performance against Derbyshire, new Lancashire captain Marcus Harris may be reflecting on where the match was drawn – and it certainly felt like a loss. After a traumatic week that saw Keaton Jennings step down as captain and public statements from the club acknowledging the unacceptability of what has been sloshed on to the plates of members and fans so far, perhaps a first-day scoreboard showing 250 for 5 with Luke Wells, restored to his opening slot making 141, was perfectly acceptable.
But a run rate of 2.6 across a whole day with a man to bat around speaks to a lack of confidence, the price of which was paid on the fourth afternoon when Jimmy Anderson and co ran into a fine rearguard action from Anuj Dal (173 minutes), Ben Aitchison (34) and Jack Morley (45) with only the injured Blair Tickner padded up in the dressing room. Had they batted with more urgency on day one, would an hour or so more on day four have made the difference?
Lancashire, still winless, are off the bottom and unbeaten Derbyshire are in the second promotion slot.
This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog.