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BBC News
29-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Robson hits ton as Middlesex make hay against Leics
Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Uptonsteel County Ground, Leicester (day one)Middlesex 336-5: Robson 133, De Caires 76, du Plooy 56; Walker 3-57, Green 2-40Leicestershire: Yet to batLeics 1 pt, Middx 2 ptsMatch scorecard After beating Middlesex at Lord's for the first time in 45 years last month, County Championship Division Two leaders Leicestershire were made to toil against the same opponents on home Sam Robson (133) posted his first championship hundred of the season as Middlesex finished on 336-5, after Josh De Caires - still looking for his maiden first-class century after 37 attempts - scored 76 in an opening stand of Du Plooy, captain in the absence of Toby Roland-Jones, who is sidelined by a gastric bug, was out for 56 in the penultimate a Leicestershire attack without four of the bowlers that forged that victory at Lord's, seamer Roman Walker took the first three wickets to fall and ended the day with career-best figures of pitch had a healthy covering of grass, but where the sight of a similar surface in April with a Dukes ball in hand would have had a bowler licking his lips, a Kookaburra on a bone-dry day in late June is a different made for another of the attritional days that are becoming familiar when the Kookaburra ball is in use - not perhaps the best day to have chosen for the supporter-led County Cricket Day initiative where Leicestershire, among others, offered free mindful of Monday's forecast for still hotter conditions, and how the contest might look on day four, Leicestershire captain Peter Handscomb handed Middlesex the chance to bat first. His side extended their lead by virtue of a draw with Glamorgan last week and may be happy simply not to lose this one, but Middlesex, next to bottom, desperately need a had 119-0 by lunch as Robson and De Caires completed half-centuries with boundaries off Logan Van Beek in the final over before the left the home attack wicketless in the opening session of a match for the first time this were without Tom Scriven, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Mike and Josh Hull to injury, while their leading wicket-taker, Ian Holland, is playing Major League Cricket for Washington Freedom. Nonetheless it was a disappointing session for the home attack, who failed to create a real added a further 100 between lunch and tea for the loss of two wickets. Almost all of the meaningful action from the hosts took place in the space of five deliveries as Walker, playing only his fifth Championship match in four seasons at Grace Road, dismissed De Caires and Max some movement off the seam with a ball 47 overs old, Walker had the former caught behind off an inside edge, and, bowling around the wicket to the left-handed Holden, straightened one enough to pass the outside edge and clip off stump, removing Middlesex's leading scorer for a 24-year-old ex-Glamorgan seamer - in the last year of his current contract - picked up his third wicket 10 overs after tea as Robson, whose hundred had come off 185 balls, for once failed to control his shot and was caught at was a decent catch by Sol Budinger, yet merely a warm-up for what might be the best of the 25-year-old's career - so far or still to come - five overs later as new batter Ryan Higgins flashed at Ben Green. Now at backward point, Budinger dived for a ball going past him to his left, six inches above the ground, and somehow caught it with his right hand. That left Middlesex 271-4. They would have been 286-5 had Green, at mid-off, not dropped a dolly chance offered by Ben Geddes off Van Beek on 11, although he at least partially atoned by having Du Plooy caught at second slip when looking well set for day Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay
BBC News
24-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Middlesex build lead after Gohar five-for against Northants
Rothesay County Championship Division Two, County Ground, Northampton (day three)Middlesex 413 & 215-3: De Caires 87, Robson 48; Holden 35*Northamptonshire 435: Zaib 102, McManus 71, Broad 70; Gohar 5-121, Higgins 3-48Middlesex (7 pts) lead Northants (6 pts) by 193 with seven wickets standingMatch scorecard Josh de Caires struck 87, his highest first-class score, following a five-for by Zafar Gohar to put Middlesex in a strong position at the end of day three of their County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road. Playing his first game of the season, de Caires, who has batted at seven for the last couple of years as a spinning all-rounder, shared an opening stand of 89 with Sam Robson (48) and the Seaxes finished the day on 215-3, a lead of helped wrestle back the initiative after all-rounder Justin Broad hit 70 off 81 balls and combined with Lloyd Pope in a record 10th wicket partnership for Northamptonshire against Middlesex to earn them a slender first innings and Pope's heroics came after Ryan Higgins' hat-trick spearheaded a Northamptonshire batting collapse in the morning session. From a dominant 342-5, the hosts lost four wickets for eight runs in just 4.2 overs after Saif Zaib posted an excellent 102, his fourth century of the summer, making him the first Northants batter since Ben Duckett in 2016 to do finished with figures of 3-48 while spinner Zafar Gohar took a further wicket to add to his four on day two for figures of resuming on 308-5, Zaib and Lewis McManus looked to extend their defiant partnership which already extended into three reached three figures by bottom-edging an attempted reverse sweep past the keeper for four, but the shot proved his undoing later in the over when he picked out de Caires who took a stunning flying catch at backward point off set in motion Northamptonshire's collapse, as Higgins, employing a short-pitched tactic, had McManus fending a legside bouncer to the keeper with the final ball of the 103rd over. And he struck again with the first two balls of his next over to complete his hat-trick - Rob Keogh moved across his stumps and was bowled around his legs while Liam Guthrie upper cut a short ball straight to though, was proactive from the outset, employing the sweep and reverse sweep against the spinners and muscling Gohar through Pope providing solid support, Broad cut Gohar for four to bring up the 50 partnership and take Northamptonshire to 400. He pulled Toby Roland-Jones to the ropes, but the Middlesex captain couldn't hold onto a difficult diving chance at mid-wicket, the ball going for four to bring up Broad's targeted Pope with the short ball, but he was content to duck under the bouncers and take runs off the spinners and give Broad the bulk of the duly wiped out the deficit and took Northamptonshire into the lead just before the delayed lunch interval before falling shortly after the resumption when he stepped away to a Robson delivery which turned and hit the bat, Robson took three boundaries off Northamptonshire's seamers and the hosts soon turned to the he bowled the occasional half-tracker which Middlesex punished, Pope obtained some sharp turn and bounce out of the foot Harrison bowled tidily, conceding just one boundary in his first five overs, and also posed some tough questions for both batters, beating Robson's outside edge before de Caires failed to pick the struck with another wrong'un soon afterwards, trapping Robson lbw as he moved across his Caires brought up his half-century off 84 balls and after the break was harsh on anything loose from the spinners as he and Max Holden extended their partnership to turned to Guthrie who made the breakthrough almost instantly, bowling a bouncer which lifted sharply to de Caires who could only fend to second (35*) and Leus du Plooy (28) then added a brisk 48 together but the latter's departure came via a bizarre dismissal in the closing overs. Caught in two minds, he seemed to be considering whether to reverse sweep or run the ball down to third man but instead guided the ball straight to the day ended tantalisingly poised with Middlesex considering when best to time their day four Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Blast from the past Zimbabwe are finally coming in out of the cold
A biting wind swept across Grace Road on Thursday and though the crowd was thin, there was just enough stardust to keep the autograph hunters happy. Andrew Flintoff was perched on the pavilion balcony, while Mark Wood, trying his hand at coaching during his latest injury layoff, patrolled the boundary's edge with a smile. Out in the middle there were also runs for Josh de Caires, son of Mike Atherton, who compiled a fluent 79 from 93 balls on a green-tinged pitch. De Caires is a player in the modern mould charting his own course but some of the old man's mannerisms were there to see. Mercifully, the lower back appears to be much less creaky. But more noteworthy than the Professional County Club Select XI – a team of fresh-faced rookies led by De Caires, coached by Flintoff, and with selector Luke Wright in attendance – was the identity of their opponents. Zimbabwe have arrived for a one-off, four-day Test match against England that gets under way at Trent Bridge next Thursday, their first appearance on these shores for 22 years. Much has changed since a series chiefly remembered for Jimmy Anderson, peroxide highlights in his hair, bursting out of the traps with five wickets on his debut at Lord's. Tour games have largely gone the way of the Nokia 3310 (the must-have mobile phone back then, kids) and Zimbabwe have slipped from feisty overachievers, a team laced with a good deal of quality, to the unofficial second tier of Test cricket. Indeed, after the Test next week (a warmup for England before the five-Test visit of India) Zimbabwe stick around to play South Africa in a four-day game at Arundel. That third and final game on tour is preparation for the Proteas ahead of their World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord's next month – a competition that Zimbabwe, along with Afghanistan and Ireland, are currently excluded from. Still, truncated though it is – a far cry from 2003, when they played two Tests and took part in an ODI tri-series along with South Africa – this tour is a welcome development. And in something of a first, the England and Wales Cricket Board is also paying the visitors a tour fee in lieu of a reciprocal trip not sitting in the future tours programme. This apparent benevolence is in part driven by the England and Wales Cricket Board's broadcast deal with Sky, which is predicated on delivering six Test matches every season; in the years that bring India or Australia for their usual five-match series, an early summer opponent is still needed. Ireland fulfilled this role before the 2023 Ashes, now it is Zimbabwe's turn. But while a schedule-filler, it would not have come about had relations between the ECB and Zimbabwe Cricket not thawed considerably in recent times, nor had the green light not come from the British government. After the dark days of Robert Mugabe's brutal regime, and a period of considerable turmoil for cricket in Zimbabwe in which corruption was alleged to be rife, relative stability has returned to the country. How Zimbabwe will fare in Nottingham next week is tricky to call, with their diet of Test cricket so skinny in recent years. There are just 108 caps spread among their 15-man squad (Joe Root, by comparison, has racked up 152 on his own). As the county kids cut loose to post 330 all out inside 72 overs, including half-centuries from tailenders Sebastian Morgan and Jafer Chohan, it did not augur massively well. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Equally, there was a creditable 1-1 draw in Bangladesh last month, one that featured Zimbabwe's first away victory for seven years, and there are players of some promise in their ranks. Blessing Muzarabani, a towering 6ft 6in quick who claimed nine wickets in Sylhet, could pose some problems for England on the right surface – much as New Zealand's similarly giant Will O'Rourke did during their last outing. As well Muzarabani, who nicked off De Caires with a sharp delivery that climbed, there is Sikandar Raza, the Pakistani-born all-rounder who has been a world-class performer in the white-ball formats. Experience comes from Sean Williams and skipper Craig Ervine, both 39, while Gary Ballance, though retired after a brief return to the country of his birth, is sharing local knowledge as their batting consultant. This short tour may serve to warm up their opponents in the main but for Zimbabwe, out in the cold for more than two decades, there is sunshine breaking through.
