Tanya's county roundup
If Sunday’s exploits were too much to beat, Ollie Robinson can sup on another good-sized mug of satisfaction after the Sussex paceman destroyed the stumps of two Middlesex batsmen – first Steve Eskinazi, then Paul Stirling – to reach 50 first-class wickets this season and collect his second 10-wicket haul against Middlesex this year.
Sam Robson’s fifty was the highlight of Middlesex’s reply although they did improve on their first-innings 75 all out and were 149 for four at stumps, still 85 behind after Sussex had built up a sizeable first-innings lead thanks to some late-order biffing from Robinson and Will Beer (77). Toby Roland-Jones finished with five for 70.
Rain ruined much of the day’s play at Canterbury, where only 41 overs were possible. Mohammad Amir finished with four for 48 in his final red-ball game. The leaders Essex lost one wicket before the close in reply to Kent’s 226. Meanwhile their closest rivals Somerset were struggling at Edgbaston. Warwickshire knocked up 419 despite Rob Yates adding only two to his overnight 139. Steve Davies provided the cowgum to the Somerset reply with an unbeaten 89 but parity lies far away.
At the Oval Sam Curran was thrown in at No 3, without great success, as Fidel Edwards took two quick wickets. Earlier Rikki Clarke had finished with seven for 74 but there was frustration for Surrey from a ninth-wicket partnership of 119 between Ryan Stevenson and Kyle Abbott guiding Hampshire to 367.
Nottinghamshire came to rue Yorkshire’s tail-end runs on Sunday after collapsing to 184 all out with four wickets for Duanne Olivier. Ferrety Adam Lyth and cubic Gary Ballance then piled on the agony with a partnership of 108 – giving Yorkshire a lead of 225 with eight wickets still in hand.
Dane Vilas was the story of Division Two, dominating the Glamorgan attack with a remarkable 266 – the highest score by any Lancashire batsman at No 6. He sprayed the boards of Colwyn Bay with six sixes and 36 fours as Lancashire closed with a lead of 287. Keaton Jennings was the second highest scorer with a steady 86.
On a Chester-le-Street featherbed Durham piled up 544 before declaring, with every man reaching double figures. Leicestershire’s openers put on 100 before Paul Horton fell to Brydon Carse. Hassan Azad, owner of a new two-year contract, sleeps unbeaten on 53. Northamptonshire’s Ben Sanderson grabbed four early-evening wickets as Worcestershire’s top order again paraded their fragility, finishing on 42 for four – with Moeen Ali 10 not out. Northants had earlier rocked to 376 thanks to centuries from Dwaine Pretorius, on club debut, and Alex Wakely. After taking five wickets on Sunday Ryan Higgins hit a century against Derbyshire as Gloucestershire started practising the early steps of the promotion dance. Captain Chris Dent also made a hundred, 169, his fourth of the year.
The mowers are circulating the ground here at Hove, with a - I won’t say autumnal - freshness to the evening air. Some happy days today- for Rikki Clarke, Toby Roland-Jones, Dwaine Pretorius, Alex Wakely, Ben Sanderson, Alex Higgins, Chris Dent, Duanne Olivier and Warwickshire’s George Garrett and Sussex’s Elliot Hooper who both claimed a wicket on their first-class debut.
But the largest glass of something delicious is raised to Dane Vilas, who made the highest score ever by a Lancashire No.6. What a treat for those in the deckchairs at Colwyn Bay. That’s it from me today - hotfooting it to The Oval tomorrow. Have a lovely evening - good night!
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A wicket here in a game that is meandering towards a third day. Middx 77 for two.
I’d better concentrate on writing up now. Just to say Vilas has thundered past 220...
And a picture of four old Guardian cricket writers at one ground. Perhaps not the day to borrow Charlene’s dungarees...
Old Guardian cricket team gets together to bitch about the old days. The only time four of us were ever together on a county ground before was probably when Mike Averis messed up the rota.@selvecricket @tjaldred and Paul Weaver. pic.twitter.com/2MulZ6jxSI
— David Hopps 🔶 (@DavidKHopps) August 19, 2019
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And 200! What an innings from the big man. Lancs 455 for seven.
Vilas in the nervous 199s...
Bowling to your mate in the nets
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) August 19, 2019
Friend: "What field you got?"
You: pic.twitter.com/k6HeNiciIR
Adam Lyth splatters Patterson-White for six. Yorkies 83-1 already a lead of 131. Would it be harsh to say that’s probably enough?
Division two: Chris Dent keeps on rolling, 110 not out, as Gloucestershire lead by 63 runs. Leicestershire carrying on where Durham left off, 67 for 0 on a Chester le Street featherbed. Dane Vilas - wowing Colwyn Bay- 181 including five whalloping sixes. Lancashire a bonus-point tastic 415 for six. It is raining at The County Ground and Middx sticking not twisting here at Hove.
Quick round- up: Div one- Nick Browne gone for 6 as Essex stutter to 10/1 in reply to Kent’s 226. Surrey off the mark at The Oval after bowling Kent out for 367 (Clarke 7-73); oh bloody hell Somerset, 58 for 3, Davies hanging on 31 not out. Essex could go clear here. And Yorkies rocking and rolling at 64-0.
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Tea here at Hove - lots of people on the field, kids running around, the usual cohort reading the runes of the pitch, even a handful of teenagers. Middx 36 for one, with a way to go.
Incidentally Sussex have the highest occupancy rate (percentage of seats sold) for Blast games of all counties other than Surrey.
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So did you hear the joke of the Edinburgh Festival? “I keep randomly shouting out ‘Broccoli’ and ‘Cauliflower’ - I think I might have florets”.
Your favourite cricket joke?
Middlesex’s first innings batting? -ba-boom
Apologies, it’s very remiss of me but I’ve somehow missed Dwaine Pretorius getting a century on debut for Northants. Sorry Dwaine. It came off 136 balls and included two slog-sweeps for six off Moeen. Northants did however somehow miss out on a fourth batting point.
Something in the air this round for the shoulder-heavy man mountains - Rikki Clarke has seven for 74 now at The Oval.
Middlesex weathering the storm at the moment. At tea, Lancashire have a lead of 77 with the mighty Dane Vilas carrying the red rose on both shoulders. 134 not out, in just under three hours.
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A hush has settled over the ground as Robinson runs in..
Eskinazi starts the ball rolling by smashing Robinson for four off his second ball. And - gosh, involuntary squeak - Robinson’s bowled him with his third, stumps demolished, stamped upon, crushed. Middlesex 4/1.
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Um...
Moeen Ali is currently bowling medium pace against Northants with figures of 0-107 👀
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 19, 2019
pic.twitter.com/wkNwH0UXZt
Farewell leg stump: Will Beer bowled for a rather magnificent 77 - 13 fours and a six - and Sussex are all out for 309 - a lead of 234. TRJ 5-70. A groundsman lovingly brushes the pitch with a red-headed broom, with dust billowing behind. It is blowy out there, the trees surrounding the ground shake hither and thither. Robinson has the ball and is warming up.
WOW - Durham!!! 544 for nine dec. Only one century - though it was a daddy from Lees - but contributions from top to tail.
That scoreboard in full:
Warwicks all out 419; let’s see what Somerset can do now. Oh, and Notts all out too, 184 - a deficit of 48.
Middlesex have taken the new ball, but Sussex continue to thrash about: 252 for nine.
Ouch, there is a man down here at Hove. Steven Finn fielding in the deep misread a whallop from Beer at mid-off and seems to nudge it into his face. The physios run on - ah good, he’s up but walking off for treatment.
Now, what’s happening at Scarborough? Ah, it’s raining. But Notts are stumbling a little - 179 for eight. Tom Moores 48 not out.
Next to me Bruce Talbot is doing the groundwork for his book with Ian Gould due to come out next spring. Prepare for some straight-talking from the five foot six motor mouth.
An email! From David Malcolm It seems to take ages to restart games even after short rain breaks. The slow removal of the covers followed by umpires taking their time to inspect the ground. No urgency. I have been to baseball games in the US where they get on with it quickly even after heavy rain. Why not in cricket?
I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with me David as Selv has disappeared to put his feet up and rumble over a three course meal. I’ve never been to baseball but I would guess it is because the ‘pitch’ isn’t important in baseball and the batter runs round on sand/gravel not grass
They’re between innings at Canterbury - Kent eventually all out for 226, with the last two wickets putting on 88 - which is something of a theme this round. Harry Podmore finished 54 not out; Sam Cook five for 42. Here he is:
8⃣ How good is it to have @samcook09 back playing...#KENvESS pic.twitter.com/ok8jADUFfv
— Essex Cricket (@EssexCricket) August 19, 2019
And here is Amir - unbelievably playing his last red ball match.
WICKET: @iamamirofficial makes the early breakthrough!
— Essex Cricket (@EssexCricket) August 19, 2019
He knocks Rayner's stumps out the ground and he departs for 5, Kent are 128-7 🙌#KENvESS pic.twitter.com/4fZs4TN09F
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And a bit of news from Northants - Nathan Buck was pulled out of the game against Worcestershire this morning with concussion after being hit on the head by Josh Tongue last night. He has been replaced by Blessing Muzarabani.
The sea was a melancholy mixture of grey and beige - and at 250 for 8 there is a chance, if Ollie Robinson gets his bowling wheels on again, that this could be over tonight. BAM! Beer whallops Harris.
Lunchtime scores
DIVISION ONE
Canterbury: Kent 211-9 (Amir 4-48; Cook 4-42) v Essex. Rain delay - play due to restart at 1.40.
The Oval: Surrey v Hampshire 327-8 (Vince 47; Abbot 55 not out; Clarke 6-66).
Edgbaston: Warwickshire 384-7 (Rhodes 82, Yates 141; Brooks 3-98) v Somerset.
Scarborough: Yorkshire 232 (Tattersall 92; Luke Wood 5-67 ) v Nottinghamshire 131-6
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 200 (Higgins 5-54 ) v Gloucestershire 128-3 (Dent 52 not out)
Chester-le-Street: Durham 461-8 (Alex Lees 181 ) v Leicestershire
Colwyn Bay: Glamorgan 257 (Hemphrey 56, Patel 54, Carey 51) v Lancashire 191-4 (Jennings 77 not out)
County Ground: Worcestershire 186 (Moeen 42, Leach 53; Hutton 6-57) v Northants 257-3 (Wakely 101 not out)
Hove: Sussex 232-7 (Wells 62, Carey 56; Roland-Jones 5-56) v Middlesex 75 (Robinson 8-34)
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Rain has curtailed things at The Oval and Canterbury for now. Somerset fighting back at Edgbaston - Warwickshire now 338-7 - three for Brooks and three for the Overtons.
Notts! This was your chance. Now 125 for five at Scarborough. Three for Olivier, two for Coad and Maharaj has just bowled Ben Duckett, who had just hit him for six.
And Steven Finn is being thrashed round the ground by Sussex. . Robinson hit him for 18 off nine balls. Sussex 198 for seven.
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Good morning TanyaI was hoping you might be able to elicit Magnum PI’s view of the Foakes question. Specifically, is there a single good reason for omitting the world’s best keeper in favour of giving Bairstow the gloves? It recalls the Stewart/ Russell choice of days gone by, when the difference in batting average as keepers was only 7 and that between Stewart the keeper and Stewart the specialist batsman (and excellent all round fielder) 11 or 12. Although of course Stewart became a much better keeper than Bairstow as well as a better batsman and Foakes is better than Russell with both gloves and bat.
In April my top seven would have been: Burns (who appeared not to have done anything wrong), another opener, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Foakes. I still think Bairstow is an underachieving batsmen who could be a high-quality international front line batsman and at the moment he is a very good No. 7 and a more than adequate wicket-keeper, but not great. I think he could be more valuable for England in a different position. My another opener in April would probably have been Jason Roy. As a bowler I didn’t like to see batsmen hitting the ball back to me, and that’s what I like to see in an opener. Would I continue with him? It’s tricky, I think you have to give him a whirl but he does play the ball way out in front of him and he’s got to understand that red ball cricket is different - you can’t just go out there and hit it. Ben Stokes has adjusted - it is possible.
Selv has now left the building. Thanks for all your questions!
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Given certain counties’ propensity to sign other counties’ talent (yes i’m looking at you , Notts), is there an argument to introduce transfer fees by way of compensation?
Yes. Or at least to make sure that counties are better compensated for that process. And it is not unreasonable for some counties to now consider themselves the game’s nurseries - and that’s not a bad thing. I have immense respect for Worcestershire for example. But at the same time you can’t impede people’s ambition and progress anymore - it is not feudal like it used to be.
Lord Selve’s views on the new England quick would be great but if that’s not on then how about his gravy recipe? We had a discussion a few years back here about gravy and the making of it. I think Busfield was here and his Ma had a recipe too.
I saw Jofra Archer’s first game here at Hove, one of the last games I did for the Guardian - and if you read it [see below] you’ll see what I thought three years ago. And since then, I got in touch with George Bailey at the Hobart Hurricanes two years ago and he said he was a superstar. I said how’s he bowling compared to Tymal Mills? And he said - he’s faster. And then in December last year I wrote a piece saying that irrespective of who he played for it was doing cricket a disservice that someone of his ability was being made to waste the best years of his life through an arcane qualification process. I didn’t care who he played for but the game could ill afford to lose talent like that. [HE LOVES HIM - ed]
My household is vegetarian bordering on vegan these days and last night we had a really nice spagetti bolognese made with quorn. I’m very much enjoying vegetarian and vegan dishes these days.
Two wickets have fallen here while I was doing Selv’s Q&A. Carey drove across a TRJ half volley and was caught for 56, and Luke Wells chipped TRJ to midwicket. That’s four for Roland-Jones, four MORE for Roland-Jones - and Middlesex are back in it. Even more so now as Ben Brown has a backfoot slash off Murtagh. Sussex 151 for 6.
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Does he remember a player called Paul Hennessy who played for Middlesex’s under 16s in 2005? He took 3 for 27 yesterday (for Spain).
No, I was a bit out of the loop for a while - but well done!
Fifty for Jet Jennings.
And another....
How is Stuey Law doing in elevating the Middle Saxons up the CC2 table? What has or could be improved?
We’re not getting enough first-innings runs. We’re relying very heavily on Dawid - this is the sort of game where Dawid thinks he’d going to do it again and that’s not fair We’ve got a quality bowling attack, but when you’re defending 75 it’s not that easy for them. Stuart and Nic Pothas are doing a good job and are still trying to find things that work, who they like, who are team players . We’re trying to build a corporate spirit where the team comes first - which is really important. We’ve got a couple of young players who haven’t kicked on - Max Holden, Sterlo’s not had a cracker, I think he’s due, Steve Eskinazi has played ok, Dawid’s played brilliantly. He’s playing as well as anyone else at the moment - if England aren’t looking at him it is a travesty.
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And rain has stopped play at Edgbaston with Warwickshire 313 for five. I’ve just interrupted Hoppsy and Selv arguing about The Hundred just like old times, to ask a few of your questions BTL.
I’d like to ask about what the London clubs are doing to sell out one T20 after another, when tickets are proving harder to shift in some other parts of the country. It’s not prices and it’s probably not just weather.
I can’t speak for other parts of the country (five sell outs out of seven at Hove interjects Bruce Talbot) but we play good T20 cricket, AB has helped a bit - a bit of spike when he arrived. The two sell outs at Lord’s have been home counties - Essex and Surrey.
A couple of wickets have fallen already at Colwyn Bay - both Josh Bohannon and Liam Livingstone fall to Michael Hogan. Lancashire now 93-3.
Some cracking talking points from Gary Naylor.
Ah, what a shame, Yates makes only another two before being dismissed by Brooks. What a waste of a night’s sleep.
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And we have the Middlesex president in the box at the moment, looking very Magnum PI. Do send any questions BTL: he promises to answer.
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Other news:
England are unchanged for Headingley and James Anderson returns to action tomorrow for Lancashire 2s in Liverpool.
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) August 19, 2019
Conor McKerr replaces Sam Curran in Surrey XI v Hampshire from tomorrow
Good news for Leicestershire:
Extremely grateful to @leicsccc and the club's supporters for the warm welcome and the opportunity. Love being a fox and excited for the next two years! 🦊🦊🦊 https://t.co/JaBUyoh7HN
— Hassan Azad (@Bat_Pad_Man) August 19, 2019
Start of play scores
DIVISION ONE
Canterbury: Kent 125-6 (Amir 3-30; Cook 3-25) v Essex.
The Oval: Surrey v Hampshire 222-7 (Vince 47; Clarke 5-52).
Edgbaston: Warwickshire 303-4 (Rhodes 82, Yates 139 not out) v Somerset.
Scarborough: Yorkshire 232 (Tattersall 92; Luke Wood 5-67 ) v Nottinghamshire 41-0
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 200 (Higgins 5-54 ) v Gloucestershire 46-2
Chester-le-Street: Durham 368-5 (Alex Lees 181) v Leicestershire
Colwyn Bay: Glamorgan 257 (Hemphrey 56, Patel 54, Carey 51) v Lancashire 85-1
County Ground: Worcestershire 186 (Moeen 42, Leach 53; Hutton 6-57) v Northants 140-3 (Wakely 63)
Hove: Sussex 128-3 (Wells 52 not out, Carey 46 not out) v Middlesex 75 (Robinson 8-34)
Preamble
Good morning from gorgeous Hove - or gorgeous-ish Hove, it is now raining: a squall, I think. The hedgerow are embarrassingly verdant, the gulls are crying and I’m wondering how much one of those lovely victorian villas would set me back.
The last time I covered a match in Hove was when Sussex won the Championship in 2003, just after I got back from my honeymoon incidentally, when there was a queue out of the ground and down the road. No such queues today, but the usual loyal scattering cagouled and sandwiched for the day.
Ollie Robinson awakes a hero – tipped by his teammate Chris Jordan as a potential England player – of the line and length mould rather than Wood/Archer. Yesterday’s figures of 8 for 34 are the best by a Sussex bowler at Hove since 1955. Ted James anyone? Sussex resume today in the driving seat – Luke Wells has fifty and Australian Alex Carey, making his Championship debut, has 46.
Round the grounds: teenage sensation Rob Yates bats on for Warwickshire after a bad day for Somerset; Nottinghamshire aim for at least parity in the search for their first Championship win of the season after letting Yorkshire off the hook; Rikki Clarke kept Hampshire on their toes at The Oval; and Essex and Kent hope for better weather at Canterbury.
Northants are on top against Worcestershire; Alex Lees has batted Durham into a strong position at Chester le Street against Leicestershire with a sublime century; Ryan Higgins’ five for 54 puts Gloucestershire in control at the County Ground and the intriguing game between the Division two leaders continues at Colwyn Bay.
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