The LV= County Championship continued to provide plenty of entertainment in the second round of matches, with all but one of the seven games ending in a positive result. Division One saw wins for Sussex at Edgbaston, and Middlesex over Nottinghamshire. Meanwhile, in Division Two, there were wins for Essex over Derbyshire at Chelmsford, Worcestershire over Kent at New Road and an away win for early-season leaders Hampshire at Bristol.
by Daniel Grummit
The most entertaining of the first division action came at Wantage Road, where a Scott Borthwick double-strike left Northamptonshire on 186 for nine with around half an hour still to survive after being set 319 by defending champions Durham. However, Rob Newton and last-man Mohammad Azharullah saw out the final nine overs to secure Northants five vital extra points for the draw.
Durham had the better of the first half of the match against an injury-depleted home side. Northamptonshire were without David Sales, Alex Wakely, James Kettleborough, Ben Duckett and Rob Keogh due to injury, while attempts to secure an overseas signing had also been thwarted for the same reason. All of which meant that the recovering David Willey had to play as a specialist batsman. Five Durham batters made at least 50 in their impressive first innings total of 452, with Michael Richardson and Phil Mustard falling not far short of centuries.
Matthew Spriegel kept the home side in the game with a knock of 97 to follow on from half-centuries from captain Stephen Peters and Kyle Coetzer as they responded with a respectable 378, with Usman Arshad the pick of the Durham bowlers with four for 78. Today dawned with Durham ahead by 252 runs on 178 for five in their second innings and they were soon all out for 244, with James Middlebrook ending with five for 62, to set up the thrilling final two sessions.
Middlesex and Nottinghamshire’s fortunes changed markedly from their week one fixtures. At Lord’s, the hosts recovered from their thrashing at the hands of Sussex last week to win by 10 wickets over Nottinghamshire, who couldn’t follow up their round one victory over Lancashire. Steven Finn continued his strong start to the season by returning match figures of nine for 173, including taking five for 91 in Notts’ first innings 326. Sam Robson then ensured that his name is all-but-inked-in for the England opening berth by hitting 163, while Eoin Morgan contributed 86 and John Simpson 108 not out, as Middlesex declared 113 runs ahead.
No visiting batsman then reached 50 in their second innings, as Tim Murtagh took five for 61, to leave Middlesex needing only 112 to win in their second innings. Chris Rogers and Robson made sure that the runs were scored without alarm.
Yorkshire and Somerset played out a high-scoring draw at Taunton. Adil Rashid hit 108, while Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance and Andrew Hodd all passed 50 after Yorkshire had been asked to bat and piled up 450. However, that still proved insufficient for a first innings lead as an incredible six Somerset batsmen made half-centuries. Johann Myburgh top-scored with 91, with Chris Jones (75), James Hildreth (67), Craig Kieswetter (63), Lewis Gregory (69) and Craig Meschede (59 not out) the other men to reach the milestone before they were finally all out early on today for a mammoth 553. Yorkshire then breezed to 193 for four before the teams shook hands on the draw at the earliest opportunity.
An epic 189 from stand-in Warwickshire skipper Ian Bell wasn’t able to prevent his side from slipping to defeat to fast-starters Sussex. The Bears were always up against it after being skittled for just 87 on the opening day by the strong Sussex seam attack of Steve Magoffin, Chris Jordan, James Anyon and Jon Lewis. Ed Joyce then hit the first of his two centuries, almost single-handedly leading Sussex to 229.
Bell, though, showed why Warwickshire were identified pre-season as possible Championship winners by many by hitting a sublime unbeaten century. He found support from Rikki Clarke (79) and Jeetan Patel (74) - who turned down a New Zealand call-up to concentrate on his Bears commitments - to set Sussex 330 in the fourth innings. An unbeaten 151 from Joyce - who became the 14th Sussex batsman to hit twin Championship hundreds - made mincemeat of the target. The visitors recorded their first win at Edgbaston since 1982 and achieved their highest fourth innings run chase this century when victory was achieved early today by seven wickets. Warwickshire, meanwhile, leave the match with news that Rikki Clarke has a broken finger after being struck on Monday by Chris Jordan.
Division One standings: Sussex 43 points (2 games played), Nottinghamshire 25 (2), Middlesex 24 (2), Northamptonshire 11 (1), Durham 11 (1), Yorkshire 11 (1), Somerset 9 (1), Lancashire 3 (1), Warwickshire 3 (1).
The pick of the second division games was perhaps Essex’s win over promotion hopefuls Derbyshire. They bounced back from being bowled out for 94 on day one to win by 53 runs as Alastair Cook made his first century since November to lead the hosts to an imposing second innings total.
New father Cook, whose wife Alice gave birth to their first child Elsie at the beginning of this month, also top-scored in Essex’s first innings total of 94, but Derbyshire seamers Mark Footitt and Tim Groenewald rightly stole the early headlines. Left-armer Footitt bowled with searing pace en route to figures of five for 29, inevitably drawing comparisons with England’s Ashes tormentor Mitchell Johnson, while Groenewald took a hat-trick by dismissing Ravi Bopara, Greg Smith and Ben Foakes in the 20th over.
Derbyshire’s batsmen, though, were unable to capitalise, despite Shivnarine Chanderpaul making a typically resolute unbeaten 75. They lost their last six wickets for just 19 runs to be bowled out for 154 as David Masters took six for 46 and Graham Napier three for 52.
That 60-run lead was soon made to look small fry by Cook and his top-order colleagues. The 58-run opening stand with Jaik Mickleburgh (24) almost erased the deficit, while century partnerships with Tom Westley (56) and Bopara (48) took Essex into a commanding position. Cook reached his century in the second half of the second day and celebrated with a ‘baby-rocking’ gesture directed towards the dressing room. He was eventually dismissed by left-arm spinner David Wainwright for 181, while Essex skipper James Foster ended undefeated with 55, but it was too late and Derbyshire were left needing a huge 366 to win.
They reached stumps on the third day on 167 for five and were dealt a further blow this morning as Napier quickly removed Richard Johnson and Chanderpaul (52) to make it 196 for seven. However, Wainwright and Groenewald kept hopes alive with an eighth-wicket stand of 89, with Groenewald the aggressor, hitting four sixes during a 35-ball 52. Masters, though, wrapped up the win by bowling Footitt and Derbyshire skipper Wayne Madsen was left to draw the positives from the defeat.
“We are clearly disappointed to lose our first match but we showed fight all the way until the end,” Madsen told Derbyshire’s website. “We were up against it once we had lost a couple of wickets on the final morning, but Wainwright and Groenewald played positively and really put Essex under pressure at one stage. It was a good fightback from the position we were in, but unfortunately losing those five quick wickets at the end of our first wickets cost us and that shifted the momentum a little bit.
“We had a great start to the game. Groenewald, Footitt and Turner all bowled superbly and they did throughout the match, and they will take confidence from that. We, however, came up against a very good batsman in Alastair Cook. He is a class player and he just batted the same tempo the whole way through and it was difficult to bowl at him.”
Worcestershire, meanwhile, continue to prove the doubters wrong with another strong performance that saw them beat Kent. They won the key moments after conceding a five-run first innings lead as young wicket-keeper Ben Cox hit a career-best 89 from 121 balls in their second innings to take them from 113 for five to 270. Jack Shantry and Gareth Andrew then derailed the Kent run chase early on, reducing them to 27 for three on the third evening, and 94 for six early on day four. They were soon all out for 140, with Andrew recording match figures of eight for 85, and Shantry five for 80.
Hampshire showed why they are many people’s favourites for the Division Two crown by taking the maximum 24 points from their trip to Bristol. Set 215 in the fourth innings, Michael Carberry hit an unbeaten century to keep his name in the England frame, while James Vince finished on 58 to follow on from a first innings 144, to do likewise as they eased home by eight wickets.
Vince’s seventh-wicket stand of 155 with Adam Wheater (82) had proved crucial as Hampshire earnt a 118-run first innings advantage after Will Tavare - nephew of the former England batsman Chris - had become the ninth player to make a century on Championship debut for Gloucestershire. However, the home side lost their last six wickets for the addition of only 16 runs as Kyle Abbott ended his Hampshire debut with five for 67 and the visitors never looked back despite the best efforts of Hamish Marshall (94) and Alex Gidman (72) in the Gloucestershire second innings.
Division Two standings: Hampshire 33 points (2 games played), Worcestershire 32 (2), Glamorgan 20 (1), Essex 19 (1), Gloucestershire 6 (1), Surrey 5 (1), Kent 4 (1), Derbyshire 3 (1).
Daniel Grummitt
He worked for CricketWorld.com for almost three years, leading their county and domestic cricket coverage and contributing to a book about the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, before joining the hugely ambitious World Cricket Badger early in 2014.
The first Test that he remembers watching was on Channel 4 - back before the ECB marginalised potential future fans by selling the TV rights to Sky Sports - when England beat Pakistan by an innings and nine runs at Lord’s.
Besides a passion for domestic cricket, he also has an unexplainable interest in all things Zimbabwe cricket!
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