County Championship Week 3

Couldn't see a thread, so i thought i would put one up!

Division One:

Derbyshire vs Nottinghamshire
Durham vs Yorkshire
Surrey vs Sussex
Somerset vs Warwickshire

Division Two

Gloucestershire vs Northamptonshire
Hampshire vs Worcestershire
Lancashire vs Kent

Thanks for setting up the thread jimbo.

Poor start for Derbys, who are 4 down before lunch.

Here's the DEC live blog - http://deepextracover.com/livematchcentre/10261. No v2 representation this week but still updates from every match.

And here are the radio commentary links - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/13629853.

Shelsey, no problem

Good fightback by Durham who were 4-2, now 72-2

Carberry > Compton

Derbyshire recovered to 256 v Notts, with Chanderpaul unbeaten for the second consecutive innings (87*).

After recent batting woes Durham will probably be satisfied with 237 v Yorkshire - Phil Mustard top scored with 70 as Tim Bresnan took 4 wickets and, according to DEC reporter Amy Lofthouse, bowled well and, importantly, with pace.

In Div Two Gloucs made 192 v Northants, with headline writers dream Cameron Herring scoring 43 in his first first-class knock. Crook and Willey were in the wickets again.

Hants raced to well over 350 on the first day v Worcs. Jimmy Adams made 150 and Carberry and Vince made 50s. Vince looks to finally be cracking 4-day cricket, though reports suggest he got out to a poor shot.

Kent have crawled along v Lancs. Brendan Nash and Mike Powell with 50s on a pretty uneventful day.

Elsewhere, Lancs 2nd XI all-rounder Jordan Clark hit six sixes in an over - against Yorkshire

Notable England players who did well today

Stuart Broad took 4-57
Tim Bresnan took 4-41
Joe Root currently unbeaten on 30
Micheal Carberry hit 62

Can't wait until young Herring scores an embarrassing duck or run out...left him a red herring

A fishy dismissal...

Fists of Fury wrote:Can't wait until young Herring scores an embarrassing duck or run out...left him a red herring

A fishy dismissal...

Plenty of scope for 'great catch[es]' too!

Jimmy Adams, 200! Well played skipper!

Lots of Herring puns from Peter Miller on the DEC blog today - http://deepextracover.com/livematchcentre/10261.

Must be frustrating for Trescothick and Compton to get out just before lunch. But plenty of batting left for Somerset and I think they'll be happy with the first session.

Meanwhile, Kent-Lancs continues to be one for the purist! Lancs 22-1 from 15 overs...

Somerset 297-4, Alviro going well on 117* and Jos (apparently short for Joseph, who knew) Buttler is 60*. Need 400 minimum from here and then the real trouble of bowling Warks out twice starts, with us missing Kirby and Dockrell.

Thanks shelsey and nick for the brief reports, keep them coming!.
Is Buttler keeping? Or is it still Kieswetter? One of them have to make a county move I think. Its in England's interest that Buttler keeps more.

Kieswetter will keep according to the BBC website msp. Yes, it would benefit England for it to be the other way round.

J Taylor 58* against Derby, huge chance to stake his claim for that number 6 spot. Especially as Root and Bairstow haven't gone big (49 and 16).

Think it'll take a lot to oust Root from the side, at least for that first test. Think he has earned his chance to start the series, and 49 suggests he's not out of touch. Taylor would need big hundreds, not one or 2, but more than that, to force his way back in.

Read Swanny will be back in action for his county next week. Good news for England.

JDizzle wrote:Kieswetter will keep according to the BBC website msp. Yes, it would benefit England for it to be the other way round.

J Taylor 58* against Derby, huge chance to stake his claim for that number 6 spot. Especially as Root and Bairstow haven't gone big (49 and 16).

Perhaps the England team management should have a quiet word with the county management on the Buttler situation. And from whatever I've seen, Kieswetter doesn't come up as a significantly better keeper. Perhaps Buttler is a better fielder?

msp83 wrote:Think it'll take a lot to oust Root from the side, at least for that first test. Think he has earned his chance to start the series, and 49 suggests he's not out of touch. Taylor would need big hundreds, not one or 2, but more than that, to force his way back in.

I was thinking more that Taylor might slot in ahead of Bairstow against NZ especially considering KP is out injured. It's between them two for the number 6 slot IMO, with Root at 5, with no KP about.

Yeah, from what I understand the ECB have tried to have a word with Somerset about Buttler keeping wicket and I have always seen them as not being too different with the gloves (although this suggests Kies is the better gloveman: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/mar/19/somerset-craig-kieswetter-jos-buttler) but Buttler is an outstanding outfielder and I can't see Craig being better than him there.

Btw, Buttler is 90* overnight against Warks.

msp83 wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Kieswetter will keep according to the BBC website msp. Yes, it would benefit England for it to be the other way round.

J Taylor 58* against Derby, huge chance to stake his claim for that number 6 spot. Especially as Root and Bairstow haven't gone big (49 and 16).

Perhaps the England team management should have a quiet word with the county management on the Buttler situation. And from whatever I've seen, Kieswetter doesn't come up as a significantly better keeper. Perhaps Buttler is a better fielder?

On the subject of England wicketkeepers, just to mention that Matt Prior is playing in Sussex's current match against Surrey at the Oval but purely as a batsman. Ben Brown is keeping. Prior fielded alongside him most of yesterday at first slip.

As regards ''potential England watch'', Tremlett bowled 16 overs today in that match. Reasonably tidy but not especially threatening. He ended the day wicketless although he and all the close fielders seemed convinced he should have had a caught behind. More encouragingly, his general fitness and movement semed massively better than on his sole Surrey CC appearance last year; he appeared to get down to the ball much better and even pulled off a very fine diving stop to prevent 4 overthrows.

The 'keeping situation is a tough one for Somerset.

My take is that Somerset want to back their man, Kieswetter, who has kept for them for a number of years and has been a very successful Championship 'keeper-batsman. In truth there is little difference between their keeping abilities (in many ways Jos looks more of a natural), but I guess Kieswetter would move if he lost the gloves - as if he gets a Test chance it will be as a back-up 'keeper. The compromise is that Buttler will take the gloves in one-day cricket.

Notts have a 69 run lead against Derbys with 5 wickets in hand. Ed Cowan and Alex Hales posted half-centuries, whilst James Taylor is unbeaten on 67. A bit of a struggle for Derbys who have curiously left out Turner, who I thought was quite impressive at Lord's last week.

A dramatic collapse saw Yorks bowled out for 177 against Durham, conceding a lead of 60. Onions did the damage with 5-63. Root made 49 and Bairstow 16.

Somerset had by far the better of Day 1 v Warks. Trescothick and Compton made 50 and then got out (Compton quite clearly knicked his). But Alviro Petersen took over with a second hundred in as many games, and Jos Buttler is on an unbeaten 90 overnight.

Northants's strong start to the season is continuing v Gloucs. Northants took a lead of over 200, following half-centuries for Alex Wakely, James Middlebrook and Steven Crook. Trent Copeland - perhaps the best number 11 of all time - followed up last week's 70 with 27*.

Hampshire managed 500 against Worcs with Jimmy Adams completing a double-hundred before the declaration. In response Worcs are 129-5.

It rained for most of the day at Old Trafford, where Lancs-Kent is going nowhere.

Poor from Warks yesterday, barring the second new ball spell. Woakes bowled very well, though Chris Wright took some time to get in to his stride, unusually for him.

Barker is a huge miss, it means that there is some let up for the batsmen when the likes of Hannon-Dalby come in to the attack, whereas a quintet of Wright, Barker, Woakes and Clarke give little away on most occasions.

Here's my latest article for cricinfo, discussing the brittle Warks top order. Thoughts appreciated.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/632184.html

5 wicket haul for Graham Onions yesterday, he's certainly getting back into form. Anderson took 4 for, as did Broad and Bresnan. English bowling certainly in form, although no wickets for Tremlett and Panesar. Batting wise, Taylor has complied another half-century. Plenty to think about for England then.

Looks like Taylors going to be stranded on 82 no with only 2 Notts wickets left

Somerset have got all 5 batting points against Warwickshire, Petersen and Buttler with centuries, and now Somerset have an early wicket. Great platform for them to nab their first win, and what a victory it would be against the Champions.

GSC wrote:Looks like Taylors going to be stranded on 82 no with only 2 Notts wickets left

Fletcher supporting Taylor well. He is 19* off 63 with Taylor up to 112*!

Aye, I'm a pretty reliable jinx where Notts are concerned

Jams Taylor giving the selectors something to ponder early season.

Warwickshire in a whole heap of trouble - 123/6.

Cracking knock from Taylor in the end. Need a few more of them Jimmy and the selectors won't be able to ignore you!

Warks were all out for 158 in the end, the wickets shared around and it is good to see the Overton brothers both playing and in the wickets. By all accounts they ball with some serious pace and have top potential. Bit surprised we didn't enforce the follow on though, maybe Fists can inform us as to why Somerset are batting again?

I read Graeme Swann will be playing for his county next week. With Anderson, Broad, Finn and Onions getting themselves among the wickets some game time and good form for Swanny would help England in the big summer.
The lack of big scores from the likes of Root and Bairstow is a bit of a concern though, particularly as Kevin Pietersen won't be available for the early engagements in the summer and even him taking the field for that first ashes test could be a demanding task, considering the lack of serious game time before that. Are the likes of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott playing in this round of county cricket?

On the subject of who to keep for Somerset, similar keeper standard from what I've seen and Buttler is by far a better fielder.

msp83 wrote:I read Graeme Swann will be playing for his county next week. With Anderson, Broad, Finn and Onions getting themselves among the wickets some game time and good form for Swanny would help England in the big summer.
The lack of big scores from the likes of Root and Bairstow is a bit of a concern though, particularly as Kevin Pietersen won't be available for the early engagements in the summer and even him taking the field for that first ashes test could be a demanding task, considering the lack of serious game time before that. Are the likes of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott playing in this round of county cricket?

Bell and Trott are still rested which is a bit strange. I think the reason is that each England player gets 2 Champ games before the Tests v NZ and the fixtures just work out in such a way that Finn was available was last week but Bell and Trott won't be until next week.

----

Derbys were reasonably resilient today, and now trail Notts by only 44 with 5 second inns wickets in hand. Chanderpaul made 57. Broad is yet to take a wicket in this innings.

Durham captain Paul Collingwood has set Yorkshire 336 to win. The chase was set up by a century from Mark Stoneman and 61* from Dale Benkenstein which allowed Durham to declare at 275-4. Bresnan picked up 2 wickets, but went at over 4 per over.

Warks are in big trouble against Somerset. Speaking on TV, Trescothick said he didn't enforce the follow-on as he felt the bowlers were tired after the workload during the first couple of games and wanted to set Warks a big total.

Gloucs are on the brink of defeat to Northants - they lead by 68 with just 1 wicket in hand. Chris Dent, Alex Gidman and Benny Howell recorded half-centuries.

Worcs are 5 down following on v Hants. Daryl Mitchell is unbeaten on 71 and will need to put in a heroic performance to stop Hants from winning tomorrow.

Lancs lead Kent by 112. Realistically this match is headed for a draw, though if Key and Chapple are really keen we could get a contrived result I guess. Simon Katich is 93 not out and passed the 20,000 FC runs landmark. Meanwhile, Karl Brown and Ashwell Prince also recorded half-centuries.

Bit surprised to see Warks fold so readily against Somerset. Could be a case of everyone (apart from Surrey ) beating everyone else....

Looks like not much more than a formality for Notts to beat Derby.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Bit surprised to see Warks fold so readily against Somerset. Could be a case of everyone (apart from Surrey ) beating everyone else....

Looks like not much more than a formality for Notts to beat Derby.

Results really playing into Middlesex's hands. If results go as it looks like they will Middx will be a handful of points behind Durham (who most don't see as a threat) with a game in hand on the leaders. Warwickshire and Surrey will already have lost considerable ground.

Notts held up by stubborn 6th wicket partnership, and now rain. Derby are 29 ahead and still with 5 wickets in hand.

Somerset lead approaching 400, and still with 6 wickets left. Even fabled Warks lengthy batting line up likely to struggle to get 500 to win!

Broad takes 3 lower order wickets so now Notts on brink of victory.

Yorkshire required an improbable 336 to win. They're currently 178/4, Joe Root leading the charge with 96* so far.

212/4 at tea, Root on 118*. One more session, 124 more needed for Yorkshire - it goes without saying, Root is the key.

243/5 now, Ballance caught behind. Down to Root and Rashid now.

Looking like a Root march to victory. Will be a fine effort by Yorks if they can knock off the last 20 runs they need.

182 to Joe Root, and Yorks win by 4 wickets. Root took them pretty much to the finish line, but just got out without exactly finishing it off. Tim Bresnan with the winning hit.

Warks make good start in their lengthy run chase. But two wickets in two balls with score on 138 keeps Somerset firmly on top. Evans at the crease - big chance to give his PR agent something to talk about.

Warwickshire 4 down now, Chopra out for 108, young Jack Leach with all 4 wickets so far for Somerset.

Warks 232 - 4 at lunch. Evans battled away all morning for 33*. A Warks victory looks unlikely but they could yet hold out for a draw with their batting line up (as deep as the Mariana Trench )

Warks upping the tempo - looks like they are having a go at the target....

Run out of steam now, 376/9. This will be maximum points for Somerset.

423 - 9 unbroken last wicket partnership of 47 holding up Somerset. Can't be many more overs to go.

Last wicket partnership bats for 21 overs to hold out for the draw.....

Well played Rikki Clarke who had a fine match

All over, maybe it won't be maximum points for Somerset! 10th wicket partnership lasting 127 balls to defy the odds and get the Champions a draw.

Great cricket this afternoon, though a shame that Nick Cook had a stinker.

Trescothick will have to think hard about the follow-on, though there was sound cricketing logic behind the decisions. I just think that with the follow-on enforced it was much harder for Warwickshire to draw (as Somerset could force the pace with the bat if needed and the deficit was so big that Warwickshire would have had to bat well into today just to get level).

A few people also saying Somerset batted on too long on the 3rd morning, though I personally think that, having made the follow-on decision, they did what they had to do. In the end Warwicks were only 100 or so short, so if Somerset batted half an hour less there is a decent chance they'd have got there.

Magnificent backs to the wall effort by Warks.

Evans and his PR agent should be able to dine out on that!

More seriously and following on from Shelsey's post, I'm surprised Trescothick didn't enforce the follow on.

Bit of a mixed bag this round of matches.

Two excellent matches with the result in doubts for long periods (Somerset/Warks and Durham/Yorks)

Three matches that were pretty one sided, (though Notts had to work hard for quite a while against Derby).

Couple of rather tedious draws (very - in the case of Lancs/Kent and fairly in case of Surrey Sussex)