Promotion and relegation issues

A thread to cover the issues for the rest of the cc season.

Durham well on top against Sussex, bowling them out for 112 to gain first innings lead of 133.  With a poor weather forecast for Friday they will want to press home their advantage rapidly.

In the relegation battle Derby have secured a valuable first innings lead of 195 over Somerset, although they will be disappointed to miss out on a third batting point by a couple of runs.  

Notts recovering from nightmare start to their reply to Warks and will be hoping to secure at least parity on first innings.

Div 2 Keogh continuing to prosper for Northants with an unbeaten double century.  Sounds like a fine innings.  Yet again the Northants lower order making a major contribution.  Jon Batty making a guest appearance currently not out at the other end!

Thanks for the thread. A good idea and will nicely fill the void left by my lapsed weekly threads.

You've got to think Durham will beat Sussex. With Collingwood's aggressive style of captaincy I doubt he'll delay the declaration too long, after which a Sussex team who are now short of confidence shouldn't come close.

Derbyshire have rather made a mess of the Somerset game, though some crucial late wickets have evened it up again. Looks like it'll be an exciting couple of days.

Hard to see how Lancs and Northants can be caught in Div 2. Essex still believe though and seem to have hit some sort of consistency.

Durham thrashed Sussex, whose batting was very poor in this match.  Almost as bad as Surrey!  

At the foot of the table Derbys making determined bid to beat Somerset on a pitch that has presumably eased out in the course of the match.  Their target is now 191 with 9 wickets in hand.

Warks lead Notts by 172 with three wickets in hand.

Surrey 159 - 4 still needing another 226.  Decent partnership between Amla and Davies building - but one more wicket and it could all be over in half an hour....

Somerset trying to give Derby a helping hand.  In the space of six balls they conceded 13 in byes (4, 4, 1, 4) and 2 in no balls.  The other two balls in the middle of all this were hit for couple of fours...  

Somerset now conceded 21 byes in an innings of 104 - 2.  

Important win for Derbys ducking the showers in Somerset!

Mathematical equation of the day:

Surrey + (Somerset or Derbys) = Relegation to Div 2

Durham skittle Notts for 78 on first day of their match.  Their bowling is on a roll after also dismissing Derby for next to nothing in the second innings of the last match.  

I see that at the start of the season I predicted Durham would get relegated.  

Corporal, it wasn't a bad prediction. I saw Warwickshire steamroll them at Edgbaston early in the season, and thought I was watching relegation fodder right there. They really did look poor.

A lot of people predicted Durham (and Yorks) for relegation - and Surrey for the title.

With no offence meant to the Surrey faithful on here I'm not sure the latter was ever realistic: one player, especially one batsman, does not make a title win.

Though I thought Durham might narrowly stay up I can't once remember somebody selecting them for the title. And you could see why - 2008/2009 title winning bowling attack largely broken up, Benkenstein winding down and di Venuto gone, very green/ uninspiring batting.

What they do have is a fantastic captain in Collingwood. He reads matches extremely well, isn't scared to take risks (the improbable run chase v Notts, just a week after losing v Yorks following an attacking declaration was season defining) and seems to gets the best out of younger cricketers. Even if his personal returns have been disappointing it is hard to see them being where they are if Mustard, who many think was a poor choice as captain and uninspiring, was still in charge. Their batting is flaky. In fact I'd still put it down among the weakest line-ups in the division. They've improved of late but for most of the season they've only just scored enough runs to bring their bowlers into the game. But the points system favours teams that are better in bowling and in Onions they have undoubtedly the best English bowler regularly playing county cricket. Rushworth has been almost as good and their youngsters have really pulled their weight. They have a conveyor-belt of them: Usman Arshad, Mark Wood, Jamie Harrison et al. Most of them seem to appear from virtually nowhere rather than spend years honing their games in the 2nd XI as both of the London counties, particularly Middx, prefer their youngsters to do.

That said I am very surprised they are where they are now. I saw them live in late July/ early August and their batting looked extremely ordinary: there was an air of inevitability about Murtagh and Finn knocking them over. To get to the brink of the title they have needed to improve in that department and they have done so. Scott Borthwick has responded superbly to his promotion to number three and Mark Stoneman has also been good. None of them have been spectacular but they've done what, given the points system, is required.

In Yorkshire's case I think they have an extraordinarily good all round squad and a superb academy producing some of the best cricketer's in the country. A couple of players have tailed off a bit of late - notably Adil Rashid - but they've performed pretty much all year. Losses in a couple of key games will probably cost them in the end but I'd have them as early favourites for next year.

Shelsey. Good comments. I think the Surrey posters here were fairly realistic about our prospects. I think if our new captain, Smith, had not been injured for most of the season we would probably have avoided relegation. But few of us thought we would get in upper half of the table let alone win the cc.

Durham closing in on the championship.  Notts 6 wickets down and still 34 runs behind.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Shelsey. Good comments. I think the Surrey posters here were fairly realistic about our prospects. I think if our new captain, Smith, had not been injured for most of the season we would probably have avoided relegation. But few of us thought we would get in upper half of the table let alone win the cc.

Spot on.

Many congratulations to Durham on winning the County Championship. A magnificent team effort which surprised a lot of us. Nearly all the players are from the area and/or have come up through their academy - a lesson for others perhaps. Special praise to skipper Collingwood for marshalling his troops so well. Good to see international experience being put to better use than a SKY studio.