Key events
“Tom Banton is batting on this morning,” reports LongHop. “If Somerset somehow win this game he will not buy another pint of cider in his life. Unbelievable bravery.”
He’s due a scan today too.
“Well here it is then,” chirps Glastonian BTL. “The day Somerset’s dream dies for another year.” A runners-up treble would be particularly heartbreaking, even by Somerset’s standards of agonisingly falling just short. And whatever happens today, they’ve got only todays to patch themselves up – pretty much literally in Tom Banton’s case – for Blast finals day on Saturday and the One Day Cup final on Sunday week. The ever-elusive Championship is the biggie for them though, and they’ve a sniff of a chance today.
Wednesday roundup: Surrey hold edge over Somerset, records fall at Durham
A compelling day at Taunton featured spinners old and new excelling, thrilling late-order hitting and Somerset’s injured star batter hobbling out at No 11 and keeping his side in the match. It ended with the leaders, Surrey, just about having the edge.
The day had begun brilliantly for Somerset, with the teenager Archie Vaughan claiming six wickets to leave Surrey reeling on 228 for eight. But momentum was jerked Surrey’s way by Tom Curran, who clobbered a 75-ball 86 that gave them a four-run first-innings lead, a foundation built on by Shakib Al Hasan.
The former Bangladesh captain took four wickets on a typically spin-friendly Taunton surface, Somerset’s woes further compounded by a warm-up injury to their first-innings centurion, Tom Banton. He managed to hobble out at No 11 with a runner and cracked four fours in a potentially vital unbeaten partnership with Craig Overton.
Off the field, Essex have been docked 12 points for the oversized bat used by Feroze Khushi in their match at Nottinghamshire in April. The club had appealed against the initial charges, citing “inconsistencies with the compliance of bat gauges” but, after an independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel found Essex and Khushi liable, Essex accepted the charges.
Essex’s president, Keith Fletcher, told the Times: “I assume the ECB thought this was cheating and the appeal panel is trying to flex its muscles a bit. Feroze does not believe he did anything wrong and the whole side has been penalised, not just the one player.” On the pitch, Essex’s victory charge in the return fixture was kept at bay by Haseeb Hameed’s hundred as Notts, following on after being skittled for 93 by Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer, closed 184 behind.
Records tumbled at the Riverside, as David Bedingham registered Durham’s highest ever individual score, 279, which underpinned the club-record fifth-wicket stand with Colin Ackermann of 425. Relegation-haunted Lancashire, trailing by 345 after the first innings, managed to at least stay afloat in the second innings, losing only four wickets.
In Division Two, Yorkshire boosted their chances of swapping divisions with their Roses rivals by wrapping up an innings win over Leicestershire, despite a defiant 77 by Rehan Ahmed. The seamer George Hill took six wickets. Ahead of them, the Division Two leaders, Sussex, also completed a thumping innings victory over Glamorgan, Ollie Robinson, Henry Crocombe and Jack Carson claiming three scalps each.
All of which piles pressure on Middlesex, second before the current round of matches, to force a result against Gloucestershire, whom they set 234 after a second-innings collapse. Northamptonshire finally have a Championship win to brag about this season with their new signing, the India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, proving his worth with four second-innings wickets, alongside Rob Keogh’s five, as they hammered Derbyshire by 133 runs.
Preamble
Morning again everyone. Cricket and its players may be being flogged senseless – in every respect – under the game’s current headless-chicken administration, but this great game of ours has thrown up something for everyone this week. Sri Lanka’s unlikely Oval triumph, a record rout for England’s women, a historic win for Ireland’s a couple of days later, and some T20 pyrotechnics from Travis Head and Jofra Archer last night.
And amid all that, the dear old County Championship, beguiling and sometimes bewildering its aficionados with an absorbing fluctuating de facto title decider at Taunton featuring young tyros, old stagers, crocked batters keeping their side in it; records tumbling at Durham; punishments handed down for five-month-old offences and promotion and relegation intrigue.
Obviously, attention today will focus on Taunton, but the one unfinished Division Two match – which we’ve slightly neglected – will have a huge impact on the promotion race, as Middlesex defend a small target against Gloucestershire, who like their rivals Somerset were fired by a teenager named Archie, in their case the 19-year-old medium-pacer Bailey who led the way as the hosts’ second innings collapsed at Lord’s last night. I’ll be toddling off to Lord’s to keep an eye on a straightforward run-chase. And. if the weather holds, every match this round might have a result.
Scores on the doors
Division One
Chester-le-street: Lancashire 228 & 155-4; Durham 573-9 dec
Chelmsford: Essex 457 v Nottinghamshire 93 & 180-2 (f/o)
Canterbury: Hampshire 403; Kent 207 & 70-0 (f/o).
Taunton: Somerset 317 & 194-9 v Surrey 321
Worcester: Worcestershire 307 v Warwickshire 128 & 171-3 (f/o)
Division Two
Leicester: Leicestershire 98 & 209 v Yorkshire 379. Yorkshire won by an innings and 72 runs
Lord’s: Middlesex 377 & 165 v Gloucestershire 309-9dec
Northampton: Northants 219 & 211 v Derbyshire 165 & 132. Northants won by 133 runs
Hove: Glamorgan 186 & 218; Sussex 491. Sussex won by an innings and 87 runs
