Somerset’s dreams of a first Championship pennant continue to bubble and squeak, for now sitting pretty at the top of the table with just three rounds to go. The innings victory over Glamorgan, while Nottinghamshire were hamstrung by the weather and a stoical Leicestershire, put the spring in a west country step.
There were three wickets each for the on-song Jack Leach, Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory, the main resistance coming from Asa Tribe and Sean Dickson, who both made forties, but it was all over before tea.
But Warwickshire were close on their tails after mopping up at Southampton. A match that had started grubbily for Hampshire with the signing and unsigning of Scott Kuggeleijn finished with them dismissed for 115 and 154 to lose by an innings, flailing below the pack at the bottom of Division One. Chris Woakes whipped out both openers cheaply in Hampshire’s second innings and Manav Suthar pocketed four.
There was a high-wire finish at the Oval
There was a high-wire finish at the Oval as Surrey snookered Yorkshire by one wicket and with it the spoils of 19 points to leapfrog them and out of the relegation zone. Surrey’s pursuit of 185 was stop-start-stop and when Ollie Pope went for a 12 that contained only two scoring shots and Ben Foakes was done by a Ben Coad chestnut before lunch, Surrey looked shot. But while Josh Blake’s stoical 43 off 183 balls blocked one end, the tail played shots at the other. With Surrey eight wickets down, and eight runs needed, Auqib Nabi trumpeted Coad out of the ground but was out next ball. Ten scoreless deliveries followed until Dan Worrall finally hoiked a boundary to win.
The wretched season at Old Trafford rolled on, as Tom Helm (four for 36) and co bowled Middlesex to victory. After a promising start in pursuit of 297, Lancashire crumpled, losing seven for 39. George Balderson had earlier grabbed five for 54 as Middlesex spiralled in a similar manner, buoyed up by a sing-song 37 from Toby Roland-Jones.
Nottinghamshire’s campaign was held up by the unlikely figure of the Leicestershirefast bowler Josh Hull, who came in as nightwatcher at Trent Bridge on Thursday night, and had only reached double figures three times in 34 innings. He was finally out after more than five hours at the crease for 97.
Source: www.theguardian.com
