County Championship Review – Week 1

 

Division 1

 

Essex (159 &) vs Lancashire (319 & 317-3d)

Essex (8 points) drew with Lancashire (11 points)

Dan Lawrence batted for over seven hours to earn Essex a draw against Lancashire at Chelmsford. Essex had looked destined for defeat after Alex Davies hit his maiden first-class century in helping Lancashire set a target of 478. Two wickets down going in to the final day, Lawrence (141*), supported by Tom Westley (61) and Ryan ten Doeschate (41), held firm against a Lancs attack featuring James Anderson.

 

Surrey (454) vs Warwickshire (91 & 362)

Surrey (23 points) bt Warwickshire (1 point) by an innings and 1 run.

Ashely Giles endured a nightmare start to his return to Warwickshire as they were thrashed by Surrey at The Oval. Mark Footitt produced at stunning spell of 6-14 to skittle the Bears for 91 in their first innings after Mark Stoneman had scored 165 on his Surrey debut. Warwickshire had fought back well on the second morning, taking Surrey’s last seven wickets for 76 runs, but were blown away by Footitt, whose spell sparked murmurs of a potential England recall. Following on, Jonathan Trott’s century halted Surrey’s push for victory but when Footitt, who else?, had him caught at third man for 151, Tom Curran bowled Chris Right to give Surrey an innings victory.

 

Yorkshire (273 & 187) vs Hampshire (141 & 321)

Hampshire (19 points) beat Yorkshire (5 points) by 4 wickets

Hampshire produced a stunning turnaround to beat Yorkshire at Headingly. They conceded a first innings deficit of 132, thanks to Gary Balance’s 120 and Ben Coad’s 6-37, but Kyle Abbott brought them back in to the game, his 7-41 helping to knock over Yorkshire second time around for just 187. That still left the challenging target of 320, but an opening stand of 91 set them on their way before Lewis McManus and Gareth Berg saw them home. A priceless early victory for Hampshire, but Yorkshire will be wondering how they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

 

Division 2

 

Kent (298 & 246) vs Gloucestershire (149 & 61)

Kent (21 points) beat Gloucestershire (3 points) by 334 runs.

Gloucestershire were bowled out for 61 in their second innings as they were thrashed by Kent at Canterbury. With stalwarts Graham Napier and David Masters having retired at the end of last season, another, Darren Stevens, vindicated his decision to keep playing for another season. The 40-year-old hit a first innings fifty before taking 6-22 in the second innings to wrap up a convincing win for Kent. Having managed a paltry 210 runs in the match, things can only get better from here for Gloucestershire.

 

Northamptonshire (310) vs Glamorgan (101 & 187)

Northamptonshire (22 points) beat Glamorgan (3 points) by an innings and 22 runs.

Glamorgan may have managed a few more runs than Gloucestershire, but they still suffered an innings defeat to Northamptonshire at Wantage Road. Rory Kleinveldt starred with bat and ball for the home side, taking three wickets in each innings whilst also smashing 86 off 58 balls. None of the Glamorgan batsmen covered themselves in any glory, nobody passed fifty whilst David Lloyd bagged a pear.

 

Leicestershire (251 & 81) vs Nottinghamshire (329 and 9-0)

Nottinghamshire (22 points) beat Leicestershire (5 points) by 10 wickets.

To say the last few seasons have been difficult for Leicestershire would be something of an understatement. The team famously went 993 days without a win in the County Championship after failing to record a victory in either the 2013 or 2014 season. They have fared slightly better recently but, on the eve of the new season, were docked 16 points as punishment for having had five incidents of dissent within twelve months. Skipper Mark Cosgrove, given a one match ban by the ECB and Charlie Shreck, banned for two games by the club for his part in the latest breach, were unavailable for this game, but would surely not have changed the result. Nottinghamshire’s squad featured no fewer than six England internationals but it was an Aussie who was the match winner. James Pattinson’s 5-29 in the second innings ensured his Notts debut was a winning one.