County cricket talking points: Notts soar higher as Lancashire sink lower

Ball one: Hutton and Haynes bring happiness

A second consecutive win – a 366-run evisceration of Hampshire – lifted Nottinghamshire 12 points clear at the top of Division One. Haseeb Hameed’s team are clearly the outstanding team in the Championship with more than a third of the season already gone.

Playing only his 10th first class match, Freddie McCann, who started the campaign as a teenager, was last man out for 138, his third career century. Kyle Abbott’s five wickets had justified, to some extent, Ben Brown’s decision to bowl – an increasingly popular option for captains. But Hampshire had no answer to a seam attack ideally suited to Trent Bridge conditions, Mohammad Abbas (five wickets), Brett Hutton (six) and Lyndon James (seven) rolling Mr Brown’s Boys twice for 196 and 116. There was time in-between for Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White to notch what felt like decisive second-innings tons, but they proved merely icing on a considerable cake.

Brett Hutton has been a consistent performer for years now and it’s something of a surprise to learn that he’s still only 32. He’s only ever played representative cricket at Under-19 level, pigeonholed as lacking the pace to get Test batters out on Test strips. I suspect England would have said the same of his fellow opening bowler in this match, but Abbas has 100 Test wickets at 23, which rather rebuts that argument.

Ball two: it’s the way he bats and bowls ‘em

After a bit of a mauling from the leaders last time out, Sussex defeated a spirited Worcestershire to go third in the table with the vanquished county in danger of being tailed off at the bottom.

The crucial innings in a low-scoring match was played by Jack Carson, whose first innings 102 from No 8 improved the scoreboard from 88 for 6 to 284 all out. Finn Hudson-Prentice’s 5 for 40 was enough to secure a 104-run first-innings lead and, despite a fighting 167 from Jake Libby, victory was secured by 47 runs.

Carson, once a bowler who bats, is morphing into a batter who bowls, as his season averages, 42 and 67, stand in contrast to his career averages, 24 and 33. The County Armagh born off-spinner is England-qualified and, though he has some development to do before he’s seriously mentioned in dispatches, at 24 he has time on his side. But runs in Spring and wickets in Autumn, is a very handy combination for a county pro to possess.

Ball three: the only way is defence for Essex

How many is enough, was the question on Jonny Bairstow’s mind, as he plundered 79 runs at better than a 100 strike rate having been given an armchair ride by Adam Lyth’s latest big knock, 185. If 520 seemed excessive, even at Chelmsford, it didn’t look like it mattered much as Essex, having chased leather for 116 overs, squandered four wickets on the third evening.

But, as Scarlett O’Hara knew, tomorrow is another day and all-rounder Matt Critchley and wicketkeeper Michael Pepper came out with the intention of frustrating the bowlers and did so, batting through to the last ball before tea, each going at the Boycottian strike rate of 30.

It was a herculean effort that Simon Harmer backed up with 37 overs of unbowed resistance of his own, superbly supported by a 32-ball duck from Shane Snater and 80 minutes split evenly between No 10 Kasun Rajitha and No 11 Jamie Porter. The draw didn’t do either side much good in the table, but that home sextet had played cricket from a bygone age, demonstrating the patience and bloody-mindedness that, like a particularly rich tiramisu, is a delight, but not one to enjoy every week.

Ball four: ‘the name of the game is not cricket’

As 665 for 5 declared played 504 and 15 for 0, Warwickshire drew with Surrey – and cricket lost.

Praise for the home side’s Tom Latham (184), Ed Barnard (177*), Zen Malik (105*) and Rob Yates (86 and 47 cruel overs of off breaks). And for the visitors’ Ben Foakes (174* after five sessions of keeping) and Matt Fisher (nearly four hours batting at No 11 after 28 overs hard labour). If Beasley Street was a sociologists’ paradise, Edgbaston was a statistician’s paradise – and just about as attractive.

Ball five: leadership under fire at Old Trafford

How is it possible to retain a squad of top-flight veterans, add an overseas player who has hit nearly 150 runs more than any other batter in the County Championship and yet find yourself rock bottom of Division Two? Your correspondent is not the only Lancashire supporter asking those questions.

After four draws, the Red Rose wilted to an ignominious defeat at Wantage Road. At 67 for 6 on the first morning, Lancashire had the home side exactly where they wanted them, but a spirited late-order fightback got Northamptonshire up to 238, representing a toehold in the match. Marcus Harris then did what he does and constructed a third ton in five matches to secure a useful 38-run lead on first innings.

At 107 for five, Northamptonshire’s top order had failed again and it looked like Lancashire’s season would be getting off to a start at last. But the match turned on Ben Sanderson being dropped on four and then blitzing 65 off 28 balls from No 9, a first half century after 112 matches, setting a shell-shocked batting line-up 236 for the win. On-loan leg-spinner, Calvin Harrison, snared Harris to break a stand of 83 for the third wicket and the next seven couldn’t muster 50 runs between them.

Dale Benkenstein, Mark Chilton and Keaton Jennings have two more Championship matches before the break for the T20 Blast. The locals at Old Trafford will be informing them of exactly what’s required come Friday’s fixture against Derbyshire.

Ball six: Glamorgan bring the hwyl

Daniel Bell-Drummond had cause to reflect on how capricious the game of cricket can be having won the toss and sent Glamorgan in to bat at Canterbury. After Asa Tribe fell just short of a maiden first-class century, another 21-year-old came to the crease looking for a first ton, and only left it after the declaration came on 549 for 9, Ben Kellaway’s share 181.

Bell-Drummond must have believed that his own sequence of low scores had come to an end with his 223 at Lord’s last time out – three and five suggested otherwise. Only Chris Benjamin, with 94 not out, offered much resistance as Kent went down by an innings and plenty, finding no answers to Glamorgan’s experienced seam attack.

Both sides remain in the logjam of five counties with points tallies in the 50s. Not for the first time, the division is producing too many draws and lacks shape.

This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog