365 Sporting Days

There were some crazy scores in Division 2 in this second round, there were 10 matches with 5,265 runs and 135 wickets taken! I’ve always tended to keep an eye on both divisions but deciding to do a write up for each round means I’m taking more notice, and I literally couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the scores in one of these games. More of that later!

Middlesex v Lancashire

Unlike the matches in Division 1 there was no toss at Lord’s, therefore Lancashire elected to bowl. It’s good to see some of the England regulars featuring in these early county matches, I don’t suppose Sam Robson was hugely impressed to see Jimmy Anderson hurtling towards him however. Even less so when he took his wicket as he was caught by Glenn Maxwell (Another Australian being given valuable practice) he’d scored 3 and Middlesex 14.

Not the best of starts for the home team, but Nick Gubbins and Steve Ezkinazi put on 112 for the second wicket. Gubbins batted for just over 3 hours, facing 139 balls and making 55 runs. Eskinazi batted for an extra 6 minutes, facing 158 balls from which he scored 75 runs. Those were the only 2 innings of note as Middlesex were bowled out for 265. Anderson took 3 of the 10 wickets but it was Tom Bailey with 5 for 67 in 24 overs who makes my Star Men list.

I am going to wax lyrical over Lancashire’s innings, they had 2 centurions and the most pleasing innings of the round for me was the 117 scored by Haseeb Hameed, he batted for just under 5 hours, facing 196 balls, take a bow young man! He’d made a double century the week before against a University team, but this was at Lord’s in the County Championship. I’ll be thrilled as I’m sure will many others to see the 22 year old repeat this innings after innings.

The second big score went to 23 year old Rob Jones, coming in at 5 he batted for 320 minutes, facing 235 balls, he amassed 122 runs. I’ve rushed ahead of myself here, Keaton Jennings opened with Hameed and the pair put on 123 for the first wicket, Jennings made 52 from 133 balls, a pleasing return.

Captain Dane Vilas alongside Jones helped put on 143 for the 5th wicket, making 68 from 141 balls. Lancashire batted for 138 overs against Middlesex’s 100, reaching 427, there was a stand out bowler however in Tim Murtagh who took 5 for 69 in 35 overs.

Middlesex’s second innings had a worse start than the first as Gubbins was out for a Duck, that man Anderson striking early again. At 0 for 1 and trailing by 162 this was going to be an uphill climb!

Sam Robson made 63 as he batted for just over 3 hours, facing 136 balls, captain Dawid Malan made 51 in just over 2 hours after facing 90 balls, but with just the 2 scores over 30 Middlesex didn’t set Lancashire much to chase when they were all out for 200, the innings lasting for just 81.5 overs. Glenn Maxwell may not have had good batting practice in this one, but he’ll have given the Australian selectors food for thought as he took 5 for 40 in 16.5 overs. Jimmy Anderson whose place in the Ashes is a given took 6 wickets across the 2 innings.

Lancashire reached the 39 they needed for the win, but not with our a hiccup, they lost 3 wickets, winning the match by 7 wickets, taking 22 points home with them.

Star Men

• Nick Gubbins (Middlesex) – 55 from 139 Balls
• Steve Eskinazi (Middlesex) – 75 from 158 Balls
• Tom Bailey (Lancs) – 5 for 67
• Haseeb Hameed (Lancs) – 117 from 196 Balls
• Keaton Jennings (Lancs) – 52 from 133 Balls
• Rob Jones (Lancs) – 122 from 235 Balls
• Dane Vilas (Lancs) – 68 from 141 Balls
• Tim Murthagh (Middlesex) – 5 for 69
• Sam Robson (Middlesex) – 63 from 136
• Dawid Malan (Middlesex) – 51 from 90 Balls
• Glenn Maxwell (Lancs) – 5 for 40

Leicestershire v Worcestershire

The toss took place and Leicestershire put Worcestershire were put into bat, that was a decision I imagine Paul Horton may have regretted.

Daryl Mitchell opened the batting with Tom Fell, made 114, he batted for 253 minutes and faced 213 balls. Another multi-talented sportsman, his Surprising Fact in Who’s Who is that he was in the Aston Villa Academy! Worcs fell to 64 for 2; Hamish Rutherford came in at 4 and put on 166 for the third wicket. Rutherford, who was a popular figure at Essex when he played there a few years ago, became Worcs second centurion, he batted for 313 minutes, facing 230 balls, making 123.

Ben Cox, Worcs Keeper came in at 7, I’ve notice a few keepers scoring well and might just need to take a note of the fact after this week. He batted for 154 minutes, facing 134 balls and was not out 100 as ben Cox, who is also Worcs captain declared on 553 for 6.

Ateeq Javid opened for Leics with Paul Horton, he made 69 from 217 balls, batting for 288 minutes, after the home team found themselves 24 for 2. Mark Cosgrove joined Javid in a partenrship of 11 for the 3rd wicket , reaching 67 from 76 balls himself. Leics were bowled out for 302 in just 91.5 overs, as the Worcs bowlers backed up their batsmen.

3 Leics batsmen attempted to make a competition of the game, however they were bowled out for 233 in 87.3 overs. But as each man got over the 50 their figures get a mention – Hasan Azad made 54 in 170 minutes facing 143 balls; Colin Ackerman batted for nearly 4 hours, no doubt frustrating Leics, he faced 164 balls and scored 69, Lastly Tom Taylor 9 batted for just under 2 hours, making 58 from 87 balls. Worcestershire won this match by an innings and 18 runs taking 24 points.

Star Men

• Daryl Mitchell (Worcs) – 114 from 213 Balls
• Hamish Rutherford (Worcs) – 123 from 230 Balls
• Ben Cox (Worcs) – 100 from 134 Balls
• Ateeq Javid (Leics) – 69 from 217 Balls
• Mark Cosgrove (Leics) – 67 from 76 Balls
• Hasan Azad (Leics) – 54 from143 Balls
• Colin Ackerman (Leics) – 69 from 164 Balls
• Tom Taylor (Leics) – 57 from 87 Balls

Gloucestershire v Derbyshire

Another match where the toss was taken, Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to field. Derbyshire had an unremarkable innings with only Tom Lace making my Star Men list, at just 20 he started his career at Middlesex and signed a 3 year contract after the 2017 season, before going on loan to Derbyshire last year, he made 4 appearances scoring 216 runs. He’s back on loan at Derbyshire for 2019. He batted for 151 minutes, facing 127 balls, making 83 amongst Derbyshire’s 291. Derbyshire were bowled out for 291in 109.2 overs.

Gloucestershire lost an early wicket and were 12 for 1, James Bracey came in at 3 and made 65 from 120 balls, he was in for 153 minutes. his was the 4th wicket to fall and Gloucs were 11 for 4. Gareth Roderick was the top scorer for Gloucs, he batted for 5.5 hours facing 238 balls making 98. Ryan Higgins came in at 7 and made a useful 74 from 104 balls bating for nearly 2.5 hours. Gloucs batted for 129.2 overs and were all out for 350. One notable stat/fact from this innings – Derbyshire used 8 bowlers, Anuj Dal only bowled 2, but his name is there amongst the 8. The other 2 outfielders must’ve wondered what they did wrong!

Derbyshire’s second innings was quite remarkable! They went from being 18 for 2 to 388 for 3! Wayne Maddison who’d bowled 3 overs to Gloucs batted for 7.5 hours facing 351 balls, he made 204! Good job he didn’t wear himself out with the bowling. Alex Hughes, who has a must quote Who’s Who Surprising Fact – He got the the X Factor Bootcamp in 2012! He made 109 from 231 balls after batting for 260 minutes. The 123 overs bowled took the match to its conclusion – a draw.

Star Men

• Tom Lace (Derbyshire) – 83 from 127 Balls
• James Bracey (Gloucestershire) – 65 from 120 Balls
• Gareth Roderick (Gloucs) – 98 from 238 Balls
• Ryan Higgins (Gloucs) – 74 from 104 Balls
• Wayne Maddison (Derbyshire) 204 from 351 Balls
• Alex Hughes (Derbyshire) – 109 from 231 Balls

Glamorgan v Northamptonshire

A toss happened in this match and Glamorgan elected to bat. There were 2 and a bit innings in this match and 1390 runs were scored! That’s going to mean a lot of Star Men with bat in hand I imagine.

As far as Glamorgan went they fell to 62 for 2 then 126 for 3. Marnus Labuschagne (Spot another Australian Ashes hopeful) came in at 3 batted for just under 4 hours, he faced 177 balls and made 121. Billy Root came in at 5 and he and Kiran Carlson put on 172 for the 5th wicket. The man who’s lived in his brother’s shadow to a degree made 126 after batting for just under 4 hours and facing 175 balls. Carlson made 111 from 126 balls. Northants used 7 bowlers, there seems to be a theme!

A moment for a snippet from Who’s Who – Billy Root – Who would you want to bat for your life? Joe Root – because he’d want to save it! Excellent reply!

Glamorgan batted for 125 overs and declared on 570 for 8. That was a high total, you’d think! But, along came Northants, I’m not sure I’ve seen a score as high as the 750 they made! An opening partnership of 303 certainly set them up well Ricardo Vasconcelos batted for 404 minutes, facing 317 balls, Robert Newton was with him for 329 minutes scoring 105 from 243 balls. Funnily enough the change to the game Vaconcleos would like to introduce would see batsmen not having to field, I imagine the front line Glamorgan bowlers would like that ti apply to all!

In the scheme of this innings Northants lost 2 quick wickets, well, for 50 before Josh Cobb and Rob Keogh put on 100 for the 4th wicket, Cobb batted for over 2 hours for his 60 facing 115 balls. Keogh stayed at the crease for 370 minutes, he faced 324 balls and made 150.

There’s no way of telling in what order the Gloucs bowlers were used, but remarkably everyone but the keeper bowled! Good job old fashioned score books aren’t in use, that will have bewildered those who like to fill in their own books or the scorecard. I can only thing despair or exhaustion or both were setting in for the fielding team!

There were 3 more scores over 50 with Alex Rossington contributing 70 from 177 balls and Nathan Buck 53 from 69 balls. Inevitably I suppose with 227.3 overs bowled and 10 bowlers used extras contributed 61!

I’d love to hear from any Glamorgan supporters who were in the crowd, in the same way teams being demolished on wickets like the one at Taunton is criticised I’m not convinced a wicket that appeared to give nothing to the bowlers is good for the game either!

There can’t have been much in the way of time left after Northants monster innings, Glamorgan did bat again and made 70 for 1 in 18 overs. The game inevitably finished with a draw

Star Men (There are lots of them and not a single bowler!)

• Marnus Labuschagne (Glamorgan) – 121 from 177 Balls
• Billy Root (Glamorgan) – 126 from 175 Balls
• Kiran Carlson (Glamorgan) – 111 from 126 Balls
• Ricardo Vasconcelos (Northants) – 184 from 317 Balls
• Robert Newton (Northants) – 105 from 243 Balls
• Rob Keogh (Northants) – 150 from 324 Balls
• Josh Cobb (Northants) – 60 from 115 Balls
• Adam Rossington (Northants) – 70 from 177 Balls
• Nathan Buck (Northants) – 53 from 69 Balls

Durham v Sussex

No toss for this one, therefore Sussex elected to bowl. I imagine this match was everything the match at Glamorgan wasn’t, from the comments I saw on social media it was a nail biter with both teams in the mix until the final few overs. Durham batted for 102.4 overs making 224 before they were all out, Liam Trevaskis was the only batsman to go over the 50, making 54 from 107 balls, and we’re back to a fairly standard number of bowlers for Sussex, just the 6, with Ollie Robinson taking 4 wickets.

In reply Sussex were bowled out in just 68 overs for 202, Luke Wells batting at 3 got 98 of those runs, he faced 188 balls in 284 minutes. The next longest time at the crease was just 59 minutes for Chris Jordan, who was then run out. Chris Rushworth had the best return with the ball taking 4 for 41.

We have a stand out bowler in Durham’s 2nd innings, David Wiese took 5 for 43 in 16 overs as Durham were dismissed for 189, Gareth Harte coming in at 4 was 74 not out after batting for 212 minutes and facing 138 balls.

That left Sussex with 212 to win, which was by no means a given considering their first innings effort. However Stiaan Van Zyl stuck in and made 101 from 149 balls batting for just under 4 hours, Laurie Evans chipped in with 51 from 81 balls and Sussex reached their target with 6 wickets remaining.

Star Men

• Liam Trevaskis (Durham) – 54 from 107 Balls
• Luke Wells (Sussex) – 98 from 188 Balls
• Davide Wiese (Sussex) – 5 for 43
• Gareth Harte (Durham) – 74 from 138 Balls
• Stiaan Van Zyl (Sussex) – 101 from 149 Balls
• Laurie Evans (Sussex) – 51 from 81 Balls

We now go into the Royal London Cup where I’ll be hoping for success for my county Essex, enjoy the matches you get to and I’ll be back for Week 3!