365 Sporting Days

There were 3 matches today, I was at The Oval to watch the match between the 2 teams trying not to finish bottom of the Southern table. I then went to the theatre, which means I’m writing this close to midnight, so it should be brief!

Lancashire 239 for 6 v Derbyshire 209 for 7

Harvey Hosein won the toss for Derbyshire and put Lancs in to bat. The game was reduced to 38 overs apiece as the weather had a say. Haseeb Hameed was out on the 3rd ball of the first over, Lancs were 1 for 1, not the best of starts! His opening partner Keaton Jennings however fared better making 84 from 88 balls. Glenn Maxwell has been replaced at Lancs by Jake Lehman, he had a great start, making 77 from 67 balls. Jennings and Lehman scored 161 of Lancs 239 with 5 batsmen contributing just 20 between them.

In reply Derbyshire fell to 122 for 6, Billy Godleman opening made 42; Anuj Dal batting at 7 made 52 and captain Hosein 41, but with wickets falling regularly they fell short by 30 runs.

Hampshire 355 for 5 v Sussex 346 All Out

With 701 runs scored this was probably the match to be at today, Sam Northeast was captain for Hampshire today, he won the toss and elected to bat. There were 3 centuries scored in the match and 2 of them came in the first innings. Tom Alsop opened and made 124 from 132 balls, Aiden Markram in at 3 scored 130 from 87 balls. Hampshire made 355 in their 50 overs for the loss of 5 wickets.

In reply Sussex looked to be in deep trouble at 103 for 5, but Ben Brown and David Wiese put on 232 for the 6th wicket! Brown made 64 from 56 balls and Wiese had what was a remarkable innings finishing on 171 from 126 balls. Brown was out in the 48th over with the score on 335 for 6, Sussex needed just 20 runs from 16 balls. Mason Crane who’d taken BBrown’s wicket took the wickets of Briggs and Hamza, both for a Duck and Sussex fell short by 9 runs.

• Tom Alsop – 124 from 132 Balls – Strike Rate 93.94
• Aiden Markram – 130 from 87 Balls – Strike Rate 149.43
• David Wiese -171 from 126 Balls – Strike Rate 135.71

Surrey 127 All Out v Kent 131 for 2

In contrast to the match at The Ageas Bowl 258 runs were scored at the Oval today. Rory Burns won the toss for Surrey and elected to bat. No actual star men by my criteria in this one. But, Dean Elgar certainly shone in what was a dire innings. He scored 62 runs in Surrey’s innings of 127. That innings prolonged his team’s stay at the crease, they lasted for 35.2 overs, or around 2 hours. A mention for Daniel Bell-Drummond, he bowled 7 overs and took 2 wickets! I’d never known him to bowl before!

Kent in reply lost Zac Crawley in the 7th over, they were 29 for 1. Bell-Drummond made 41 before he lost his wicket, Kent were then 72 for 2. Matt Renshaw (Australian in practice) with 32 and Heino Kuhn with 36 saw Kent to the win by 8 wickets. The Surrey bowlers did make them work for it and we saw 28 overs. But were still on the way home before 5 o’clock.