Yorkshire coach Anthony McGrath has described the decision to use Kookaburra balls during this week’s County Championship fixtures as “nonsensical”. McGrath watched Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire play out a draw at Trent Bridge during which just 21 wickets fell. Seven of the nine matches ended in draws, with only Surrey and Northants picking up victories. McGrath...
Wrexham’s first second-tier match for 43 years will be at Southampton on Saturday, 9 August – a day after Birmingham City open the Championship season by hosting Ipswich Town. Leicester City’s return to the second tier begins at home against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday, 10 August. League One play-off final winners Charlton Athletic mark their...
Luke Procter and James Sales both hit brilliant centuries to crown a remarkable Northamptonshire run chase against Middlesex as they reached their 311-run target in just over two sessions with 10 overs to spare at Wantage Road. It took Northamptonshire to their second County Championship win of the season by four wickets and keeps their...
Harry Came fell nine runs short of a second century in the match as Derbyshire were forced to settle for a draw in an exciting finish to their County Championship Division Two match with Gloucestershire at Bristol. The hosts declared their second innings at lunch, having progressed from an overnight 364-3 to 526-6. Graeme van...
Needing to bat almost all day to avoid defeat, Kent chose to open the batting with specialist leg-spinner, Matt Parkinson, who was doing the job for the first time in his county career against his former club. But it was Parkinson’s opening partner, Ben Compton, who was the first batsman to go when he was...
Warwickshire and Somerset harvested a predictable County Championship draw as a forgettable match finally petered out on the final day at Edgbaston. Set a notional victory target of 377 in 69 overs, Warwickshire plodded to 161-4 as Tom Latham (52 from 103 balls) and Sam Hain (68 not out from 157) escorted their team to...
Resuming on 111-4 with a lead of 145, Simpson and Ibrahim were tested by Potts and Ben Raine. Sussex continued their plan of taking time out of the game, with the pair rarely letting their rearguard action slip in the first hour. Potts had a couple of lbw shouts against Ibrahim turned down as the...
Glamorgan started the final day on 131-3 after Northeast and Ingram had survived the final session on day three. They serenely added a further 83 in the morning sunshine with few alarms, as Leicestershire were left ruing Rehan Ahmed’s inability to bowl because of a side strain which is set to rule him out of...
Pocketing 12 points for a draw with Yorkshire was enough to keep Nottinghamshire top of the County Championship table with eight of 14 matches played. They now find defending champions Surrey breathing down their necks, though, after the match at Trent Bridge ended in stalemate, the game coming to an end when the home side...
Tom Westley and Michael Pepper combined for a 215-run sixth-wicket partnership that frustrated Hampshire and ultimately saved Essex from suffering their third County Championship defeat of the season. The pair came together at 131-5, still 26 runs short of making Hampshire bat again, and were not parted for nearly three-and-a-half hours. Slowly but surely they...
Centuries by Luke Wells, Josh Bohannon and Ashton Turner on debut have given Lancashire a chance of defeating Kent on the final day of the County Championship match at Blackpool and thereby securing their first red-ball victory of the season. Replying to the visitors’ 374, Lancashire were 639-9 at the close after a day in...
Somerset’s seamers opened up superbly after Warwickshire resumed on the third morning on 158-1. Matt Henry bottled up his fellow Kiwi Latham with a sequence of maidens before, still to add to his overnight score, he drove at one that nipped away and edged to wicketkeeper James Rew. Five overs and just six runs later,...
Leicestershire began day three on 389-3 but the new ball was available in the second over, with James Harris and Timm van der Gugten quickly getting rid of night-watchman Chris Wright for 19 and Lewis Hill for 70, both caught at slip by Colin Ingram. After the pyrotechnics of the Foxes’ batters the previous day,...
Opener Finlay Bean put a difficult start to the season firmly behind him, compiling a superb maiden double hundred spanning more than nine hours as Yorkshire fought back against County Championship leaders Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Replying to the home side’s 487, Yorkshire – with only one win so far after winning promotion to Division...
Resuming on 249-5 and still 112 short of Sussex’s 361, Durham had seen Graham Clark go on to a half-century before he gloved behind a short ball from Ollie Robinson to be out for 51. But their chances of taking a first innings lead disappeared thanks to a series of rash strokes from the lower...