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All over at New Road of course. Worcestershire coach Alan Richardson sounded resigned yesterday evening;
“We didn’t handle the third innings of the game very well at all. If you have a session like that you are not going to win many games of cricket. It’s incredibly disappointing to go from a position where we were in a position of strength and ahead of the game and then to lose so quickly.
“It is disappointing to have lost two games after taking a first innings lead but it would be more of a concern if we were never in the games. We are putting ourselves into strong positions, it’s just a question of working out how to make sure we drive those positions home.
“When we look at this game, similar to the Essex game, it was probably one session where we didn’t hit our straps. We didn’t handle the third innings well and that left us far too much to do.”
Saturday's round-up
It was a late-April miracle that the Worcester groundstaff had coaxed New Road into action at all after the pitch was underwater for 39 days across five different floods during the winter. It still bore the scars, however, a verdant outfield that Worcestershire’s New Zealand fast bowler Jacob Duffy called “the slowest outfield he’d ever played cricket on”, and a surface that promised great bounty to the bowlers.
And, in a match played at double-speed, it was injury-hit Durham who came out the best with a six-wicket win in a game where the highest individual score was 42. Twenty wickets fell on the second, and final, day, as first Durham were bundled out for 136, and then a hyperactive Worcestershire limped with chocolate sticks to 81 all out – Ben Raine, unplayable at times, taking four for 20 and Codi Yusuf four for 26. It left Durham chasing 108 for victory. There were hiccups on the way but 20 year old Ben McKinney, rated so highly by England, was resolute in his 34, helped out by twenties from Ollie Robinson, Will Rhodes and Graham Clark.
Delighted Durham return home to stitch up their walking wounded, while Worcestershire ponder a second successive loss despite taking a first-innings lead.
Somerset just about kept Surrey in check on an Oval pitch with occasional bite. Surrey’s powerhouse top six, made up of four batters jilted by England and two men in possession, is an ominous sight and Dom Sibley and Rory Burns made excellent progress on a sunny Saturday morning. But, after lunch, Burns was undone on 76 by a spitting delivery by Lewis Gregory which followed him like a homing pigeon, landing on his top glove before flying to slip. Gregory then bowled Ollie Pope for one. Sibley and Jamie Smith batted like fire and ice, until Sibley had a wanton dance at Jack Leach and was bowled for 53. Smith was well caught for 58 and Somerset chipped away, fielding with great panache. Surrey had a lead of 38 at stumps, helped by a huge early evening six from Gus Atkinson, with three wickets in hand.
Nottinghamshire have victory in sight at Trent Bridge after stretching to a first-innings lead of 131 over Sussex despite Jayden Seales (four for 107) and Ollie Robinson (four for 94) causing some early morning disorder. The valuable late-order run-scrabbling came from Josh Tongue (39 not out) and Liam Patterson-White (42). Tom Haines opened Sussex’s reply and reached his fifty – and 500 runs for the season – with a six, until he was one of three wickets for the Australian Fergus O’Neill, who finishes his excellent spell with Notts at the end of this round. There were two wickets for Farhan Ahmed, and Sussex shuffled to a lead of 64 at stumps, but with only three wickets in hand. Robinson, who bowled 25 overs in Nottinghamshire’s innings, thought Sussex had a chance if they could catch a lead of 150. He also waved in the direction of Rob Key.
“Obviously, I’d love to play international cricket again and I hope that by bowling these longer spells I can prove I can still do that. I’d just like to put my name back in the hat, really.”
Martin Andersson showed his former club, Middlesex, just what they were missing after he hit 107 to put Derbyshire in a strong position at the County Ground. Middlesex then lost three early wickets, one of them to Andersson, who also snaffled a catch. Leus du Plooy retired hurt after his right foot was squished by a yorker from Luis Reece.
Leicestershire and Gloucestershire are still toe to toe after an absorbing day at Bristol. Fifties from Lewis Hill, Ben Cox and Ian Holland helped Leicestershire to a first-innings lead of 10, an excellent result from the doldrums of 37 for four. Dom Goodman collected his first five-wicket haul.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 300 v Sussex 169 and 195-7
The Oval: Surrey 321-7 v Somerset 283
New Road: Durham 136 and 108-4 BEAT Worcestershire 162 and 81 BY SIX WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 472 v Middlesex 101-3
Bristol: Gloucestershire 252 and 88-2 v Leicestershire 262
Preamble
Good morning from a beautifully sunny Oval, and a huge thank you to whoever owns the rambling jasmine on the Harleyford road which throws sweet perfumes to disguise the traffic fumes.
It’s marathon day so London is in bubbling spirits, the trains and streets full of supporters. Good luck to everyone running, both in London and in the Manchester Marathon, including Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss raising money for the Ruth Strauss fund, ( and my brother Tom!).
At opposite ends of the field, two games of football are happening. Play starts here, and everywhere else, at 11am. Pull up a chair, and join us.
