After dismissing the home side for 180, Rory Burns probably thought that one decent partnership would get the leaders ahead and two would put them into a winning position. The first came in somewhat unusual circumstances (it was a match of unusual circumstances, in which one Overton concussed the other) as Hashim Amla was unable to continue, so the second wicket partnership of 136 was constructed by the captain, the Overseas signing and Ben Geddes. Will Jacks and Jordan Clark added 86 for the sixth wicket and Somerset were 200 or so behind with almost half the match to be played.

But pitches are not deteriorating this season (or maybe, as in Surrey’s case, spinners are not being picked) and Lewis Goldsworthy and Lewis Gregory got their side level before Peter Siddle showed that he has lost none of his tenacity at 37. Surrey were still 39 short with half the order back in the hutch, but Jacks and Clark continued where they left off the first time round and the clearheaded Overton was at the crease when the winning runs were scored. Surrey stay top.

Ball two: Hill the obstacle as Hampshire tough out win

The win looked a long way off after the visitors had racked up 428, 21-year-old George Hill stepping up from the seconds with 131 in the opener’s slot. At 12-2, James Vince was at the crease and knew his batters would need to deliver – and they did, all but his No 11 notching at least 30 to stay in the game.

Not a single Tyke could reach that mark second time around, as the experienced seam trio of Keith Barker, Kyle Abbott and Brad Wheal bagged three wickets each, leaving their batters 197 to get. Liam Dawson, whose spin had not taken a wicket, and Nick Gubbins stuck to the old-school plan of getting them quickly, scoring an aggregate 109 runs off 110 balls, but it was the wise old heads of Barker, James Fuller and Abbott (over 100 years between them) who brought the points home.

After Alex Davies had, somewhat inevitably, scored a century for Warwickshire against his old comrades, Dane Vilas was looking at 329 in just over a day to win the match – even a day earlier, such a target looked stiff, but maybe things have changed since McCullumism was introduced to English cricket.

Luke Wells, in a trough of indifferent form, and Rob Jones, in only his second match in the championship, were the unlikely Red Rose version of the England redheads, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes. But this was no charging flurry of sixes and fours, more a calculated accumulation that kept the required rate under control and made sure the late middle order were not exposed too early. Wells’ 175 in not much shy of seven hours was cricket as it used to be played – and no less effective for that.

Ball four: Notts tie up easy win after first-innings chasing

It was another example of an emerging theme this season. No side is ever batted out of the match, grounds staff delivering on the request to make it harder for a bowler to hit good areas at just below 80mph and wait for the ball to jag this way and that, receiving a routine 4-75 as a reward.

Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed walked to the crease with the Grace Road scoreboard telling them that they were over 400 behind, but after another fine knock from Ben Duckett and plenty of support down the order (even Extras were within a run of notching a half-century) their counterparts, Hasan Azad and Rishi Patel took guard a second time over 100 behind – which must have been a little soul-destroying.

Cue one of the stars of the early season, Liam Patterson-White, who added four second innings wickets to the three he bagged in the first dig, and the visitors travelled the short distance home having secured an innings victory – not something that used to happen too often after conceding 440 runs before lunch on Day Two.

Ball five: The past is a foreign country

Last week at Chelmsford, Essex made 244-7 in their 20 overs and Sussex, eschewing their inner Gavaskar, had a damned good go at it, led by Ravi Bopara, back in familiar territory. They fell 11 short of a tie, but the 40 overs produced 477 runs. Somewhere Peter, Richie and Jim are nodding towards Fred Trueman, who is saying: “I don’t know what’s going off out there.”

Source: The Guardian

Powered by NewsAPI.org