Ball One: Essex hold Surrey close

The big climbers in the Championship last week, pop pickers, are Essex who rose all the way up to second with their smash, The Teddy Bear’s Points Nicked. Enough of that fluff. Essex played some of the old hits to leapfrog their opponents, Warwickshire, and hang on to Surrey’s coattails after the leaders slipped up at home to Lancashire.

Tom Westley, the Essex captain, and Dan Lawrence (who might be otherwise engaged with England soon) put together a stand of 227 for the third wicket, the home side’s first innings puffed up to 457 by some late-order biffing, Dom Bess finding it tough bowling in his single-match loan from Yorkshire.

Inevitably, Simon Harmer was the main man in pursuit of 20 wickets, bagging half of them in 71 overs of sustained probing, though even he found it tougher when the away side followed-on. Essex are still 23 points behind the defending champions, but it’s July now and Harmer is the most lethal weapon in domestic cricket as pitches feel the weight of months of sunshine.

Ball Two: Dawson sends Middlesex up the creek

Hampshire, whose season was in danger of fizzling out after a promising start, must have been delighted to welcome Middlesex to the Ageas Bowl, the Londoners’ two wins in April looking like a freak peak in a disappointing season. However, it’s one thing to have obliging opponents, but another to make it count.

Liam Dawson is in his 17th season of Championship cricket for Hampshire and not a man to look a gift horse like that in the mouth. A score of 141 in the first innings and then six for 40 and six for 90 sent the Londoners home a day early with an innings defeat in their kitbag and more disgruntled members to face.

Dawson’s was the first century and 10-fer double in the Championship since 2014, Jack Shantry the unlikely man to have pulled it off back then. The feat has given his team a sniff of catching the leaders but they will need to show the consistency that has largely eluded them this season and get their phalanx of thirtysomethings on the field for all the September matches.

Ball Three: Kookaburra flies at Wantage Road

I doubt that there is much meat on an avian Kookaburra, but that didn’t stop the form batter in the country, Daniel Bell-Drummond, from tucking into the Australian ball of the same name in the first of its two rounds’ use in the Championship.

When innings are extended (and replying to 237, 621 is probably not indulgent to be fair) to allow a batter to reach a landmark, even one as rare as 300, it can feel a little like the premier competition is being treated as a country house match. Not this time. Northamptonshire, having chased leather for pushing 150 overs and facing a deficit of 384, got their heads down and made their fellow relegation strugglers fight all the way for a hard-earned win that could be the difference come late September.

It’s too early to tell if the Kookaburra ball will be deemed a success, but it made for some good Division One matches and unexpected results in the first week of its trial period.

The Kookaburra ball. Photograph: Dave Vokes/Shutterstock Ball Four: Oli does not lose his marbles and seizes the draw

All four matches in Division Two were drawn, the bat dominating the Kookaburra ball pretty much everywhere, except Cardiff where Sussex’s last pair hung on for over an hour for the draw.

It turned into a good match after both first innings were stalled on 100 for five or so but recovered to cross 200. The home side extended their advantage to 358 after Sam Northeast’s century. That’s the kind of target that attracts different viewpoints: it’s a big score to chase down and history is against it, but three and a half sessions is plenty of time and who knows with a partnership or two?

Despite the fact that no batter lasted less time than Aristides Karvelas’s 25-minute stay at No3, the partnerships did not come. The Australian Test legspinner, Mitchell Swepson, led an attack that kept taking a wicket when they needed one. Until that last, tense hour when wicketkeeper Oli Carter found the right man in stubborn Kiwi pacer Henry Shipley to help grind out the draw.

Both sides have seven draws from their eight matches and need to convert those stalemates to wins soon if they are to push for a promotion spot.

Ball Five: Madsen for it

In the North Group of the T20 Blast, Birmingham, Lancashire, Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire have progressed to this week’s quarter-finals. Yorkshire fell foul of the weather with two no results but, having lost the previous three matches, they have only themselves to blame in a topsy-turvy season.

Wayne Madsen, Derbyshire’s evergreen South African, was the pick of the group’s batters with five half-centuries to go with a top score of 111 – not bad for a man who will turn 40 in January. There is no substitute for knowing one’s own game and keeping a cool head in the chaos. Although it was not enough to squeeze out the extra two wins his team needed for a shot at getting to Finals Day.

The outstanding bowler in the group also gets a week off, Nathan Sowter’s leg breaks returning 24 wickets at an economy rate of just over a run a ball. The Australian may wonder how his Durham teammates contrived to lose half of those matches despite his efforts. Even the shortest format proves to be a team game for all the individual excellence on show.

Quick GuideT20 Blast quarter-finalsShowWarwickshire v EssexSomerset v NottinghamshireLancashire v SurreyHampshire v WorcestershireThank you for your feedback. Ball Six: A Turn(er) up for the books

Somerset, Hampshire, Surrey and Essex progressed to the knockout stage from the stronger (or was it just the weather?) South Group. Kent’s defeat at Taunton calmed Essex’s fears of being pipped at the post after their last-gasp win at the Oval.

To nobody’s surprise, James Vince was the outstanding batter in the group. He put in the work of two men in the order, with a haul of seven fifties to go with one hundred at an average of 70 and strike rate above 150. One thinks of Vince timing the ball through the covers for four, but his tally of 22 sixes shows he can deliver like the young smiters too.

John Turner, his Hampshire teammate, is making his way in the game in his debut season. The 22-year-old South African seamer is hardly a household name, but anyone going at under seven in this group is doing an outstanding job, as an average of 11 attests. Given his chance after spending five years in the Hampshire youth system, he is hurrying up good batters and will be hard to ignore in first-class cricket, too, as Hampshire push on in the Championship.

This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog Follow Gary Naylor on Twitter