County championship round up

Posted by Tony Hutton

15th April - Yorkshire v Somerset at Headingley

Yorkshire's first home championship match of the season provided four days of competitive cricket at it's best in fine weather and with a good attendence on each day.

Following their fine win at Edgbaston last week with a side consisting of ten Yorkshire born players and only one overseas man - Jacques Rudolph, hopes were high against a Somerset side which contained five South African born players and one from Malaysia.

However it was home grown Marcus Trescothick who provided most of the entertainment on the opening day with a fine century. He raced to 50 off only 46 balls with 10 fours, but then slowed down somewhat, but seemed to be able to pierce the field at will picking up singles and twos into the gaps all the time.

Tim Bresnan broke the back of the Somerset innings by picking up three wickets as the score went from 121-2 to 139-5, but Peter Trego the hero of Somerset's great win against Yorkshire at Taunton last season, joined Trescothick to take it to 206-6 before Rashid had Trescothick lbw for a fine 117. Eventually they were all out for 272 with wickets for all the bowlers with the exception of part-timer McGrath.

Yorkshire lost Adam Lyth to the second ball of their innings, but 51 from Sayers and a fine captain's innings of 101 by Andrew Gale took them into the lead. Bresnan showed his all round capabilities with 61. However probably the turning point of the match came on Saturday morning (day 3) when Rashid and Shahzad put on a partnership of 111 for the eight wicket. Playing with great concentration they took their time initially and took the score beyond 400 before Shahzad was out for 45. Rashid the last man to go made 63.

When Somerset started their second innings Bresnan again made the important breakthrough having Trescothick lbw for only 16. Young Oliver Hannon-Dolby, who had impressed at Edgbaston, then added to his growing reputation with 5 wickets for 68, but the Somerset tail enders worked hard to take the total to 344 leaving Yorkshire to score 198 with about half a day's play remaining.

Initially they made hard work of it but after the early loss of Sayers and McGrath, it was the two left handers Adam Lyth with a splendid 90 and skipper Gale this time with 64 not out who saw them home to a six wicket victory greeted with rousing cheers all round the ground at about quarter to six in the evening.

Next opponents will be Kent at Canterbury who lost by an innings at Trent Bridge yesterday, but apparently by then Shahzad and Bresnan may well have departed for the West Indies and the World T20 competition. Tino Best the West Indian has been signed by Yorkshire but whether he will arrive soon presumably depends on a lifting of the air travel ban caused by the Icelandic volcano.

16th April - Durham v Essex at Riverside, Chester-le-Street (second day)

Taking a day off from Headingley to meet up with a friend of mine who is an Essex supporter at the Riverside on an absolutely perfect sunny day. I had told my friend to bring every item of clothing available expecting the usual freezing early season weather at county cricket's most northerly outpost. However we were able to sit in shirt sleeves for most of the day.

Essex had been put in by champions Durham on the first day and scored 263-4 with an unbroken partnership of 161 between 20 year old Jaik Mickleburgh and wicketkeeper James Foster. To everyone's amazement, including the Durham bowlers, missing Harmison and Onions both injured, these two proceeded to break the all time Essex 5th wicket partnership record by putting on no less than 339.

Mickleburgh, who hails from Norfolk, took his overnight maiden century to 174 before he was finally out at 441-5. Then suddenly everything changed and wickets fell like ninepins, Ten Doeschate for 3, Foster for a marvellous 169, then Napier newly returned from the IPL for 0 and in no time Essex were all out for 484.

Plunkett suddenly seemed to achieve an extra yard of pace and took three wickets very quickly, but Durham had looked anything but the champion county in the field despite two stunning catches by Dale Benkenstein.

Durham progressed steadily to 83-1 at the close of day two, but the following day were shot out for 198 and had to follow on. Fortunately they recovered in the second inning and the game ended in a draw with Durham on 352-7 and two near misses with Di Venuto out for 99 and Benkenstein for 98.

So some early suprises for the champions at the hands of newly promoted Essex. I wonder if this heralds a closer faught championship this season, but as we all know this game can continually suprise us. For these early games to go the full course in good weather has been a real bonus.