Next stop Cardiff where rain prevented a start until 2:30 in the game between South Africa and West Indies and for once the Duckworth Lewis regulations worked in the Proteas favour and the tied match was enough for them to progress and leave the West Indies looking for flights back to the Caribbean.
Turning to the second division of the championship even more remarkable events occurred, particularly at Chelmsford where Essex's dismissal for 20 (twenty) is their lowest ever total in first class cricket and the lowest in county cricket since 1983. They managed to score a score without any help from extras or indeed from the six who got nought. I wonder how skipper Foster explained his run out. The result leaves Lancashire 33 points behind Northants but with a game in hand and the two meet at Old Trafford on Thursday, a listed match for me.
Still in Div Two and a game that may just have slipped beneath your radar occurred at the Ageas Bowl where both sides forfeited an innings to leave Hants needing 411 off 169 overs to record just their second win of the season. Skipper Jimmy Adams must have begun to feel he had got the rough end of the deal when he was dismissed for his fourth duck in his last five innings and Fuller and Gidman worked their way steadily through the rest of the home team's batting to give 'Glors' victory by 198 runs. All of which leaves last year's wooden spoonists at the dizzy heights of third and Hampshire beginning to foresee another season in the lower tier in 2014.
If all this excitement wasn't enough I conclude with events at The Riverside. Having enjoyed the ebb and flow of the first two days' cricket on the 'questionable' wicket I decided that I would not travel north yesterday morning but instead catch up on a few jobs at home. In any case the forecast indicated there would be interruptions in play. In my last posting I expressed the hope that Durham's last two wickets might stretch their lead to 250. With Richardson receiving help from Rushworth they were able to just exceed that and set the Bears 257 to win.
Warwickshire lost two wickets before lunch and Durham chiselled away during the afternoon to the point where the score stood at 146 for 7. Enter that man Patel: top scorer in the first innings and with five wickets in the match he and Javid added 86 for the eighth wicket before they were removed by Onions. During this stand your Lower Ure Valley correspondent grew increasingly nervous which was not helped when Wright hit a couple of fours to narrow the gap to eleven with the last pair at the crease. Up stepped Stokes, who had a fine match, to take the last wicket and set off a torrent of tweets, texts and phone calls to and from my phone. Durham are now second to Yorkshire in the table each having completed half their programme. Yorkshire welcome Surrey to Headingley on Friday and unless today's events at Arundel mirror the kind of stuff I have been describing the brown caps will travel north without a win to their names: not quite what the Oval faithful had in mind when Graham Smith led his side out against Somerset two months ago. After yesterday's excitement Durham will be pleased that they can put at least their first class feet up until Derbyshire come to town in July.
Tomorrow sees the Regional Finals of the National Village Cup and in North Yorkshire (South) it is Studley Royal v Sheriff Hutton Bridge. In NY North Harome take on Sessay. In West and South Yorks it is Streethouse v Old Sharlston CC from Wakefield.
No comments:
Post a Comment