Lancashire hold on for Lord's draw
Two riveting draws zipped up the first round of the summer’s County Championship season.
There was a knuckle-gnawer for those who spent their Monday at Lord’s, finishing just before 7pm, the sunshine now shadows. A game that had zigged and zagged for four days came down to the final over, Middlesex needing two wickets for victory, three slips, two leg slips and two men in helmets breathing down George Balderson’s collar as Blake Cullen ran in. But Balderson, who had been dropped earlier in the afternoon, kept Cullen at bay. In the morning, Max Holden had held Middlesex’s second innings together with a perky 184. Michael Jones and Keaton Jennings and later Luke Wells and Marcus Harris (the first Lancashire player to make a century and a 50 in the Championship on debut) then made the chase of 309 in 67 overs seem easy until Zafar Gohar (three wickets), Cullen, Henry Brookes and an inswinging yorker from Toby Roland-Jones kept the result in doubt until the end.
At Taunton, Brett D’Oliveira supervised a phenomenal Worcestershire defensive display, with 121 from 340 balls. He and Matthew Waite – 87 not out from 319 balls – together with an obdurate tail, kept off the Somerset attack. Starting the day at 280 for five, Worcestershire walked off at 485 for nine – dazed but delighted.
A draw too at Chelmsford, where Dom Sibley’s 66 off 221 balls kept Essex at bay after Surrey were forced to follow on. A couple of quick wickets mid-morning, Rory Burns and Ollie Pope for one, temporarily raised the alert level, but Ben Foakes settled in at the other end for his second hard-boiled half‑century of the match and they shook hands at 5.36pm.
Josh Tongue’s first game in a Nottinghamshire shirt finished with a flurry of fireworks, his spell of four wickets in 12 balls with a battered old Dukes destroying the Durham rearguard. Tongue moved from Worcestershire to Trent Bridge at the end of the 2023 season but his 2024 season was wiped out by injury. Here he showed the Nottinghamshire faithful what they had been missing, changing the complexion of a game which had looked to be trickling to a draw.
A placid pitch and two teams determined not to lose meant a high-scoring draw at Edgbaston. Tom Alsop had reached 82 when Sussex declared mid-afternoon against Warwickshire.
Not bad is it? Thanks for your company, have a lovely week and see you Friday. Good night!
