Tanya’s county roundup
The heady scent of three-day victory filled London’s air as Surrey and Middlesex danced to nine-wicket wins within minutes of each other.
Surrey, the 2022 champions, turned their grip on Warwickshire on the evening of day two into a knockout thanks to a mature innings from Jamie Smith and fearsome bowling from Kemar Roach, leaving them 22 for four at lunch. Only Ed Barnard offered resistance and Surrey needed 11 runs to polish things off. Roach finished with five wickets, Dan Worrall three.
There was high praise for Smith’s 88 from Surrey’s head coach, Gareth Batty: “It’s not his highest score by any stretch but it’s the best I have seen him play, against a very strong attack in difficult conditions… If he keeps playing like that, he will be another one that we won’t be seeing around much, which is a big positive for him and for England.”
Surrey take their place at the top of the Division One table after handing out a thrashing to Hampshire and Warwickshire in quick succession, reinforcing their position as the team to beat.
Middlesex, whose batting had become a cheap joke over the first two games, bounced back with victory over Kent to follow the declaration-and-chase win against Nottinghamshire last week. Despite the best efforts of Ben Compton and Jack Leaning, Kent’s wheels fell off, shortly followed by the electric windows and the windscreen wipers as they lost seven wickets for 22 either side of lunch.
Tim Murtagh, now a player-coach, shoved his 1,000th wicket for Middlesex in his rucksack in the process of picking up six for 42, and 10 wickets in the match. The target of 86 was knocked off with the loss of Mark Stoneman.
Cheteshwar Pujara strode to his seventh century for Sussex in his 12th match. This was a sedate affair early on, but he put his foot down to help Sussex to maximum batting points. A game that looked a certain draw after rain washed out the first day, then sprang into life as Nathan McAndrew winkled out five of Gloucestershire’s batters.
Chris Cooke made another century at the ground where he bashed 191 in Sam Northeast’s record-breaking game last year. He and Michael Neser put on 211 for the eighth wicket, a record for Glamorgan, to make the game safe against Leicestershire.
Durham duly defeated Derbyshire by an innings and seven runs, despite plucky resistance from Matt Lamb, lbw for 99. Matthew Potts captured five for 65.
Updated
With last year’s Champions regaining their rightful place at the head of the table, and Sussex trying their best to make a game of it at Bristol (Gloucs 137-5), time for me to write up. BTL remains open, of course.
Kemar takes the applause, finishing with 5-34 and picking his 500th First Class wicket up along the way 👏👏👏
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) April 29, 2023
What a performance today @KemarAJR 💪
🤎 | #SurreyCricket pic.twitter.com/i2JgHNX9Oq
