Mark Robinson, Warwickshire’s first-team coach, compared Surrey to Manchester City as he chewed over a nine-wicket defeat at The Oval.
“We’ve done a lot right, but we haven’t been good enough. It’s aspirational for us as a big club like Warwickshire to get up level with them – at the moment they’re Man City and we’re not, you need a few things to go your way to give yourselves the best chance.
“We don’t like being bowled out in 60 overs, and we shouldn’t be, but there’s a lot of variation in the wicket and Surrey have an international attack.” Surrey took under 40 minutes to knock off the required runs, and go 21 points clear at the top of the Division One tablewith their third successive victory.
Streamers and klaxons for Gloucestershire as they won their first Championship game since September 2022, defeating Northamptonshire by 256 runs at Wantage Road. Karun Nair and George Bartlett held things together for the hosts, but only until the second new ball. Marchant de Lange and Ajeet Singh Dale grabbed three wickets each as Northants lost their last five wickets for 35 runs.
Twenty-year-old Matty Hurst hit a maiden first-class hundred, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Lancashire falling to a nine-wicket defeat at Trent Bridge. It was Nottinghamshire’s first win under captain Haseeb Hameed who, after his mammoth 247 in the first innings, then hit the winning run, on the field for every minute of the game. Lancashire, firmly attached to the bottom of the Division One table, stare at a third defeat.
At Canterbury, Worcestershire and Kent shook hands on a draw, with Josh Baker remembered on Worcestershire’s shirt and in their hearts. Jack Leaning was stranded on 179 in the first innings and there was time for Zak Crawley to be out cheaply in the second – just 67 runs in six innings this summer. Elsewhere, Hampshire and Durham drew at rain-hit Southampton.
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Thank you all for your company this week. We’ll be back on Friday – with all 18 teams back in the mix and Surrey sitting pretty. Till then, may May sparkle kindly.
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