County Championship roundup
Three nerve-jangling finishes pushed this June Championship round into the final hour. At the Rose Bowl Hampshire won a thriller thanks to Liam Dawson, who threw the bat with abandon for 67, after Yorkshire had induced an attack of the collywobbles by reducing Hampshire to 103 for six, chasing 197. The win leaves Hampshire sniffing Surrey’s coat-tails, only three points behind the leaders.
A barnstorming innings from Luke Wells carried Lancashire to a pitch-perfect run chase at Warwickshire. Set 329 in just over a day, Lancashire got there with 24 balls to spare. But it was not without incident: Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon both fell in one over from Olly Hannon-Dalby but Wells and Rob Jones took them within sight of the line.
Twelve wickets fell at Sophia Gardens, as Glamorgan wobbled chasing 141 in 43 overs against Sussex. An easy-looking chase quickly smelt differently at nine for three but Sam Northeast and Kiran Carlson carried them home.
Surrey remain unbeaten in all formats after an unexpectedly tense final day at Taunton. Lewis Gregory’s unbeaten 110, well supported by 42 from Peter Siddle, had given Somerset a breath of a chance, leaving Surrey to chase 193. After a steady opening partnership between Rory Burns and Ryan Patel, Surrey lost regular wickets, supersub Kasey Aldridge taking four for 61. Will Jacks skipped to a boundary-laden 62 before Jordan Clark hit the winning runs.
There were grins galore at Canterbury as Kent notched up their first victory of the Championship season, after it proved impossible for Gloucestershire to escape the folly of their Monday night collapse. Despite a couple of dropped catches the visitors could post a target of only 88 and Kent eased home. Jacob Duffy took eight wickets on his Kent debut, saying: “I was actually hanging around on holiday in Bristol ... so it just worked out beautifully.”
Durham and Worcestershire shook hands at Riverside after nearly 1,300 runs and no second-innings wickets.
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