Tanya Aldred's roundup
On a June day so fierce that spectators shaped their bodies to the shadows, Felix Organ poached a career-best six for 67, but not before Lancashire had built an intimidating lead of 232 against Hampshire.
A standing ovation had serenaded Phil Salt to his first Lancashire century, and his first Championship hundred since 2019, in the days when he wore a Sussex shirt. Daryl Mitchell biffed 68 blockbuster runs and George Bell made a stylish cameo, Organ wheeling away, while Mohammad Abbas and Keith Barker were furiously unlucky. Liam Dawson was shipped off to hospital for stitches in his top lip split after a ball deflected off third slip straight into his face. Fletcha Middleton and Nick Gubbins then took Hampshire to stumps, the deficit reduced to 113.
The familar jingle of Essex’s Simon Harmer running through a batting card from Chelmsford’s River End returned to the Championship for the first time in 2023, with Somerset the unlucky opponents. Jamie Porter grabbed the first three Somerset wickets, before Harmer started his work (5-64). Sean Dickson carried his bat for 82. Essex, who had declared just before lunch, spruced up by a rapid 50 from Feroze Khushi, didn’t enforce the follow on.
Warwickshire have Nottinghamshire where they want them in the battle of the Midlands big dogs at Trent Bridge. After declaring on 571 for nine, Michael Burgess and Hasan Ali adding rapid morning runs for Warwickshire, whose bowlers then crunched through the Notts top order. Ed Barnard made the breakthrough when he had Ben Slater caught at first slip for 19, Hasan Ali rattled out two more and when Montgomery fell for eight, Notts had lost four for seven. Oliver Hannon-Dalby had time to join the wicket-taking club before Notts were rescued by an oncoming thunderstorm.
Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali conjured a remarkable Derbyshire comeback out of a cold bowl of sick, adding an unbroken 231 for the fifth wicket from just 311 balls against Yorkshire. Derbyshire supporters, despondent at their team’s 17 for four in their second innings and still 225 behind just after lunch, struggled to believe what was happening. Dawid Malan had earlier made 106.
Another fightback at The Riverside, where centuries sensible (David Bedingham) and bold (Ollie Robinson) gave Durham the lead against Glamorgan. At Bristol, Gloucestershire’s Ollie Price celebrated his 22nd birthday with a career-best 85 against Leicestershire, while Jake Libby dominated Worcestershire’s innings against Sussex with an unbeaten 198. And Kent continued to rip up the form book, skittling Surrey for 145, declining to enforce the follow, and then building an intimidating lead.
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