County Championship day one roundup
On the UK’s hottest day in history, the County Championship entered a new era. All around the grounds – except at Taunton, where rain brought afternoon refreshment – the mercury hovered around 39C.
Four teams took up the offer from the England and Wales Cricket Board of amended playing hours, with Gloucestershire and Hampshire (at Cheltenham) and Northamptonshire and Lancashire (at Northampton) playing three sessions of 90 minutes, ending at 4.30pm.
“It sort of reminds me a bit of playing in Dubai or Abu Dhabi or something like that,” said Northamptonshire’s new captain, Will Young, after his team notched up 210 for seven, led by Rob Keogh. “Like a really dry heat with that hot wind coming across the ground.” Washington Sundar took four Northants wickets on his Lancashire debut.
At the 150th Cheltenham cricket festival, Felix Organ batted all day for 93 not out as Gloucestershire toiled in the field against Hampshire, with bowling duties split eight ways. Meanwhile events at the Oval swung one way then another, as Essex were reduced to 91 for six and then fought back magnificently against Surrey. That was thanks to a thrilling hundred from Adam Rossington, who jiffied Kemar Roach for three legside sixes, while Daniel Worrall gathered a superb six for 56.
It was a day for batting at the County Ground in Derby, where Ben Duckett danced to 237 and Haseeb Hameed a career-best 165 as weary Derbyshire went through their paces against Nottinghamshire, dropping a couple of chances on the way. Middlesex’s puzzling decision to bowl first against Sussex did not pay dividends at Lord’s where MCC members, allowed to remove their jackets – but not their ties – watched Tom Alsop and Cheteshwar Pujara make hundreds.
Elsewhere, Tom Abell skipped to his third Championship century of the season for Somerset at Taunton against Yorkshire, while at Edgbaston, Kent crumbled to 165 all out as Oliver Hannon-Dalby went on the rampage before Sam Hain propped up Warwickshire’s similarly fragile lineup.
Updated
The first six of the day at Derby comes at ten to six: timing is (almost) everything. Right, I’d better write up - hope you’re all doing ok out there in this broiling world.
Seems an apt time to ask @HomeOfCricket @Middlesex_CCC @MCCOfficial @stephenfry to ditch Lord's principal partner @jpmorgan - the biggest fossil fuel funder in the world. #Cricket #ClimateEmergency https://t.co/DMICuReqt9
— TheNextTest (@TheNextTest) July 19, 2022
