Roundup: Watchful Stokes lets fly under floodlights
In the mould of his new England head coach Brendon McCullum, Ben Stokes purred to 82 at The Riverside for Durham. The first 50 came with relative restraint but two huge sixes followed, swept on one knee as the floodlights came on. Before, though, he could quite reach for the accelerator, he was done by the new ball. There was time before stumps for Matty Potts to take two Glamorgan wickets in what is becoming a fruitful season.
Keaton Jennings’s third consecutive Roses century, and another from Steven Croft, helped Lancashire dominate the first day at Headingley. With a good fistful of members dotted around the ground, be-fleeced and glad to see old friends, Jennings continued where he’d left off at Old Trafford last week. So precise in his movements, he bats like a man who not only irons the guest bed-linen but leaves fresh cut flowers on the side-table.
After being marooned on 99 for 13 balls, Jennings reached his century with a tuck for two, before carefully taking off his helmet and beaming. Croft also toyed hungrily with a tired looking Yorkshire attack, on a flattish pitch, where the fielders let four catches slip through their fingers. A chilly morning wind had left Joe Root fielding with a hand-warmer tucked into the back of his trousers, and Josh Bohannon missed out a chance to impress watching England selector James Taylor.
Jennings’s old Lancashire opening partner, Haseeb Hameed, was given a warm reception at Lord’s after scoring his first century of the season for Nottinghamshire at one of his happiest hunting grounds. Hameed and Steven Mullaney (92 not out) rattled along to 117 for the fifth wicket. Middlesex had to do without Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is returning to Pakistan early to prepare for the white-ball series against West Indies.
Warwickshire were carted round the park by Northamptonshire’s openers Ricardo Vasconcelos and Will Young, who scored 290 between them at Edgbaston. A depleted Warwickshire attack, missing Chris Woakes, Ollie Stone and Liam Norwell, could do nothing much but keep plugging away until Vasconcelos was lbw for 156 after tea, and Young followed for 134.
Runs, runs and more runs for Division One leaders Surrey against Kent, with 96 from Ollie Pope, a quickfire 76 from Ryan Patel and an unbeaten 86 by Ben Foakes. It was hard to know who was more unimpressed, Darren Stevens, after being pummelled repeatedly for four, or Surrey’s players with the quality of the flat whites they purchased from the coffee outlet.
Tom Lammonby and Matt Renshaw put on a lively 172 together in the West Country derby. James Hildreth and Tom Abell followed up with fifties of their own, to put Somerset in a sprightly position against Gloucestershire after being put in. Zak Chappell, on loan from Nottinghamshire, pocketed two for 49.
Elsewhere, Jack Haynes made a second consecutive hundred for Worcestershire at Derbyshire, while Leicestershire bucked the trend by being dismissed for 210 by Sussex, despite Ollie Robinson only bowling one over before succumbing to food poisoning.
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Time to pack up here at Headingley. It was a downbeat Steven Patterson who spoke after play: “It was a disappointing day in the end. It started off brightly and then a bit of a case of deja vu from there really.
“We got two early wickets and put two soft chances down after that. Realistically, they should have been 22-4 at that point. Then we drive hard from there to dominate the day.
“It didn’t happen....we’ve let them off the hook today. We had the chance to grab it with both hands. They are a good side, as we know, and they’ve made us pay.”
On another day of centuries - for Jennings, for Croft, for Hameed, for Haynes, for Vasconcelos, for Young - and Leicestershire, thanks for all your contributions and see you tomorrow! Good evening!
