County cricket: Kent sense win at Lancashire, Sussex rout Derbyshire – as it happened
A reverse-swinging masterclass from a zinging Jayden Seales careered through Derbyshire’s second innings, sending them flying like Smarties at a children’s party, and to defeat by an innings and 124 runs.
Seales, who was twice on a hat-trick, finished with a career-best five for 29, and warm words from his head coach at Sussex, Paul Farbrace, who said: “In the four games he’s played for us, every single spell he’s run in hard. He’s never cantered in, he’s never taken it easy and never not wanted to bowl.”
Derbyshire’s New Zealand fast bowler Blair Tickner did not bat, and announced that his wife Sarah is suffering from leukaemia and is receiving treatment in the UK. Sussex lost a point due to a slow over rate.
Yorkshire flayed Glamorgan to all corners of Headingley, cantering to maximum batting points with bags of overs to spare. Joe Root cruised to 156, his second hundred in consecutive games, Finlay Bean an aggressive 173, his highest first-class score, while Harry Brook and Jonny Tattersall contributed funky fifties. Mason Crane, who took a tonking, finished with five for 152. Glamorgan lost three wickets – including Kiran Carlson unlucky to be run out off Root’s shin pad at silly point – before Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram dug in.
Hundreds for Sam Robson and Leus du Plooy helped Middlesex past 400 at Lord’s, with a couple of wickets for Leicestershire’s Rehan Ahmed.
Lancashire 92 and 332 v Kent 261 and 71-1
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 and 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Lord’s: Middlesex 407-8 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 519-7dec v Glamorgan 221 and 171-3
Kent 39-1 need a further 124. Fifteen overs left today.
Over at Headingley, it’s the spinners in the wickets again. One each for Bess and Moriarty. No luck for Kiran Carlson who, with dancing feet, hits Bess into Joe Root’s pads at silly point (Joe Root is at silly point?) and the ball ricochet’s back to the keeper and he’s run out. Glamorgan 111-3.
Lancashire 332 all out. Game on!Derbyshire pick up spare three.
And Agar gets his man Bailey lbw for a six ball one.
Derbyshire. Sarah, the wife of their overseas player Blair Tickner, has been diagnosed with leukaemia and is being treated in the UK. The couple have a nine-month old daughter, Florence. Sending all good wishes.Lancashire 92 and 320-7 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Lord’s: Middlesex 312-2 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 519-7dec v Glamorgan 221 and 68-1
Leicestershire took a wickets. The Middlesex lead – two.Lancashire. The lead near enough the magic 150 and Matty Hurst’s excellent match continues with an unbeaten 57. It’s the stodgy bit of the book before the racy final chapter.Derbyshire XI with 5-29. Derby 109-9 (Blair Tickner unable to bat), top-scorer David Lloyd 26.
Derby: Derbyshire 246 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Yorkshire, five wickets for Mason Crane’s perseverance, who picks up Harry Brook for 65 whence Yorkshire say that’s enough.
In other news, Paul Edwards recommends Kevin Howells’ lunchtime interview with Alan Higham on Five Live extra:
Leicestershire, a partnership of nearly 150 now – just 100 behind. And the new ball has been taken at OT, Bell watchfully lets Gilchrist pass.Lancashire 92 and 224-6 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 and 19-0 v Sussex 479
Lord’s: Middlesex 158-2 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 458-4 v Glamorgan 221
Yorkshire are going to collect maximum batting points with about a zillion overs to spare. Brook 35 off 41 balls.Sussex collect maximum batting points. Morely and Dupavillion have taken a couple of wickets this morning, including Pujara for 113, but some handy contributions at a quick trot all down the order have put Sussex in a good position – the lead over Derby 220.
Ah, a sharp chance goes down at OT, Crawley at first slip can’t grab on as Bell bends and angles. Bell on 25.
Lancashire lead. Nicely done. A lead of 150 is the magic number being banded around OT this morning.
Small beer for the man who made 441 in a second-XI Championship match, but his highest Champoinship score off just 166 balls.
At a run a ball! Brings it up with an off drive, then celebrates by kissing the ball straight back past bowler James HArris. Centuries in consecutive matches for Root. Yorkshire 316-2 in just 55 overs, a lead of 95 runs, Harry Brook next man in. Chin up Glamorgan.
Lancashire stats for your pleasure/sins:
The last time Lancashire lost consecutive County Championship matches by an innings was in August 1907 v Middlesex & Notts (they actually lost 3 in a row, also going down by an innings to Essex in the match before the Middlesex game!)
And the last time Lancashire won after following-on was against Oxford University at Old Trafford in 1888.
Kent – 61 in 1884.
Lancashire’s second attempt looked to be running more smoothly, until they lost three for three just before stumps, Josh Bohannon caught driving, Jennings suffering a rush of blood against Matt Parkinson which left him splayed on the soil as Harry Finch pulled off a spectacular stumping, and nightwatchman Will Williams bowled for one. They remain 50 runs behind.
While waiting for the outfield to dry in the morning, Saqib Mahmood was spotted going through his paces. After a second stress fracture in two years wiped out his 2023 season, Mahmood has been working his way back to fitness in the Lancashire second XI, captaining the side and bowling four- and five-over spells.
Somerset wrapped up a three-wicket victory in two days at Taunton, first bowling Essex out for a second time for 138, whipping out the last four wickets for one run, then knocking off the 167 required. Despite Matt Renshaw and Sean Dickson putting on 75 for the first wicket, a partnership that defied previous batting efforts on a green pitch, the chase was full of jeopardy almost until the end. It was Somerset’s first win of the season.
On a turning pitch, Joe Root and Finlay Bean clattered 201 for the third wicket at Headingley as Yorkshire drilled their heels into Glamorgan hopes. Root was only eight runs short of a second consecutive elegant Championship century at stumps, while Bean danced along to a career-best 140.
Earlier, Dom Bess and Daniel Moriarty pocketed four wickets each as Glamorgan were bowled out for 221 – the first time Yorkshire had fielded two front-line spinners at Headingley since Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq in 2013. Bess’s four for 25 was a timely fillip after a torrid 2023 – dispatched on one-match loans to Somerset and Warwickshire, and a winter spent playing in Zimbabwe.
Leicestershire’s Peter Handscomb made a painstaking first century against Middlesex, and Rehan Ahmed hit 42, on a day when the ball kept going out of shape at Lord’s. Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten hundred, alongside fifties from James Coles, Tom Haines and Tom Alsop, put Sussex in a handy position against Derbyshire.
Lancashire wickets and 92 all out seems a bit un-Lancastrian, doesn’t it? Even more so when their previous two innings were 146 and 107 at Chelmsford. What’s going on?”Lancashire 92 and 119-4 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 v Sussex 357-5
Lord’s: Middlesex 64-1 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 295-2 v Glamorgan 221
Hello! May is just perfection this morning, wild garlic, a hint of elderflower and a circling barn owl, all before breakfast! Just four games left after Somerset pulled it out of the bag against Essex yesterday, and it might not last too much longer at Old Trafford…
Source: theguardian.com
