Durham showed why they are 50-league-boots ahead at the top of Division Two with a crushing display at Derby. Where to start with such a thrashing? The glorious 140 from Ben McKinney, eight match wickets for the magnificent Matthew Potts or some entertaining humpty and five wickets for the still irrepressible Ben Stokes?
Derby lost their remaining wickets quickly on a sunny morning, which gave Durham a chance to gather runs of their own. Alex Lees fell to Ben Aitchison’s first ball, but from there the tap was open. McKinney was majestic, rifle-shots flying to the rope, 15 fours and six sixes in all.
Half-centuries from Will Rhodes and a coconut-shying Stokes kept the scoreboard firing at the other end until Durham declared with Derbyshire set 423 to win. It was all over in less than a session as an almost unplayable Potts fired out three, and Stokes collected three more in his first over, later felling Brett Randell with a brutish bouncer (who went off after a second concussion check and didn’t bat again). Stokes collected two more and Derbyshire sloped away, after the largest defeat by runs in their history.
Olly Stone’s match figures of 10 for 94 detonated Surrey at the Oval. The last Notts bowler to take 10 against Surrey at their home was Harold Larwood in 1936, and Stone proved almost as potent. Only Ollie Pope, last man out for 111, could hang about as Surrey were crushed by 145 runs.
Warwickshire won a thriller against their title-chasing rivals at Edgbaston, but only just. Their one-wicket victory over Sussex came as Chris Woakes and Olly Hannon-Dalby played out 13 dot balls before Woakes scrapped the winning runs. Earlier, Tom Haines had stood tall with 67 against fabulous bowling, leaving Warwickshire to chase 203. Sean Hunt grabbed five wickets but Vansh Jani and Dan Mousley took Warwickshire most of the way and Woakes did the rest.
Things are tight on a dry pitch at Southampton where Hampshire need another 172 to beat Yorkshire, with seven wickets in hand. Yorkshire’s tail added vital runs, with 30s from Jonny Bairstow, batting down the order because of a finger injury, and George Hill. Then Hampshire struggled to build impetus against a disciplined attack and a slow outfield.
Essex toughed it out against Somerset thanks to a rearguard 105 from Charlie Allison, and 76 from Matt Critchley, as they finished with an unlikely lead of three runs after following on. Somerset, without Lewis Gregory who slipped and bruised his hip in Essex’s first innings, plugged away without much reward.
Division Two promotion hopefuls Northants swarmed over Lancashire, dismissing them for 137, then setting 446 for victory thanks to a hundred from Ricardo Vasconcelos. Lancs then collapsed to 24 for two. Kent, also with Division One ambitions, are in a good position at Merchant Taylor School. They set Middlesex 356 to win, thanks to 50s from Tawanda Muyeye and Ben Compton, before Ekansh Singh plucked out the Middlesex top three before stumps.
Gloucestershire fought back at Cheltenham with half centuries from Ollie Price and Miles Hammond; while Sheridon Gumbs’ 93 put Leicestershire in a hopeful position against Glamorgan.
