Bullet one: Dan Lawrence builds an imposing goal at Blackpool
Surrey’s unexpected stumble (a draw last week after losing to Lancashire in the preliminary round) opened up a real race for the pennant in a competition that had taken on the air of last year’s procession. Equally unexpectedly, the power is led by Essex, fuelled by three wins in three.
She won her last victory in an excellent match in sunny Blackpool, where Outground Cricket once again made a beautiful appearance on the YouTube stream, evoking Nostalgia for the joys of Festival cricket.
England’s Zak Crawley and Moeen Ali play with a football during a net session
Moeen Ali, the Golden Oldie, remains n° 3 for the decisive fourth Ashes test
After losing most of the first day to rain, the visitors pressurize to throw away the advantage of winning the toss, but Tom Westley played a captain’s knock at three and found a partner in Paul Walter, the pair adding 155 for the fifth wicket. the highest level of the game. Tom Bailey’s six wickets showed there was movement from the seam and few are more suited to such pitches than Sam Cook, whose four wickets secured a lead of 137.
Lancashire had fought their way into the Match and by the end of the third day they would have fancied their chances of chasing about 350. Dan Lawrence and Doug Bracewell had other ideas, flashing 106 in nine Overs for the eighth wicket as the wheels came off early in the evening. Reaching 430 was still too much for victory, but the home fans were delighted with the actioning spirit exemplified by Rob Jones’ Defiant Century. Ten more balls would have secured the tie – Westley’s men left with points, but Keaton Jennings’ men left with restored pride.
Ball two: Rob Yates stars in Canterbury Tale
The Warwickshire players needed a win to stop their stumbling challenge and must have been happy to load the “Spitfire Ground, Canterbury” into their navigation devices and set off for Kent.
After the Seamers blew the home side away in 40 Overs, Rob Yates, still only 23, dug in, but kept losing partners just as he pressurize to lead his team to a match-winner. Still, he knew that he had Glenn Maxwell at seven and Michael Burgess at eight (which sounds like a cheat code) and the opener could drive at his own pace for nine hours, accumulating 228 points before Will Rhodes brought him back to the Pavilion, 549 for seven on the board (still black on white on this one
Kent fought a decent action for 100 Overs, but Chris Rushworth and Oliver Hannon-Dalby have the knowledge to add pressure on the scoreboard, and they added six more wickets to the six they bagged the first time around. Warwickshire are now behind the leaders on 23 points, but they have a game in hand and could still have a say in the September restructure.
Ball three: the unexpected Thriller ends in a draw, not a draw
The basement action in the middle of Middlesex and Northamptonshire seemed like an unlikely candidate for game of the week, but turned out to be the game of the Season.
As there were not too many after the first innings, Sam Whiteman’s Century, helped by Emilio Gay and the two former pros Luke Proctor and Rob Keogh, launched a chase of 322 for Middlesex on the last day in 92 Overs.
