County Championship opening round review

The brand new County Championship cricket season opened in traditional weather- cold, windy and in some places wet. This season the competition returns back to the familiar format of two divisions, One and Two.

The first result of the season was at the Ageas Bowl in Division One where last seasons runners up Hampshire opened up their campaign with a comfortable victory over Somerset by an innings and 113 runs.

Somerset, who elected to bat first were dismissed for 180 with Keith Barker taking 3 for 33. Hampshire proved there was very little wrong with the wicket by making 428 with opener Joe Weatherley top scoring with 168, Ian Holland hitting 81 and captain James Vince 56.

The visitors struggled once again in their second innings and were shot out for 135 with paceman Mohammad Abbas taking 4 for 22 and James Fuller 3-23 with the game wrapped up by Saturday after lunch.

In other Division 1 games it was certainly a case of bat winning over ball, with plenty of runs scored.

At Edgbaston the game between Warwickshire and Surrey ended in a tame draw. The visitors declared their first innings on 428 for 8 with England wicketkeeper Ben Foakes hitting an unbeaten 132 and half centuries from Ryan Patel, Ollie Pope and Jordan Clark.

Warwickshire recovered from 16 for 3 to amass 531 with Michael Burgess making 86, Matthew Lamb 106 and Sam Hain 78. Surrey made 43 for 0 in their second innings when both captains shook hands on the draw

At Chelmsford it was another run fest with Essex and Kent also finishing in a draw.

Kent won the toss and put Essex in to bat, a decision in hindsight they wouldn’t have done as the home side piled on the runs, before being dismissed for 514 with Sir Alastair Cook scoring a 100, Nick Browne 107 and on his debut for Essex after joining the club from Derbyshire, Mat Critchley 132.

The Essex bowlers found it just as hard to get wickets on a flat track at Chelmsford with Kent making 581 with centuries for Ben Compton 129 and Jordan Cox also 129, to take an overall first innings lead of 66.

With no chance of a result, Essex made 68 for 1 second time around before declaring as the game petered out into a draw with the wicket the real winner.

The game between Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire at Northampton, also finished in a draw, but unlike the previous matches there was a close finish on the final day.

After being put in to bat, Gloucestershire made 223 with wicket keeper James Bracey hitting 117. Northants replied with 288 thanks to a century from Rob Keogh 113 and 66 from Gareth Berg.

Gloucestershire amassed 363 in their second innings with Ryan Higgins making 139 and Tom Lace 73, with Ben Sanderson taking 5 for 66 to  leave Northants a target of 299 for victory. The hosts fell just short of their target despite 74 for Keogh, but had eight wickets down at the end of the day.

Out of the four Division 2 matches there was only one positive result with Nottinghamshire beating Sussex at Hove by ten wickets.

Despite the hosts making 375 in their first knock with Tom Clarke making 100, Nottinghamshire replied with 534 for 9 declared with Captain Steven Mullaney falling eight short of a double century and an unbeaten century from Joey Evison.

Sussex were dismissed for 172 in their second innings with three wickets apiece from Brett Hutton, Lyndon James and Liam Patterson-White to leave Notts the simple task of only 14 for victory which they knocked off in 13 balls.

At Cardiff the game between Glamorgan and Durham finished in a draw after Durham had taken a first innings lead of 149, thanks to a magnificent knock from England opener Alex Lees of 182 not out., Glamorgan struggled in their second innings but held on for a draw to finish on 220 for 5 with Chris Cooke 85 not out.

At Leicester the hosts were clinging on at 218 for 9 after being set 370 by Worcestershire to win. Leicestershire were indebted to opener Hassan Azad who carried his bat for an undefeated 104 with number 11 Beuran Hendrincks giving Azad valuable support with an undefeated 16 off 60 balls.

The game at Lords also finished in a draw with Derbyshire 255 for 5, chasing an improbable 356 for victory against Middlesex.

Earlier in the match Stephen Eskinazi’s 118 helped Middlesex to a total of 401 in their first innings. Derbyshire replied with 304 before Middlesex declared their second innings on 258 for 5 with Max Holden making 82 and Robbie White 81.

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