County Championship Round 2

Just six matches in this round:

Division 1

Middlesex v Derbyshire
Surrey v Somerset
Warwickshire v Durham

Division 2

Glamorgan v Worcestershire
Leicestershire v Kent
Northamptonshire v Essex

Derbyshire are 45-1 here at Lord's.

Steve Finn bowled down leg a bit too much, and the Derbys batsmen have defended well. The one wicket to fall was a run out.

Somerset 132-3 in a huge match against Surrey. Lose this one and it's two losses on the bounce and it's a long way back into the title race even at this early stage of the season. The batting line-up looks a lot more solid today though with Peterson and the Compdog back in, and I suspect we would have beaten Durham with this batting line up.

Now I know it's only a university game, but Nottinghamshire are 352/2 against Durham MCCU. Samit Patel is on 227* - 300 in a day?

In the actual CC games, the batting sides appear to be faring better this time around - especially Somerset, Petersen leading the way with an unbeaten ton thus far.

Patel gone for 256 off 225 balls. No 300 today, lad.

Napier made a much needed 50 to give some respectablity to our score, however we have had a shocker today

183 A.O.

however we have took early wickets to leave Northants 47-2

A french cricketer who I've coached is doing 12th man duties for Durham MCCU. Couldn't have done much worse than those picked...

Finn has produced something for Middlesex, Derbyshire now struggling. Godleman doing his Travare impression.

Durham are a pretty decent side who've let themselves down against the county sides in the last few years, especially the 18ao last year, they are better than that. They'll be especially disappointed as this is a pretty similar side to last year as well. Got to 96-3 at the close though, decent effort.

Decent start from Somerset bar a late collapse. Great debut for Alviro, I wasn't convinced about him as a signing as I always had some doubts about his commitment to Glam but if he keeps churning out the runs it is fine by me. We need to make 400 ideally, but 350 will is a must for the extra BP and then set about the challenge of bowling Surrey, and Smith, out twice!

I've written a report on Middx - Derbys: http://deepextracover.com/home/godleman-digs-derbyshire-into-a-hole/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter.

Perhaps a bit harsh on Billy, but I do think there were runs to be scored (ridiculously short boundary towards the Grand Stand) and that his innings put his team in a spot of bother.

Duty281 wrote:Patel gone for 256 off 225 balls. No 300 today, lad.

Appropriately, Patel was bowled by Surrey's "Berger Van" .

Warks recovering somewhat from mini collapse and a perilous looking 237 - 7, ending day on 299 - 7. The lengthy batting line up will no doubt be useful on many occasions this season.

Graeme Smith gone for 2..

Surrey 13-1 in reply.


The Northants tail punishing Essex at the moment. Willey 62 from 67 and Crook (who took 4 wickets also) 40 off 39 balls

Durham 0-2 after 4 overs

Here at Lord's Middlesex are 72-1. Joe Denly looking very good (which probably means he'll be out next ball).

Warwickshire are on top against Durham I see, the other 2 games in division 1 are rather evenly poised.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Patel gone for 256 off 225 balls. No 300 today, lad.

Appropriately, Patel was bowled by Surrey's "Berger Van" .

A fourfer today for the Berger Van in Notts' second innings. Patel again unable to stomach our Berger and rapidly becoming his bunny. Another of his victims was Chris Read who has been so much trouble to Surrey bowlers in recent seasons.

The Students now just have the little matter of knocking off 660 odd runs!

When I was doing the India domestic season thread I tried giving a kind of a report of the end of the day play with scores, performances of noted players--internationals, international discards who are attempting a comeback emerging players and veterans. Would be greatful if someone could attempt something similar, a kind of a roundup of the day's action. Would be very helpful for an external observer.

I see Finn and Onions are among the wickets and so is Dernbach!. Paul Collingwood also find some runs. Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes with some middling performances with bat and ball.

Finn was in the wickets, but his figures flattered him. He bowled one excellent spell with the old ball yesterday but otherwise has been down leg side.

Here is my Day 2 report - http://deepextracover.com/home/robson-shows-his-class-on-hard-fought-day/.

Elsewhere, Durham fought back from 50-6 to 284 with runs for Paul Collingwood and a hundred for Scott Borthwick. Barker and Woakes took 3 wickets each.

Plenty of Surrey chat on the other thread.

Leicestershire are 250-5 responding to Kent's 406 in a low-key Division Two game at Grace Road. Niall O'Brien, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Matt Boyce made 50s.

Glamorgan have the upper hand on Worcestershire. Worcester were bowled out for 123 with 5 wickets for lanky seamer Michael Reed. Deep Extra Cover's reporter on this game (Peter Miller, who people on Twitter might know better as @TheCricketGeek) thinks that he is a real one to keep an eye on. In reply Glamorgan are 235-7.

The most exciting game of the rounds, against all odds, is Northants-Essex. First, Essex were reduced to 87-6 (single figure score for Bopara) before Napier hit 73 off 65 balls. 4 wickets for Steven Crook.

In reply Northants were 171-8 (6 wickets for Napier) before number 8 Willey (76), number 10 Crook (88*) and number 11 Copeland (70) capitalised on tired bowlers. A very unusual scorecard, but it should be noted that all of Northants's bottom 4 are very capable batsmen. They were eventually bowled out for 399. Essex are 94-2.

Thanks shelsey.

Derby lost four quick wickets - Middlesex well on top despite Derby gaining small first innings lead.

Make that five - Derby 26 - 5

Essex, six wickets down, in danger of losing to Northants by an innings. Tho Napier still to come....

Middlesex's middle-order batting let them down once again, but this time Rogers hadn't made his habitual score and Simpson couldn't produce a significant innings. Malan, Denly and Dexter need to get runs, because when Morgan returns it seems likely one of them will make way.

However Tim Murtagh (who when he arrived at Middlesex was a more accomplished limited overs bowler - how he has improved) has made a mess of Derbyshire's 2nd innings. Reinforcing the sense at the start of the season that this is a very good county attack Middlesex have. Now if the middle-order could just get going, and Patel turns out (no pun intended) to be a good spinner...

Murtagh takes another - 26 - 6. He's taken five wickets for eight runs in around 11 overs.... Match could be over quickly...

Essex 8 wickets down as Bopara out. The last rites unless Napier can knock up a double century.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Murtagh takes another - 26 - 6. He's taken five wickets for eight runs in around 11 overs.... Match could be over quickly...

Corporal - tell Shelsey to then nip over to the Oval!

Buirns and Davies still going very well here and have avoided the follow on which seemed a real worry at the start today. Currently 245 - 4 ....

Murtagh's spell was absolutely awesome. Completely deserved his figures. Meanwhile, Shiv has 5 off 52.

Middlesex are on for a second consecutive victory, Warwickshire are gaining the upper hand over Durham, and Somerset/Surrey is in the balance.

embarassing

Good win for Middlesex, despite a poor batting performance first time around which will be of concern. Good to see Denly amongst the runs though.

Surrey on the back of Burns and Davies (with a good helping hand from Batty) have got themselves into a position where realistically they're the only side who can win.

Surprised to see Kent not doing so well against Leics, and Essex go down so heavily to Northants, who I'm not sure are particularly strong.

James Vince takes 5 wickets

Good description of Peter Trego by George Dobell:

"Peter Trego, an ebullient and skilful cricketer, but blessed with little pace - his bowling would hardly bother a motorway speed camera...."

That's brilliant.

Here's my Day Three report from Middlesex v Derbyshire - http://deepextracover.com/home/roland-jones-hat-trick-sends-middlesex-top/.

Warwickshire look likely to beat Durham at Edgbaston. A century for Tim Ambrose and 92 for Rikki Clarke today, plus 38 not out from Chris Woakes. Durham need over 400 and are already 11-1.

Northants beat Essex by an innings. Essex were bowled out for 207 with five wickets for David (son of Peter) Willey.

Glamorgan look set to beat Worcester, who lead by only 14 with 5 first innings wickets in hand. Samaraweera is 71 not out and likely to be crucial to any turnaround.

Kent v Leics is officially 'bore of the week'. Leics 452-7 replying to Kent's 406. Centuries for Leicestershire's Matt Boyce and Shiv Thakor.

Shelsey93 wrote:Here's my Day Three report from Middlesex v Derbyshire - http://deepextracover.com/home/roland-jones-hat-trick-sends-middlesex-top/.

Shelsey - good report. Not sure tho it's necessary to keep reminding readers that TRJ used to be on Surrey's books

Excellent report on Middlesex's latest win, Shelsey. Thanks for only referring to Roland-Jones having been on Surrey's books and saying nothing about Murtagh's Oval background!

Very fine update from Carrotdude on today's play in the Surrey v Somerset match on the separate article under that heading.

#we'realreadymissingadamwheater

bad start

Don't forget to pop across to the DEC live blog, where Fists is covering Warwickshire v Durham today - http://deepextracover.com/livematchcentre/10257

Looks as tho Fists may get the afternoon off..

Durham in deep trouble.

Collingwood four runs off 44 balls so far....

In division 1, Warwickshire smashed Durham by a huge 318 runs, Chris Wright taking 6 wickets. Somerset drew with Surrey, Buttler hit a 90-odd score in 2nd innings, whilst Meaker took 5 wickets.

Glamorgan picked up a win over Worcestershire, whilst Leicestershire v Kent was a boring draw (100 for Rob Key on the last day).

Thanks shelsey and duty for the brief general reports. Very helpful for an external observer as I said.