County round-up: Jonathan Trott century for Warwickshire holds up Surrey
Jonathan Trott ambled to the crease, on a pair, at the end of the third day’s second over, with Warwickshire in the mire, trailing by 334 and facing an innings defeat by Surrey. By day’s end he had a 41st first-class century and had shaved the deficit to 41; there remain few better equipped to blunt a quality attack. In doing so he saved Warwickshire’s blushes – no doubt on Monday he will set about saving the match.
Trott came to the crease when William Porterfield was lbw to Sam Curran and soon Jade Dernbach had Alex Mellor caught at first slip; the sense is that Trott and Ian Bell will be fighting fires with Warwickshire two down for not many often this season. If the circumstances left Bell looking a little frantic, Trott was the picture of calm.
He got off the mark courtesy of a misfield at mid-off but then went scoreless for 31 balls. From there he purred, though, reaching his century (having taken tea on 99) from 191 balls. In the day he hit 18 fours, so many of them with deft deflections in the areas and in the fashion he has trademarked: third man – guided, midwicket – flicked, and cover – driven and cut. Barely an appeal was uttered.
Trott had two key allies. First there was Bell, whose 64 (in a stand of 103) was typically elegant but a touch flighty, and ended in such fashion, with Scott Borthwick taking a brilliant diving catch at second slip as the batsman threw the hands at a full ball from Mark Footitt. Then there was Keith Barker, who fell late in the day, lbw to Gareth Batty, for 57. Between that pair Trott lost Sam Hain, plumb lbw to Dernbach, and Tim Ambrose and Rikki Clarke, both victims of a fine spell from Tom Curran; Ambrose’s rap on the pads stayed low while Clarke was caught behind off a lifter. Life was easy for Surrey on the opening two days, so it was refreshing to see them forced to graft.
If Surrey looked the strong favourites at the start of the day, it is new-look Hampshire, the beneficiaries of Durham’s divisional demotion, who claimed the first win of the season in Division One by chasing down 320 with four wickets in hand against Yorkshire at Headingley, no less. Michael Carberry and Jimmy Adams’s opening stand of 91 provided the innings’ backbone before James Vince, Rilee Rossouw and Liam Dawson chipped in. Tim Bresnan picked up three wickets (including Dawson with a brilliant caught and bowled) to peg Hampshire back but a spirited stand of 58 from Lewis McManus and Gareth Berg (who won the game with a handsome six down the ground off Ben Coad) carried Hampshireover the line. Having had a first-innings deficit of 132, it was a remarkable win.
At Chelmsford Lancashire are in the box seat thanks to a maiden first-class century from the 22-year-old keeper-batsman Alex Davies. His knock, as well as a second half-century on debut for Dane Vilas (92), provided the central plank of Lancashire’s second-innings 317 for three declared, which set Essex a target of 478 to win. By the close they were 89 for two, with Nick Browne, slogging a half-tracker from Stephen Parry to deep-midwicket, and Varun Chopra, bowled by Ryan McLaren, the dismissed batsmen.
If the day in Division One was defined by tough, high-quality cricket, the second division simply served up a reminder of the gulf in class and professionalism of its best and worst sides. Nottinghamshire bowled out Leicestershire for 81 and took 10 balls to win by 10 wickets, while Kent dismissed Gloucestershire (who were chasing 396) for 61 (having been 37 for nine) with Darren Stevens, 41 this month, taking six wickets. Nottinghamshire and Kent will be right in the promotion mix but Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan (who trumped them by failing even to take their game to Sunday) can commence their battle to avoid the wooden spoon.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/09/county-championship-roundup-jonathan-trott-warwickshire-surrey-yorkshire-hampshire
Trott came to the crease when William Porterfield was lbw to Sam Curran and soon Jade Dernbach had Alex Mellor caught at first slip; the sense is that Trott and Ian Bell will be fighting fires with Warwickshire two down for not many often this season. If the circumstances left Bell looking a little frantic, Trott was the picture of calm.
He got off the mark courtesy of a misfield at mid-off but then went scoreless for 31 balls. From there he purred, though, reaching his century (having taken tea on 99) from 191 balls. In the day he hit 18 fours, so many of them with deft deflections in the areas and in the fashion he has trademarked: third man – guided, midwicket – flicked, and cover – driven and cut. Barely an appeal was uttered.
Trott had two key allies. First there was Bell, whose 64 (in a stand of 103) was typically elegant but a touch flighty, and ended in such fashion, with Scott Borthwick taking a brilliant diving catch at second slip as the batsman threw the hands at a full ball from Mark Footitt. Then there was Keith Barker, who fell late in the day, lbw to Gareth Batty, for 57. Between that pair Trott lost Sam Hain, plumb lbw to Dernbach, and Tim Ambrose and Rikki Clarke, both victims of a fine spell from Tom Curran; Ambrose’s rap on the pads stayed low while Clarke was caught behind off a lifter. Life was easy for Surrey on the opening two days, so it was refreshing to see them forced to graft.
If Surrey looked the strong favourites at the start of the day, it is new-look Hampshire, the beneficiaries of Durham’s divisional demotion, who claimed the first win of the season in Division One by chasing down 320 with four wickets in hand against Yorkshire at Headingley, no less. Michael Carberry and Jimmy Adams’s opening stand of 91 provided the innings’ backbone before James Vince, Rilee Rossouw and Liam Dawson chipped in. Tim Bresnan picked up three wickets (including Dawson with a brilliant caught and bowled) to peg Hampshire back but a spirited stand of 58 from Lewis McManus and Gareth Berg (who won the game with a handsome six down the ground off Ben Coad) carried Hampshireover the line. Having had a first-innings deficit of 132, it was a remarkable win.
At Chelmsford Lancashire are in the box seat thanks to a maiden first-class century from the 22-year-old keeper-batsman Alex Davies. His knock, as well as a second half-century on debut for Dane Vilas (92), provided the central plank of Lancashire’s second-innings 317 for three declared, which set Essex a target of 478 to win. By the close they were 89 for two, with Nick Browne, slogging a half-tracker from Stephen Parry to deep-midwicket, and Varun Chopra, bowled by Ryan McLaren, the dismissed batsmen.
If the day in Division One was defined by tough, high-quality cricket, the second division simply served up a reminder of the gulf in class and professionalism of its best and worst sides. Nottinghamshire bowled out Leicestershire for 81 and took 10 balls to win by 10 wickets, while Kent dismissed Gloucestershire (who were chasing 396) for 61 (having been 37 for nine) with Darren Stevens, 41 this month, taking six wickets. Nottinghamshire and Kent will be right in the promotion mix but Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan (who trumped them by failing even to take their game to Sunday) can commence their battle to avoid the wooden spoon.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/09/county-championship-roundup-jonathan-trott-warwickshire-surrey-yorkshire-hampshire