Vitality County Championship 2024, Round 14, Day 3, 17th - 20th Sept, Live Streaming, Latest Scores, Match Reports All Matches Division 1 and 2

Here are all the latest scores, match reports and news for the Vitality County Championship 2024, Division 1 and 2 - Round 14, Day 3, 17th - 20th Sept.

Day 3 Thursday the 19th of September

Division One

Hampshire vs Worcestershire, 61st Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

Liam Dawson returned 50 wickets in a Vitality County Championship season for the first time after scoring an eighth fifty of the season as Hampshire closed in on victory over Worcestershire.

Spinning all-rounder Dawson reached a half-century of scalps by adding Kashif Ali and Adam Hose to his tally – in doing so beating the 49 wickets he claimed last season – with no spinner in the country taking more this year.

Along with his bowling exploits, no one has passed 50 more times than Dawson in Division One in 2024, as he moved to 907 runs with a 51 which set Worcestershire 394 runs to win.

The visitors ended the day five wickets down, still 277 runs short of victory – but with Jake Libby still undefeated on 55.

Both sides are now only playing for positions after Hampshire’s improbable title challenge ended with Surrey's victory over Durham, and Worcestershire’s survival already secured.

 Having elected against enforcing the follow-on the previous evening, Hampshire’s second innings was ramshackle and lacking in fluency, but still ended up at in the vicinity of the destination they would have aimed.

The inability to score run quickly was largely down to Joe Leach’s expertise with a nipping ball – he took three for 17, with six pressure building maidens, across his first two spells.

The 33-year-old is retiring after next week’s fixture against Lancashire, but proved he was still as skilful as ever to pick up Hampshire’s top three – although none of the wickets were classic dismissals.

Toby Albert fell in the second over of the morning when he was strangled down leg and was caught behind, Fletcha Middleton lasted a further four overs before he was caught and bowled while playing across one, and first innings double centurion Nick Gubbins was caught at slip after the ball had looped off the wicketkeeper’s glove.

Ben Brown quickly followed when Amar Virdi straightened one to pin him, but James Vince was keeping the scoreboard progressing with an often sketchy, sometimes glorious 44.

Vince dragged Virdi onto his own stumps while sweeping but after lunch Tom Prest and Dawson returned with a lucidly attacking game plan to whip up a 72-run partnership at a whisker under a run-a-ball.

Dawson followed his first innings century and five-wicket haul with a 63-ball fifty but fell soon after when Logan van Beek destroyed his stumps.

Things turned frenetic again as James Fuller swished behind, Prest was leg before when stuck on the crease to Virdi, Kyle Abbott was bowled on the swing and Felix Organ was run out after a strike confusion with Mo Abbas – which prevented Virdi from a second career 10-wicket haul.

With an imposing, but not impossible target, Gareth Roderick failed to show the resolve of the first innings by getting bowled by Abbott in the sixth over.

Kashif Ali played for turn that didn’t come from Dawson to fall lbw in the 14th over before two fine slip catches from Vince accounted for Rob Jones and Adam Hose – the latter was Dawson’s 50th wicket of the season.

Jake Libby had staunchly battled to 49, but when initially trying to reach the milestone, he ran out his partner Brett D’Oliveira, before eventually getting to a 47th first-class fifty with a less risky ambled single off 106 balls.

Libby remained unbeaten at close, with Ethan Brookes hanging on along side him.

Kent vs Nottinghamshire, 62nd Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

Nottinghamshire have thrashed Kent by ten wickets in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury, condemning the hosts to relegation and boosting their own survival hopes into the bargain.

Jacob Duffy took four for 60 and Rob Lord three for 42 as Kent were dismissed for 230 in their second innings.

Joey Evison scored 42 to make Nottinghamshire bat again, but the target was a mere 23 and the visitors needed just 3.3 overs to chase it down, Ben Slater finishing on 22 not out with Haseeb Hameed unbeaten on six.

The result ends Kent’s wafer-thin chances of staying in the top flight, while Notts will stay up provided they avoid defeat in the final round of fixtures next week.

Kent began day three on 85 for 0, still 123 behind, but even their most pessimistic of fans, a title for which there is some fairly stiff competition this season, would have struggled to imagine a start as grim as this one.

Batting conditions were arguably the best they’d been, but they lost Tawanda Muyeye for 60 to the sixth ball of the morning, when he hit Duffy almost vertically and was caught by Dane Schadendorf.

His fellow opener Ben Compton was lbw to Lyndon James for 32 and Jack Leaning then swished at a short-pitched ball from Duffy and was caught behind for a third-ball duck.

Lord replaced James at the Nackington Road end and had Joe Denly caught by Freddie McCann in the slips for eight, with his third delivery, before Duffy sent Daniel Bell-Drummond’s off stump flying for 21. In the next over, the 31st, Lord got Harry Finch for a second ball duck, the victim of a superb one-handed grab by Schadendorf.

Matt Parkinson made nine before Farhan Ahmed had him caught by McCann at leg slip but when Akeem Jordan then hit a boundary, a lone voice on the Old Dover Road sang: “We will make you bat again,” to the tune of “Bread of Heaven.” His faith, at least, was rewarded.

Having begun the day with an over rate of minus four, Notts bowled spin from both ends to get themselves back level before lunch, at which point Kent had eroded the deficit to just 12.

Jordan creamed Duffy for six to bring up the 50 partnership and Evison swept Ahmed to bring the scores level, but Ahmed got Jordan lbw with the next ball for 32 and Duffy bowled Nathan Gilchrist for a third ball duck.

A sterile passage of play followed as the fielders stayed on the boundary when Evison had the strike, but as soon as Lord returned from the Pavilion end he had him caught by the sub fielder Patterson White at point.

With a minimum145 overs to play with the only question remaining was how long it would take Notts to tick off the runs and Slater did it some style, pulling Jordan for six.

Notts take 23 points and Kent three.

 

Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond said: “It’s been a really tough season and today kind of summed where we are as a team this year and yeah, we started the day as optimistic as possible, getting the win was the only option we had and we had some good chats coming in to it, but yeah, we just fell apart in that first session this morning and it just wasn’t to be. It kind of sums up the season as a whole.

“We just haven’t been able to stop the slide and we haven’t been good enough to do it either. We didn’t get off to the worst start earlier in the season but once the defeats came it was quite hard to change that and we just haven’t been good enough with bat or ball all season really. The numbers show that.

“At the end of the day, this was coming. Obviously today it feels terrible, but the way we’ve been trending, it was heading this way. It was a good toss to win, we wanted a result wicket, which we got but we didn’t bowl very well at all in that first session. 140 for none on a flat wicket is not good enough. It’s been a trend with both bat and ball and to come into the game having scraped to a draw in the last game against Hampshire, get the toss you want and then to start like that was shocking really and yeah, it just sums up the season.

“It’s been tough, but at the end of the day I can only control what I can and that will need to improve in certain aspects. I can only score the runs that I score and I obviously got off to a good star but that needs improve as well. I’m sure it’ll sink in going forwards. At the end of the day I’m captain and I’ll take it on, but it is tough to take. You can only control what’s in front of you and yeah, we haven’t been good enough.

“I’ve always been optimistic deep down and yeah, I massively believe in the guys in the changing room and my own abilities but definitely, on paper, with some of the injuries we’ve had and teams you come up against in Division One I’d be stupid not to think we’d be scrapping again and when you’re scrapping half the time it just wears you down and the valve breaks.

“I never want to predict negative times ahead, but obviously, without a doubt, I knew it was going to be a tricky season.”

Lancashire vs Somerset, 63rd Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

 

Needing 393 to beat Lancashire and keep their hopes of winning their first Vitality County Championship title alive, Somerset ended the third day’s play at Emirates Old Trafford on 204 for six, still 189 runs short of their target.

Should they succeed in their now deeply improbable task, Somerset will take their battle with Surrey into the final week of the season. However, defeat would relegate Lancashire, who will also be playing Division Two cricket next season regardless of their own results if Nottinghamshire take ten points from their final match at home to Warwickshire, who would also need five points from that game.

In yesterday’s play, Luke Wells made 130 in Lancashire’s second-innings total of 398 but Archie Vaughan responded with 68 to give his side some hope of mounting what would be the highest fourth-innings run-chase against Lancashire.

Those hopes were greatly diminished when George Balderson removed both Vaughan and Tom Kohler-Cadmore after tea but Kacey Aldridge and James Rew looked set to ensure Somerset suffered no further losses when Aldridge was caught by Matty Hurst off Luke Wells for 19 when there were only four balls left in the day’s play. 

In a slightly extended morning session, Lancashire added exactly 100 runs for the loss of their last three wickets. Wells and George Balderson went about their business carefully in the first hour, adding just 36 runs to their side’s overnight score of 298 for seven.

However, a thick-edged three to third man off Aldridge took Wells to his second hundred of the season. He had faced 196 balls, hit 12 fours and a six and had batted with a fluency that made one wonder why he had struggled for so much of the season.

Wells and Balderson had taken their partnership to 135, thereby setting a new eighth-wicket partnership for Lancashire against Somerset, before Wells was leg before wicket for 130 when attempting to reverse-sweep Jack Leach.

Tom Bailey was also leg before to Leach for a single and the innings ended when Balderson was bowled by Brett Randell for 47. Leach finished with three for 57 and Randell took three for 71.

Somerset’s pursuit of 393 began atrociously when Andy Umeed charged down the wicket to Bailey’s second ball, tried to drive it through the covers and had his off stump knocked out of the ground.

But that misjudgement was followed by a fine 105-run partnership for the second wicket between Vaughan and Tom Lammonby, a stand that was only ended when Lammonby played over the top of a full-length ball from Wells and was bowled for 49.

By then, though, Vaughan had reached his maiden first-class fifty off 84 balls but the afternoon session still ended badly for Somerset when Tom Abell was leg before wicket to Anderson Phillip for five.

Nine overs into the evening session, Vaughan was caught at slip by George Bell for 68 to leave his side on 146 for four and the same combination accounted for Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who made 23 before edging a lifter to slip.

However, in the first gloomy conditions of the game, Aldridge and Rew successfully defied Lancashire’s attack until Wells struck that final crucial blow. Balderson has so far taken two for 33 from 14 overs.

 

Surrey vs Durham, 64th Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

 

Surrey are closing in on a third successive Vitality County Championship title after cruising to a ten-win over Durham with a day to spare at the Kia Oval.

Durham, who began the third day trailing by 152, never recovered after losing two wickets in the first over to Dan Worrall, who claimed his 50th and 51st scalps of the season when he removed Dan Hogg and Ben McKinney with the fourth and sixth balls of the day.

Worrall and Sam Curran, in only his second Championship appearance of the season, each took four wickets as Durham were dismissed for 177 in their second innings with only Emilio Gay (48) offering prolonged resistance.

That left Surrey needing just 25 to complete their eighth win of the campaign and skipper Rory Burns and Dom Sibley knocked off the target in five overs. It was their sixth victory at the Kia Oval this season with only Somerset, who drew in April, denying them a clean sweep on home turf.

Surrey picked up 23 points which took them onto 221. If Somerset beat Lancashire that will give them 209 going into the final round of matches with Surrey facing Essex at Chelmsford and Somerset hosting Hampshire.

If Somerset fail to win at Old Trafford Surrey will become the first team since Yorkshire in the 1960s to win three titles in a row and a fourth under Burns in six years.

The tempo was set in the first over when Worrall made a double breakthrough. Durham’s second nightwatchman Dan Hogg lost his leg stump playing all around a ball of fullish length and Ben McKinney was beaten by a fine delivery which nipped back sharply to pin him in front.

Durham had lost three wickets in first half hour when Jordan Clark bowled Alex Lees through the gate and when he was replaced at the Vauxhall End by Curran it didn’t take long for the left-armer to make further inroads as he swung the ball late consistently, and at decent pace.

David Bedingham had taken three boundaries in an over off Clark but got only half-forward to Curran’s sixth ball and was palpably lbw while Ollie Robinson was also beaten by late inswing and lost his off stump to leave Durham’s innings in disarray at 74 for 6.

Gay, making his Durham debut ahead of his permanent move from Northamptonshire this winter, shaped up well and added 46 with Bas De Leede either side of lunch to give Durham hope.

But they had no answer to Worrall and Curran. The Australian returned at the pavilion end and nipped one back into Gay’s pads and now has 52 wickets for the season, three fewer than Essex’s Jamie Porter.

Another Curran inswinger accounted for De Leede while Tom Lawes produced a fine delivery which held its line and James Minto edged to keeper Foakes.

Curran finished things off with another booming inswinger that was way too good for No11 Chemar Holder. Curran finished with 4 for 23 while Worrall’s 4 for 34 gave him match figures of 8 for 73.  

Division Two

Derbyshire vs Middlesex, 49th Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Middlesex wrapped up their fifth win of the Division Two season to keep their Vitality County Championship promotion challenge mathematically still alive after a dismal Derbyshire succumbed to a three-day defeat by an innings and 66 runs at the Incora County Ground.

With skipper Toby Roland-Jones continuing his impressive streak of form with another five-wicket haul, Derbyshire, 74 for three overnight, were shot out for 119 after 87 minutes of the day’s only session.

Roland-Jones finished with five for 38 for match figures of 10 for 72. The 36-year-old seamer has taken five wickets or more in six of his last nine innings to total 52 wickets for the season. Ethan Bamber and leg spinner Luke Hollman picked up two wickets each, with 20-year-old left-arm seamer Noah Cornwell completing their demise with his maiden first-class wicket.

The result means that the race for promotion goes down to the final round, although last week’s defeat against Gloucestershire at Lord’s left the odds stacked heavily against Middlesex, handing second-placed Yorkshire a 15-point advantage going into this week’s games.

A seventh defeat of the season means that Derbyshire are almost certain to finish bottom of Division Two for the first time since 2016 after a poor

season under head coach Mickey Arthur.

It will be the 16th time in their Championship history that Derbyshire have finished bottom of the pile, comfortably ahead of nearest challengers Somerset.

On a pitch that was lively throughout, making life difficult for batters against both the quicker bowlers and spinners, Derbyshire lost their last eight wickets for 45 runs, veteran Wayne Madsen top-scoring with a modest 32 and concussion stand-in Mitch Wagstaff making 27.

In gloomy conditions that required the floodlights to be on at the start, the breakthrough that Middlesex made when Wagstaff was out in the last over of day two opened the way to four more wickets in the first 45 minutes as Derbyshire subsided somewhat feebly.

Madsen, who had helped Wagstaff add 58 for the third wicket, was the first to go, edging behind off Bamber.

If the Derbyshire veteran was undone by a fine delivery, there was less that could be said in mitigation as David Lloyd pulled straight to midwicket, handing a second wicket to the Warwickshire-bound Bamber.

Aneurin Donald, dropped at backward point the ball before Lloyd departed, added only one more run before giving Roland-Jones a low return catch; Zak Chappell edged his first ball to gully.

Those two in two balls took the Middlesex captain to 51 wickets for the season, the 36-year-old seamer’s second half-century in three seasons and evidence of why the county have offered him a contract extension while letting other senior players move on.

Harry Moore was caught behind off an inside edge to give Roland-Jones his second five-for of the match before Jack Morley edged low to slip off Hollman and Cornwell bowled Alex Thomson with the fourth ball of his solitary over.

Middlesex skipper Toby Roland-Jones said:

“We’re delighted, obviously. We’re happy that we read the pitch as it played. We wanted to have first crack at them with the new ball. We were  disappointed after the first session on Tuesday that we hadn’t put the ball in the right areas enough but we pride ourselves on being able to put things right and we certainly did that after lunch, when we had a clinical spell that changed the game and swung the momentum in our favour.

“After that, the skill and application we produced with the bat on a tricky pitch was outstanding. The patience shown by Rocky (Mark Stoneman) and Max in that crucial partnership was outstanding.  That hundred of Rocky’s has to be up there with the best he has scored on a pitch that offered a lot to both pace and spin.

“He has been phenomenal in his time with us. He has not shied away from helping the guys on and off the pitch. We are going to miss his runs and personality hugely.

“From my own point of view, when you get into a run of form like the one I’ve had you try not to think too much about things and just tap into what’s working and making the most of it, trying to repeat all the good things that seem to be coming off at the moment.

“Fitness wise, I’ve felt really good coming into this last stretch. Playing a bit less cricket during those white ball spells has helped to make sure I’m fresh for the red ball stuff.

“We’ll go to Hove now looking to do what we have done all season, which is to do what we can to win the game. This has been a really important bounce-back win and that will fill us with confidence for another test against a good team.

“If we are honest, we can look at not only the Gloucestershire game and our other defeat and know that we could have played better. But there is no point in looking back. We have learned from last week and played some outstanding cricket here on a testing surface, so those things can serve to make you better cricketers.”

 

Derbyshire skipper David Lloyd said:

“It is embarrassing, if I’m honest. Since that Glamorgan game, it has been a tough few weeks for us as a group. We have been outperformed again in this  game. We tried to get ourselves in a good position in the game after winning the toss and we failed to do that. There is no excuse really..

“We’ve got the final game of the season coming up and confidence is low but we have to find a way to show fight and some sort of character.

“Mickey had given us the belief that we need but at the end of the day it is down to us after we cross that line. We need to have a hard look at ourselves and work out how we are going to win games next season, to try to get the best out of ourselves going forward.

“For me it has been extremely disappointing. I’ve done everything I can to try to get the lads ready to give their best but at the moment it is not working. Obviously I’m new to the club but it is hurting for me as much as for anyone.”

 

Glamorgan vs Yorkshire, 50th Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Yorkshire need three Glamorgan wickets to secure victory on the final day and remain in pole position to earn promotion along with already promoted Sussex.

The Welsh County ended the day 141-7, 254 behind, Yorkshire opening bowler Ben Coad picking up his 50^th wicket of the season as he finished with 4-30.

Glamorgan had managed to bowl Yorkshire out for 273, James Harris taking his 600^th first class wicket on the way to 5-73. Jersey international Asa Tribe was the only Glamorgan batsman to hold firm with an unbeaten maiden first class half century.

That still set the improbable target of 396 for Glamorgan to win and Yorkshire will feel confident of wrapping up victory given the way wickets have fallen in every morning session of this match.

Once again the morning conditions were helpful to the bowlers and Jamie Harris and Andy Gorvin were determined to take advantage, Harris getting Finlay Bean LBW in the first over and Gorvin clean bowling nightwatchman Matthew Fisher with an off cutter.

Harris was working on the basis that if the batsman missed he either hit or appealed for LBW, it was the latter form of dismissal for both James Wharton and Jonny Bairstow.

Timm van der Gugten got in on the act, clean bowling George Hill, until a partnership between captain Jonathan Tattersall and Dom Bess settled nerves.

Both got into the forties and the lead climbed closer towards 400, before Tattersall was LBW to Ben Morris to give the Abergavenny debutant his opening first class wicket.

Van der Gugten removed Jordan Thompson LBW, the eighth wicket in a row to have been bowled on pinned in front, before they finally achieved a different form of dismissal when keeper Chris Cooke caught Bess, again off van der Gugten.

Harris returned to claim the wicket of Dan Moriarty and complete his five wicket haul, another clean bowled.

That mountain of chasing 396 to win got a little higher after the opening overs as they lost their two highest run scorers this season, Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram.

Northeast was LBW to Ben Coad in the first over of their reply, while Ingram set about the bowling in typically positive style before chipping one to midwicket, Coad again the bowler and James Wharton taking the catch, for Coad’s 50^th wicket of the season.

Kiran Carlson would have wanted to get into form ahead of Sunday’s Royal London One Day Cup final against Somerset at Trent Bridge, following his Golden Duck in the first innings.

Jersey international Asa Tribe is in his second first class match and this was comfortably his best score as he held the innings together,

An excellent leg cutter from Coad that hit the top of off made the breakthrough as Carlson departed for 41. He was soon followed by Ben Kellaway and Chris Cooke, also both falling to Coad, before Matthew Fisher bowled van der Gugten.

A brilliant one handed diving catch by Finlay Bean saw the end of Mason Crane off the bowling of Jordan Thompson.

Gloucestershire vs Sussex, 51st Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Jubilant Sussex needed less than a session of the third day to wrap up an innings victory over Gloucestershire at Bristol and clinch promotion from Division Two of the Vitality County Championship with a game to spare.

Resuming on 140 for three in their second innings, trailing by 62 runs, the home side were skittled for 195, left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat finishing with three for 39 and match figures of seven for 71, while Henry Crocombe took four for 22.

The margin of victory was an innings and seven runs, Sussex taking 21 points to Gloucestershire’s three from an eighth Championship win of a memorable campaign and building an unassailable advantage over third placed Middlesex.

When Crocombe claimed the final wicket at 12.08pm it provoked scenes of celebration, the seamer raising both arms in the air before joining in a group hug on the square involving the whole team. The Division Two title awaits for the runaway leaders, who have been far and away the best and most consistent side.

Knowing they were on the cusp of earning a place in the top flight, Sussex were on their game from the opening over, which saw Chris Dent bowled by Unadkat’s fifth delivery without adding to his overnight score of 61.

James Bracey could make only two before a thick edge off Ollie Robinson saw him snapped up by Tom Haines in the gully and it was 153 for six when Graeme van Buuren drove at a full delivery from Unadkat and got a nick through to wicketkeeper John Simpson.

Nightwatchman Ed Middleton battled away for 64 balls and shared a seventh-wicket stand of 36 with Tom Price before edging another catch to Simpton off Crocombe to make it 189 for seven. Gloucestershire still trailed by 13 runs.

In his next over Crocombe bowled Zafar Gohar with a yorker and removed Zaman Akhter’s off stump with the following delivery. The hat-trick ball was too wide and left alone by last man Dom Goodman.

Gloucestershire’s only remaining hope was to avoid an innings defeat. It proved beyond them as Crocombe struck again from the Ashley Down Road End, finishing a spell he will long remember by pinning Goodman leg before for two.

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “I was nervous coming into this morning thinking about how many we might have to chase with Zafar Gohar in the Gloucestershire attack and thought any more than 150 might be hard on that pitch.

“To actually win the game today without having to bat is fantastic and just shows the quality we have in our bowling attack. Henry Crocombe was top class with his spell and closed the game out, but Jaydev Unadkat and Ollie Robinson have also been superb for us.

“For a young Sussex boy like Henry to finish the game off was brilliant, as was having another local boy, Bertie Foreman, bowling at the other end when the final wicket was taken.

“Winning promotion is wonderful for everyone associated with the club, from the chairman and the board to the office staff, people who work on the ground, the members and supporters. It’s for them and the players. I am only in my second season and, while I am thrilled, there are a lot of others out there who will be equally delighted.

“When I arrived, I talked about our goal being promotion and I wasn’t shy in saying that. To have won eight Championship games out of 13 this season is a fantastic effort from the players.

“It means a lot that we go on to clinch the Division Two title because there are some very good teams who have been chasing us. Both Yorkshire and Middlesex have been breathing down our necks over the past few weeks and they are two very good teams.

“At the moment, I am not thinking beyond getting a nice cold beer and putting my feet up. We will see what happens next week.

“We went to Bangalore in pre-season and had a fantastic period there, bringing the team closer together. They are a close-knit bunch who enjoy each other’s success and I have enjoyed seeing that. All of us who have come in have been made to feel very welcome from the start.

“It is traditionally a family club and a lot of people are starting to feel that is coming back.”

 

Sussex seamer Henry Crocombe said: “I’ll never forget taking that final wicket. I was just trying to run in and do my best for the team and all of a sudden the game was finished.

“I was born in Eastbourne and have come through the Sussex age group teams from the age of about 11, so it means so much to me. There are a lot of home grown lads in the team and we are like a family.

“I joined the Academy at 15 and it has long been a dream to be part of success in the first team.

“Watching Ollie Robinson and Jaydev Unadkat bowl and trying to follow them has been great for me. They always seem to get a couple of wickets early, which makes my job so much easier.

“One of them is always stood at mid-on or mid-off to offer me advice and it makes a massive difference.

“Now we want to win the title and next season show the First Division how good we are and prove why we were promoted.”

 

Gloucestershire skipper Graeme van Buuren said: “It was a quick turnaround after winning the Vitality Blast and the celebrations that followed.

“We found ourselves competing against a very good Sussex side, who have played excellent cricket all season.

“To match them we had to be at our best and unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Sussex put us under pressure from the very start of the game.

“We were facing two world class bowlers and got caught short. But I still believe we have had a fantastic season and I am looking forward to completing it next week.”

Northamptonshire vs Leicestershire, 52nd Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Scott Currie’s valiant maiden first-class century proved in vain despite helping to stage a remarkable Leicestershire fightback as Northamptonshire completed back-to-back first-class victories for the first time in five years to the day.

Sent in as nightwatcher, Currie kept his calm as Leicestershire lost three early wickets on the third morning of this Vitality County Championship match at Wantage Road, slumping to 92 for seven, still 88 runs behind. The arrival of Tom Scriven (48 off 66 balls) heralded a complete change of approach though as he and Currie wrestled back the initiative in an attacking partnership of 101 in 21 overs either side of lunch.

With the momentum shifting and Leicestershire building a slender lead, Currie was joined in another big stand worth 110 in 23.3 overs by Sam Wood who smashed 57 off 91 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes). Currie’s lengthy vigil eventually ended after more than four hours at the crease, having faced 192 balls and hit 15 fours and two sixes.

Those partnerships allowed Leicestershire to set their hosts 137 to win and while they claimed one early wicket, George Bartlett (54 off 91 balls) and captain Luke Procter (68 off 76 balls) both scored half-centuries in an unbroken stand of 120 to seal victory by nine wickets.

Earlier Indian international Yuzvendra Chahal (5-134) claimed a five-wicket haul for the second match running, while Northamptonshire stalwart Ben Sanderson also nipped in to claim his 400^th career first-class wicket.

At the start of the day, Leicestershire resumed on 69 for four, still trailing by 111 runs. They soon lost skipper Lewis Hill (14) as Chahal got into his work. Keeper Lewis McManus completed the stumping as Chahal turned one which pitched on middle and beat Hill’s outside edge.

Ben Cox (8) then became Sanderson’s landmark scalp when he was trapped lbw before James Sales took a sharp catch at short leg off Chahal to dismiss Liam Trevaskis (2).

Currie, meanwhile, on a season-long loan deal from Hampshire, had proved a stable presence at the other end. He played a textbook cover drive off Sanderson but was otherwise content to bat within himself.

Scriven however provided the impetus the innings needed as Leicestershire pressed the accelerator rather than wait for wickets to fall. Scriven took the positive route from the outset, striking Chahal over mid-on to bring up Leicestershire’s 100 in the 58^th over, before pulling Sanderson for another four.

Currie too started to play his shots. He had made just 16 off 72 balls when the seventh wicket fell, but quickly moved up several gears. He took the attack to Chahal, swinging dismissively through midwicket and dispatching him over long-off. The leg-spinner conceded 19 in one expensive over, as Currie pulled for six before Scriven deployed the slog sweep and reverse sweep for consecutive boundaries to bring up the 50 partnership.

While Scriven was dropped at short midwicket, he continued to attack, muscling Chahal over long-on for a huge six as Leicestershire went into lunch on 172 for seven, trailing by just eight runs, an unlikely prospect earlier in the day.

They resumed after the interval in bright fashion, Currie driving Justin Broad for four to take Leicestershire into the lead. Broad though soon made the breakthrough, denying Scriven a well-earned half-century when he knocked middle stump out of the ground.

Currie continued to find the boundary, pulling Broad confidently before smashing him through deep point as he passed his previous highest best score of 72. He eased into the eighties with a fluent cover drive off Chahal and moved on to his century off 159 balls.

Meanwhile, Wood picked up where Scriven had left off, crunching Chahal down the ground for three sixes and cutting and driving fluently along the turf.

Chahal finally ended Currie’s long stay, picking up his fifth wicket in the process with one that turned and took the edge to be caught behind by McManus. Louis Kimber came out at number 11 after injuring his hand in the field yesterday and made four before Saif Zaib bowled him to wrap up the innings.

Gus Miller (11) kicked off Northamptonshire’s run chase by driving Holland for four but had his stumps rearranged by Wood with the hosts 17 for one, but Bartlett and Procter played the seamers with relative ease, starting to knock off the runs required in ones and twos and some streaky boundaries.

Procter greeted Rehan Ahmed by sweeping him high over deep midwicket for six, while Bartlett took another maximum off the England leg spinner a few overs later, this time over long-on. Procter hit Wood for consecutive boundaries to bring up the 100 partnership off 124 deliveries before hitting the winning runs with a boundary down the ground off Sol Budinger. Both not out batters finished with seven fours and one six apiece.

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