Vitality County Championship 2024 Round 4, Day 4 - April 29th - Live Cricket 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 Round 4 April 26th – 29th 2024.

Monday 29th April 2024

Division 1

Durham vs Essex, 16th Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

Essex’s Nick Browne scored his first Championship century for over a year and Callum Parkinson collected his maiden five-wicket haul for Durham, but the Vitality County Championship at the Seat Unique Riverside ended in a draw.

Such an outcome had always appeared probable once the third day’s play had been lost. However, having made 488 and taken a 130-run lead on first innings, Essex did their best to force a victory on the final afternoon, only for their efforts to founder on the broad bat of Alex Lees, who made 48 not out in 128 minutes and had steered his side to 131 for two when bad light stopped play at 4.40.

The teams shook hands shortly afterwards, at which point David Bedingham, Lees’ third-wicket partner, was unbeaten on 33.    

The most notable event of the morning session came in the fifth over of the day when Browne back cut Ben Raine to the boundary to reach his first hundred in 22 Championship innings, a bleak run stretching back to the game against Kent in April 2023.

Browne’s century was also a tribute to his patience in this match. He had batted 286 minutes and faced 238 balls to reach the landmark.  Five overs later, another boundary from Browne brought Essex their third batting point but that achievement was swiftly followed by the dismissal of Jordan Cox, who was bowled by Callum Parkinson for 36 when he played outside a ball that was deflected via the back pad to the leg stump.

Parkinson soon collected his second wicket of the morning when he clean bowled Matt Critchley for three with a fine ball that turned past the outside edge and hit off stump. Noah Thain then helped Browne add 55 in 11 overs before being caught at midwicket by Scott Borthwick off Colin Ackermann for 23, but Essex reached lunch on 450 for six with Browne unbeaten on 169.   

The visitors looked to score quick runs in the afternoon session and lost four wickets in doing so, including two run outs in three balls. Browne departed for 184 when attempting a third run and failing to beat Alex Lees throw from fine leg and then Harry Duke was sent back by Simon Harmer but Borthwick’s return from midwicket was too sharp.

Parkinson then dismissed Harmer and Jamie Porter in the same over to finish with five for 131 from 31 overs in Essex’s 488 all out.

The visitors’ hopes of causing a collapse were boosted when Borthwick played across a ball from Porter and was lbw for four in the third over of Durham’s second innings.  However, Lees and Ackermann put on 75 for the second wicket before Ackermann was caught at slip by Cox off Critchley for 32, a fate that had appeared to befall him on 20, only for the umpires to rule that the ball hadn’t carried.   

Durham took 12 points from the game and Essex received 14, a return which leaves the visitors equal on points with Surrey at the top of the First Division. The champions lead the table purely by virtue of having taken one wicket more than Essex this season.      

 

 

Surrey vs Hampshire, 17th Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

It took champions Surrey only 30.2 overs on the final morning to wrap up victory by an innings and 11 runs against an overwhelmed Hampshire at the Kia Oval.

Dan Worrall finished with an impressive five for 47 as Hampshire, dismissed first time around for 151 on day one, were bowled out again for 197. And Ollie Pope equalled the Surrey record for the most outfield catches in a first-class match, pouching three more at second slip to give himself six in the innings and eight in the game.

Surrey’s thumping win, their second of the new Vitality County Championship season, would surely have been completed well inside three days had a total of 84 overs not been lost to bad weather on the second and third days.

Hampshire, resuming their second innings still 92 runs behind at 116 for five, had added just Ben Brown’s single to their overnight score when Liam Dawson fell for 18 – edging Worrall to Pope in the cordon in the third over of the morning.

It was Pope’s fourth catch of the innings in the position, and sixth of the match, and the England batsman then went to seven when Worrall returned for his second spell of the morning session and Pope accepted a straightforward nick to second slip as Kyle Abbott departed for eight to the fast bowler’s second ball back.

Pope’s eighth and final catch of the match equalled Tony Lock’s record for Surrey from 1957 against Warwickshire at the Oval, although five of Lock’s catches in that game were off his own bowling. It also wrapped up the contest and gave Worrall his fifth wicket of the innings, Brad Wheal (9) obligingly edging for Pope to complete a spectacular tumbling take to his right.

Surrey’s record for catches in a first-class innings, however, remains seven by Micky Stewart against Northamptonshire at Northampton in June 1957.

James Fuller had earlier hung around 23 balls for his four, before fending a Gus Atkinson lifter to gully where Dan Lawrence took the catch at the second attempt to leave Hampshire 139 for seven.

Atkinson then greeted Abbott with a vicious first ball lifter that the tailender did well to fend away from in front of his face, with both feet off the ground, and Abbott continued to bat bravely as he helped Brown to add 26 for the eighth wicket.

But Worrall’s return did for him and leg-spinner Cameron Steel, brought on for his first bowl of the match for the 71^st over of Hampshire’s second innings, had Brown well-held on the deep mid wicket ropes by Ryan Patel one ball after being slog-swept for six in his third over.

Brown’s 45 was a creditable effort but it was also a mark of Surrey’s dominance, and bowling power, that Steel – the early season’s leading championship wicket-taker with 20 from the first three rounds – had not been needed until the game was all but over.

Surrey, who also beat Kent at Canterbury last week, took 22 points to Hampshire’s three and have begun the campaign strongly in their bid for three successive championship titles.

They would have comfortably reached a fourth innings target in their opening home fixture, against Somerset a fortnight ago, but simply ran out of time in a frantic last session run chase following the loss of 70 minutes to rain at the start of the final day, while the weather washed out much of their season opener against Lancashire at Old Trafford.

For Hampshire, meanwhile, today’s loss was also their fourth heavy April defeat in successive years against Surrey at the Oval, following their nine-wicket reverse last April and innings beatings in each of their previous two early-season visits.

Surrey captain Rory Burns said: “We have played really well over the four days. Obviously we got an early foothold in the game by bowling them out for 151 on the first day and getting ourselves into a good position from there.

“It was important for us when Ryan Patel came in to join me in our first innings and played really well [to score 41]. He has opened the batting for us a lot in the past and so was very good against the moving ball. The partnership we were able to put on together was a big moment in the game.

“I was very pleased to contribute my own hundred to the team cause in our first innings and, yes, I think it was one of my best innings for the club. And then Jordan Clark came in and hit a brilliant hundred late on in our innings which gave us what was a match-winning lead.

“But I think the way our bowling attack has performed in this game, and especially in the second innings because of the relentless nature of it, is very much a blueprint for us as we go further into the season. It is very pleasing that we have started the season so well.

[On Pope’s Surrey record-equalling eight catches in the match] “Ollie has always been a very good catcher of the ball, and he moves very well on his feet so he is able to take a lot of difficult chances because of the good positions he gets himself in.”

Hampshire’s 1^st XI manager, Adi Birrell, said: “We have been outplayed over the four days and we certainly need some time off now [Hampshire, like Surrey, do not play in the next round of championship matches] so we can practice hard and get ourselves ready for the next game.

“Yes, I think you can say it is a mental thing for us coming here to Surrey, having lost heavily now in our last four visits. Last year, actually, I thought we played well and were still in contention to win ourselves on the last day before Pope took it away from us with an unbeaten hundred.

“But in this game we got behind early and stayed behind and it’s certainly been a struggle for us coming to the Oval in recent years. We knew what we were going to come up against here but we have to try to find a way to deal with it. Surrey’s faster bowlers know the conditions here at the Oval, with the extra carry and swing they get, and they really exploit that.”

 

Warwickshire vs Nottinghamshire, 18th Match, Vitality County Championship Division One

Worcestershire vs Somerset, Match 19, Vitality County Championship Division One

Tom Lammonby continued his excellent start to the season and played a major role in Somerset earning a hard fought draw against newly promoted Worcestershire at Kidderminster.

Lammonby dug in to score his third half century of the season in addition to his hundred against champions Surrey.

His unbeaten 81 lifted his run tally for the campaign past the 350 mark and he received excellent support from Andrew Umeed during a decisive fourth wicket partnership.

When the duo joined forces, Somerset were still 76 runs in arrears at 66 for three but they effectively blunted the attack and batted throughout the afternoon session in adding 117 in 39 overs.

Lammonby enjoys facing Worcestershire and in 2020 during COVID became Somerset’s youngest player at the age of 20 to carry his bat through an innings in a crucial four-day Bob Willis Trophy game at New Road

His efforts today helped sealed a fourth successive draw for Somerset and a third in four games for Worcestershire – plus a defeat against Durham – since gaining promotion.

Worcestershire now have a week’s break from action before facing Kent at Canterbury but they can take heart from their early season performances.

They were in the ascendancy in rain-affected games against Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire and gave another good account of themselves in this fixture in accruing another 15 points.

Somerset will also take encouragement from their resilience and application in battling away throughout the final day.

They resumed on five for one after Jason Holder had removed opener Sean Dickson yesterday evening.

Holder could have struck again first thing this morning but Matt Renshaw survived a chance to second slip before he had scored.

Nightwatchman Jake Ball proved a frustration to Worcestershire during the opening hour and also did the bulk of the scoring.

He edged Holder wide of third slip for four but produced a more convincing cover drive to the boundary off the same bowler.

Renshaw was content to blunt the attack and the second wicket pair added 39 before Adam Finch made the breakthrough.

Ball (29) did not move to his feet to a delivery which jagged back in and was bowled.

Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira brought himself into the attack shortly before lunch and accounted for Renshaw.

He had battled away for 77 balls in making 12 but then attempted to sweep the leg spinner and popped up a simple catch to Kashif Ali at short leg.

At that juncture, Somerset were still 76 runs in arrears but Lammonby and Umeed ensure there was no clatter of wickets.

The emphasis was almost entirely on defence with just the occasional boundary to keep the scoring rate at around two an over.

But their efforts slowly but surely thwarted Worcestershire’s hopes of victory.

Lammonby completed a solid half century from 126 balls and an afternoon session produced 73 runs from 28 overs and no breakthroughs for the home side.

Umeed brought up his 50 – from 117 deliveries – at the start of the final session but then perished to a fine return one-handed reflex catch by Ben Gibbon.

 

Worcestershire Head Coach Alan Richardson said: “I think first and foremost, you take great heart from the performance.

“We played some really good cricket for large parts of the game and put ourselves in a position to try and win the game.

“Ultimately, just a little bit frustrated we couldn’t quite get over the line. But lots of positives over the four days.

“What were those positives? We identified after the Durham game that we were a bit scruffy with the ball, not quite as disciplined as we would have liked, and we were better in this game and got our rewards in the first innings.

“With the bat, we talks a lot about fostering partnerships to try and make sure we don’t lose wickets too much in clusters.

“We know that will happen at times but we have to make sure that is not fatal for the rest of the game and we did that brilliantly well.

“Obviously some brilliant individual performances with the bat. Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick bowled batted magnificently, the partnership they had and the partnership Gareth had with Adam Hose which really gave us some nice momentum.

“Then Brett D’Oliveira and Joe Leach towards the end did fantastic to put us in a really good position.

“For me, addressing some of the stuff we didn’t quite do as well against Durham, and doing them better in this game, is something that should be a real positive.”

 

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Somerset Head Coach, Jason Kerr, said: “Coming into the final day, the first hour was going to be a challenging time and we had to get through this without any scares.

“Bally (Jake Ball) did his job overnight but also this morning very well and the guys played brilliantly throughout the day.

“Pluses from the game? We batted well as a unit so the confidence is high there and some spells with the ball were outstanding but we were not quite at our best collectively as a unit.

“Again the confidence of the group is really high and we are playing some good cricket. We have just got to be a little bit better.

“We try to pick the best 11 to take 20 wickets and we have not been far off.

“We are still searching for that first win because of a combination of the type of balls used, skills not quite being good enough, surfaces but we have been incredibly competitive in the draws so far.”

 

Division 2

Gloucestershire vs Middlesex, 13th Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Gloucestershire's long wait for a Vitality County Championship victory on home soil continued as their Second Division match against Middlesex at the Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol petered out into a draw.

On a day which began with all three results still possible, Middlesex did their utmost to force a result by declaring their second innings on 449-7 and setting the home side a target of 339 to win in 58 overs on a hybrid pitch offering negligible assistance to the bowlers.

The visitors still fancied they had an outside chance of prevailing when reducing their opponents to 102-3 in the final session with 27 overs still available, but Ollie Price displayed resilience in compiling an unbeaten 52 as Gloucestershire reached 127-3 to frustrate London ambition.

Resuming their second innings on 262-3, Middlesex had earlier played positively in adding a further 187 in 36 overs, Ryan Higgins top-scoring with 155 and sharing in a stand of 202 for the fourth wicket with Max Holden, who contributed 111. Stephen Eskinazi's breezy 65 not out prompted the declaration, which came half an hour into the afternoon session. 

Forced to contend with a cold and blustery wind and battleship grey skies - hardly conditions conducive to a successful run chase - Gloucestershire were never in a position to realistically pursue a first red ball win since September 2022. Their 11-point haul from this game saw Middlesex overtake Sussex and assume leadership of the table after four matches, while Gloucestershire collected 13 points to move off the bottom.

Starting the day with a handy lead of 143, Middlesex were intent upon hastening to a point where they could declare their second innings and set Gloucestershire a target. As such, Holden and Higgins picked up where they left off the previous evening, going for their shots and looking to carry the attack to the bowlers. 

When Holden slashed at one delivery outside off stump too many and was held by Ollie Price at second slip off the bowling of Ajeet Singh Dale, the fourth wicket partnership stood at 201 from 39.4 overs. Having added just six runs to his overnight tally, Holden fell on 111, his transformative innings spanning 154 balls and containing 15 fours and a six.

Undeterred by the departure of his long-time partner, the ebullient Higgins went to 150 in the grand manner, hoisting Graeme van Buuren high over deep mid-wicket and into the car park for his fifth maximum. He was out to the next ball, again attempting to hit Gloucestershire's captain out of the ground and skying a catch to mid-off. 

In terms of it's longevity, this latest innings might not have matched the career-best 221 Higgins compiled against Glamorgan at Lord's three weeks earlier, but it certainly exerted a more profound impact upon proceedings. Having arrived in the middle on day three with Middlesex in some discomfort at 79-3, he departed with the score on 352-5 and the visitors in a position to dictate terms for the first time in the contest. 

Gloucestershire trailed by 234 when they took the new ball which realistically represented their last opportunity to wrest back control of the game. Marchant de Lange and Singh Dale bent their backs, 

only for the flow of runs to continue as Eskinazi and Jack Davies joined forces in a progressive alliance of 45 in nine overs. Davies eventually holed out to mid-on off the bowling of De Lange, but only after plundering 5 fours and a six to put a dent in the South African's figures.

Deploying a characteristically unorthodox approach, Eskinazi contributed an unbeaten 65 from 96 balls with 8 fours, his innings a hit and miss affair that served to raise the tempo. Gloucestershire's best efforts with the new ball would have done little to encourage the Middlesex bowlers in the belief that they could take 10 wickets on a hybrid pitch to win the game, but the declaration arrived nevertheless, Leus du Plooy calling the batsmen in with the scoreboard on 449-7 shortly after lunch.

Required to score at a little under six an over, Gloucestershire's batsmen were no doubt mindful of the alarming second innings collapse that sent them spiraling to defeat at the hands of Sussex in their last game. When Chris Dent succumbed to a leg-side strangle at the hands of Tom Helm without scoring in the second over, the home side could have been excused for harbouring negative thoughts.

Any fears of a repeat performance were allayed by Cameron Bancroft and Price, the second wicket pair proving reassuringly obdurate in the face of testing spells from Helm and Henry Brookes to see Gloucestershire through to the tea interval at 69-1.

Although the prospect of the home side scoring a further 262 runs to win in the final session remained no better than notional, there appeared to be precious little in the hybrid pitch to offer Middlesex any encouragement. Clearly undeterred, Helm removed Bancroft for 32 shortly after tea, locating the Australian's outside edge and presenting an opportunity for du Plooy to demonstrate his athleticism at second slip.

Price was fortunate to survive when dropped by Eskinazi at first slip off the bowling of Ethan Bamber, but the seamer breathed new life into the contest when inducing Miles Hammond to pull straight to mid-wicket soon afterwards. When Price and James Bracey proved obdurate, the two sides shook hands at 5.25pm with 18.3 overs unused.

Leicestershire vs Northamptonshire, 14th Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Australian Test batter Peter Handscomb and England all-rounder Rehan Ahmed played the starring roles as Leicestershire snuffed out Northamptonshire’s hopes of bowling themselves to a first Division Two victory of a Vitality County Championship season so-far dominated by rain-affected draws.

Leicestershire replied to Northamptonshire’s first-innings 453 for seven declared with 452 for eight declared in a contest that had seen only 37 overs bowled on Saturday and a complete wash-out on Sunday. Handscomb was Leicestershire’s top scorer, although he missed out on a 23rd career first-class century and a third for the county when he suffered the self-inflicted agony of being run-out on 99.

Ahmed made 85, with Louis Kimber scoring 65 and Tom Scriven 54 not out as the two sides claimed 15 points each, enough to put them first and second in the table, although the first four rounds have produced only two positive results across the whole division.

 

Lanky fast bowler George Scrimshaw took his first two wickets since moving from Derbyshire to Wantage Road and veteran seamer Ben Sanderson raised his wickets tally for Northamptonshire to 500 in all senior formats, although the visitors’ day was also notable in a less positive way as captain Luke Procter accrued a five-run penalty against his team when he struck Ahmed on the leg with the ball in attempting to run him out off his own bowling.

Procter, fielding in his follow-through, felt he was within his rights to take a shy at the stumps as the batter stepped out of his crease but umpires Ben Debenham and Jack Shantry ruled that he had thrown the ball “in an inappropriate or dangerous manner” in contravention of Law 42 in the game’s rule book.

Scrimshaw’s wickets came inside his first three overs of the day and reduced Leicestershire to 142 for four only 11 overs after the resumption, giving rise to thoughts that they might struggle to avoid being asked to follow on after resuming 356 in arrears.

A perceived white ball specialist in his career so far, Scrimshaw is keen to prove himself an all-formats player. He struck with his second delivery, pushing Lewis Hill back in his crease to win an lbw verdict, following up by having Kimber caught behind defending off a thin outside edge.

But on essentially a good batting surface, Northamptonshire were not able to turn the screw.  Handscomb took every chance offered to test the pace of the outfield following Sunday’s soaking and found that it had not suffered as much as might have been imagined, passing 50 from 54 balls with his ninth boundary.

Unruffled by the incident with Procter, possibly even fired up by it, Ahmed was soon adding to the flow of boundaries. He was spilled at first slip off the medium pace of James Sales on 48 before completing his half-century from 59 balls with seven fours, marking the achievement with a six over deep midwicket off Saif Zaib’s left-arm spin.

Both looked good for hundreds but Ahmed perished 15 runs short, attempting to loft Sanderson over mid-on but not connecting cleanly enough, giving Scrimshaw an easy catch.

Sanderson struck again two balls later as new man Ben Cox edged into the slips, the catch completed by Emilio Gay at second after Ricardo Vasconcelos had failed to gather at third.

The Handscomb-Ahmed partnership had added 167 in a little over 32 overs and made sure the follow-on would be avoided.

Ahmed’s disappointment was almost certainly trumped by Handscomb’s after the manner of his demise. The Australian right-hander moved into the 90s with three boundaries in a single Scrimshaw over but was still there an hour later, unable to keep the strike for more than two deliveries at a time in that period.

Handscomb’s patience is rarely tested but this time it cracked and he paid the price, chancing a single off Zaib that was clearly high risk and beaten to the non-striker’s end by Karun Nair’s direct hit from short midwicket. It was the first time in 440 senior matches that Handscomb had been out for 99.

Sanderson reached his 500 milestone by having Ben Green caught at first slip but more positive batting from all-rounders Scott Currie (44) and Scriven (54) added 92 for the ninth wicket to seal maximum batting points for their side with 11 balls to spare before handshakes were offered on the draw.

Yorkshire vs Derbyshire, 15th Match, Vitality County Championship Division Two

Wayne Madsen completed a courageous century and new signing Aneurin Donald added 97 as Derbyshire’s batters comfortably secured a Vitality County Championship draw against Yorkshire at Headingley.

Derbyshire started day four on 190 for three in their first-innings reply to Yorkshire’s 450 for five declared, needing to reach 301 to avoid the follow-on. 

Given a day three abandonment following rain and with time running out, achieving that 301 target was always going to secure the draw. They did so inside the first 10 minutes of the afternoon and advanced to finish on 447 all out.

Madsen, 88 not out overnight, posted 104 off 226 balls. The 40-year-old was batting with a stitched up right hand following a nasty injury trying to take a slip catch during Friday’s first morning. 

Donald, a winter arrival from Hampshire, narrowly missed out on what would have been his first first-class century since July 2019 as Derbyshire claimed 13 points.

Yorkshire, who were 59 for one in their second innings when bad light intervened at 4.40pm, took 16 points from their third draw added to a defeat.

Donald hit 10 fours in 118 balls, while fast bowler Zak Chappell crashed four sixes in a late 78 off 61 as the visitors pursued bonus points after lunch. Brooke Guest had fallen at the start of play for 75.

Madsen was one of three centurions in the fixture, joining England’s Harry Brook and Joe Root, who hit 126 not out and 119 for Yorkshire. Root also added three wickets with his off-spinners. 

Had Yorkshire forced Derbyshire to follow-on, they still would have needed a special second-innings bowling performance to claim victory. 

Taking 17 wickets in the day was by no means impossible, though unlikely on a pitch which was largely excellent for batting.

England fringe quick Matthew Fisher, the pick of Yorkshire’s bowlers with four for 96 from 27 overs, gave the hosts hope when he uprooted Guest’s off-stump with one that kept low in the day’s second over - 193 for four.

Madsen was particularly strong through the covers off the back foot en-route to his hundred off 224 balls, his 44th all-format century for the county.

He showed no signs of discomfort with regards to his hand injury. 

It was a giveaway wicket when he top-edged a slog-sweep at Root to midwicket to hand Yorkshire their second wicket of the morning - 237-5 in the 78th over.

The new ball was taken shortly afterwards, but it didn’t work as the hosts would have hoped, despite two late-morning scalps for Jordan Thompson.

With Derbyshire 297 for seven at the break, they were safe.

Seamer Thompson trapped Anuj Dal lbw and had Alex Thomson caught at midwicket.

Derbyshire’s innings included three partnerships of substance. 

Madsen and Guest shared 170 for the fourth wicket, ended early on the final day, before Donald added 54 for the sixth with Dal and an exhilarating 109 for the eighth with Chappell, who had some fun with the pressure off during the afternoon.

There was some afternoon confusion surrounding Donald’s score.

At one stage, he had been credited with four more runs having been caught at long-leg off a Thompson no ball. It initially looked as if umpire Hassan Adnan had signalled four as well as a no ball, but it was later corrected between the umpires and scorers. 

It had been corrected before he edged Root behind on the cut, the same bowler ending the innings when he trapped Pat Brown lbw for a career best 15. 

Chappell had smacked four leg-side sixes - three off Root - before gloving a Fisher short ball to gully.

The only thing which was left to achieve was for Derbyshire to improve an over-rate of minus three. They did so either side of tea through the spin of Thomson and Harry Came. Captain David Lloyd trapped Fin Bean lbw for 33.

 

Yorkshire’s head coach Ottis Gibson said: 

 

“I guess you can just go back to even some time last year and find one of your reports, play it out and it will say the same thing. The weather and a lack of enterprise from them this morning. I said to them, ‘Let’s put something on the table and make a game of it’. They didn’t show any interest in that. It was another frustrating day. 

“But I’m proud of the way we approached the game. 

“We got five batting points and maximum bowling points today. In the end, you have to be satisfied with that. But it’s another early-season game ruined by the weather.”

 

 

Derbyshire’s head of cricket Mickey Arthur said:

 

“A decent haul of points. I think we played our best cricket from the partnership between Wayne Madsen and Brooke Guest onwards. That almost got us into our season because we’ve been really hampered by the weather. 

“We’ve bowled and created enough opportunities, like we did last week. The thing for us is just our catching. Again, we put down too many catches behind the stumps. We did that against Leicestershire as well, and it’s something we’re really going to have to work on.

“It’s a nasty cut which Wayne has got, but that’s typical of him. Wayne just gets it done - he’s an incredible professional and a very, very good player. 

“The thing for me is that he walked out and did it under pressure. He played an innings which was very valuable for us.”

 

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