Annual Exit

Last year I started on 2 February and wrote my last piece on 19 May and I've decided to do likewise this year. Thanks to all those who've taken their time to read my ramblings, rhetoric and rubbish. I hope to make a comeback for the Ashes but based on previous data the 2nd February 2010 is more likely.

Last Eight Nearly Decided

My piece today is shorter than Chris Gayle's run up with just three Friends Provident Trophy matches to report and only two were completed. The only live match was at Leicester where Nottinghamshire won to maintain their qualification chances. I'm not exactly sure when the number of overs required for a match changed from 20 to 10 but that alteration was vital for Notts who after a rain break were left only 10 overs to bowl. Leicestershire's target was 77 but they were restricted to 67 with Ryan Sidebottom allowing only five runs from the final over. Notts scored 149 in 35.3 overs before the long rain delay, man of the match was Samit Patel who top scored with 48 not out following on the back of six wickets in his last match, he clearly looks in good all-round shape.

At The Oval already out Surrey beat already through Sussex with two former England players starring, Mark Ramprakash scored a third century of the competition while Chris Schofield took five wickets. The match was reduced to 39 overs per side and Surrey batting first scored 241 with Ramps making the major contribution. Sussex lost their form batsman Ed Joyce in the first over of the reply and despite a 58 run second wicket partnership between Joe Gatting and Chris Nash the introduction of Schofield halted the chase. The third match between Northants and Glamorgan was abandoned, both team were already out.

Tomorrow sees the final group matches and the main matters of interest lie in Groups A and B. In A three teams (Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire and Hampshire) are battling over two spots, Hampshire are at Trent Bridge while Worcs face Ireland. In B the runners-up spot behind Somerset is up for grabs with three counties (Middlesex, Warwickshire and Kent) in the running, Warks have it in their own hands knowing a win against Kent (or abandonment) will send them through, Middlesex require a narrow Kent victory will Kent will need a large win to overturn the run rate deficit. Group C is decided with Gloucestershire and Surrey going through, Group D is mathematically in the balance but Derbyshire will need to win hope already through Lancashire beat Essex and need a large swing in run rate as well.

Ashes Anticipation Accelerates

After the determined backs to the wall effort at home the West Indies surrounded the Wisden Trophy with a match and series performance that can only be described as feeble and lacklustre. Before the Caribbean tour England had held the trophy comfortably for nine years, the West Indies reign was a briefer nine weeks. Even despite the large pay days on offer the tourists clearly didn't want to be there, and none more so than Chris Gayle, if a team is said to represent their captain this was certainly the case. Man of the series awards seem pointless for two Test series but Fidel Edwards was awarded the West Indian version and he finished fifth in the bowling averages, Ronnie Sarwan might be another who escapes disgrace but he was only sixth in the batting averages. I have previously created a combined XI but its a pointless exercise. In terms of the stat I like, runs per wicket, England were 61.12 to 22.35 victors, a wide margin although not as big as Bangladesh 2005 (162.50 to 17.17 is surely a margin never to be broken, at least not until Zimbabwe return or Ireland became a Test nation).

Why do I go back for years, well it is obvious, on that occasion thanks to Glenn McGrath stepping on a stray ball England scrapped an Ashes victory for the first time in light years. I'm not an Aussie honest but England did have a bit of luck in 2005 and if they do regain the Ashes they'll need some more. Even after these feel good thrashings of West Indies, England remain a firm second favourite for the Ashes and rightly so. If you go back to 2005 and both countries had far better form leading into it, before Bangladesh England had beaten South Africa away and completed home whitewashes over West Indies and New Zealand. The 14 Tests in those four results produced 11 wins and only 1 loss. In their last four series this time around they have three wins and four losses, admittedly they have had tougher opposition but winning is winning and it breeds confidence. For Australia the pre-2005 record read nine wins and one defeat from 12 Tests including a series victory in India, now their last four series record is five wins and five defeats, although once again a caveat of tougher opposition. Even without stats it's pretty clear neither side is as good as the 2005 mark version. From the England XI that played at Trent Bridge four years ago possibly only Pietersen and Strauss will line-up at Sophia Gardens both are better players now although neither shone in the West Indies series, the rest will be missing after various form or fitness issues, two retired but both were precipitated by problems with their bodies, Tresco's head and Gilo's hip. From the Australian side at The Oval, six will have been lost to retirement (none due to fitness as proved by their Indian Twenty20 adventures), four will most likely return and Shaun Tait is the remainder. The large turnover of personnel means there are many players with question marks against them, Bopara, Broad, Swann and Onions for England and Hughes, North and Hauritz for Australia. There's also some uncertainty about Mike Hussey although a return to England, where he averaged 78.19 for Northamptonshire in three seasons and 76.71 for Durham in a single one, may be the perfect solution to reverse his form slump. With these unanswered questions the series could go other way but my head says Australia have too much for England.

Windies Require Rain

Another day of Test cricket and another day in which England dominated, at the start of play they required 17 wickets and have got ten of those, only the weather can now derail an England victory. The main goal for England was to make West Indies follow on and they achieved that shortly after tea, James Anderson finishing with sixth Test five wicket haul. Stuart Broad also bowled well especially the spell at Ronnie Sarwan when he was nearing a hundred, he got there but Broad got his man with Sarwan on 100. Sarwan was required to bat again and his wicket before the close will be vital to the confidence of a victory push on the final day.

The day had begun solidly for West Indies as Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul put on 99 for the fourth wicket, but Broad picked up both men prior to lunch Chanderpaul edging behind and Sarwan after a barrage of short balls reached his ton with a pull before falling next over gloving to gully. Brendan Nash and Denesh Ramdin who had done well on the final day of the previous Test came together and resisted for a brief period before Nash was bowled in bizarre fashion. He had defended the ball into the ground with the toe end of his bat only to see the ball bounce back onto his stumps. Ramdin then had to deal with the tail and with support mostly from the free swinging Sulieman Benn who scored 35 before he forgot to run and was surprisingly run out. Ramdin reached a fifty before tea after which Fidel Edwards was caught a slip hooking and Ramdin also edged to slip playing a more conventional shot. West Indies were all out for 310, 259 behind and Andrew Strauss expectedly enforced the follow on.

The West Indies second innings followed the pattern you would expect, Devon Smith returned to the pavilion as soon as Graham Swann came on, Chris Gayle attacked but eventually came unstuck and Sarwan played some nice off-side shots before he also fell. Three down at the close for 115 and England's attack looks fresh, Shiv is still in but he hasn't looked quite the same beast this year as he has in the previous two.

A couple of matches in the FPT today, but like most recently rain washed out one match, that was at Northampton where Essex where the visitors in the 18 overs possible Chris Wright took three wickets and Rob White scored a fifty. The other game at Lord’s was also rain affected but before that Middlesex knocked up a county one-day record total of 341 with Phillip Hughes scoring 119, Owais Shah made his first significant runs since the IPL with 82 and Neil Dexter made an unbeaten 65. However the score wasn't enough as Somerset chased at Twenty20 rate. When the rain delay came in the 32nd over they were 209/4 with Zander de Bruyn and Justin Langer set. The target was adjusted to 290 from 41 and they completed the job with de Bruyn scoring 70 from 61 and Langer finishing unbeaten on 78 from 69.

Dull Day In Durham

Today wasn't the best day of Test cricket we'll see this summer, there were no real outstanding performances and the match failed to progress much in the way of a result with the draw still the narrow favourite. The result is obviously dependent on the England bowlers taking 17 wickets in two days, based on the Lord's match they've got a good chance but this pitch is better and with more rain forecast a England win is only second favourite.

James Anderson after doing his job last night survived for half an hour this morning before Fidel Edwards got the wicket he seemed intent of getting. Kevin Pietersen got off to a quick start striking three boundaries in a Jerome Taylor over, indeed he looked in good touch until going for a big shot on 49. By that time Alastair Cook had been dismissed after eight hours of batting for a Test best 160. Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad added some impetus before the declaration came with the score at 569.

It's amazing to think England were dismissed for 51 by this attack just months ago, Jerome Taylor who won rave reviews that day (from everyone bar me) has reverted to type, Fidel Edwards is fast, wayward and has no ball problems, Lionel Baker is a decent county bowler but is little improvement on Daren Powell which is criticise enough and finally Sulieman Benn continues to be more interested in sledging than spinning. They're a bizarre rabble that I half-expect to be entering a bobsleigh competition.

West Indies batting isn't much better and they lost three wickets on the flat wicket in the rain interrupted final session. Anderson took them all, Devon Smith bowled, Chris Gayle unluckily LBW and Lendl Simmons edging to slip. Ronnie Sarwan looked it good touch with a number of drives and with Shiv Chanderpaul appearing as obdurate as his former self, the Windies have a good chance of saving the match.

Elsewhere in England there were four FTP matches, one of which between Worcestershire and Leicestershire was abandoned. In the others Ireland and Scotland both maintained their records as the only sides in the competition without a win however Ireland did come close to an upset against Nottinghamshire in Dublin. In a low scoring match Notts scraped home with two wickets and one ball in hand, the performance of the match and day was from Samit Patel who claimed 6/13 from seven overs, not bad for a fat lad. Scotland lost to Warwickshire by 50 runs at Edinburgh, Ant Botha scored a quick 37 and took three wickets. At Canterbury Somerset beat the hosts by 45 runs to maintain the only 100% record in the competition. Justin Langer top scored with 77 in Somerset's 296 with Sam Cook taking a creditable 3/29. The only reason Kent got close was Martin van Jaarsveld who scored an unbeaten 132 from 125 balls, the second highest score was 29.

Worthless Wins

Another short piece but tonight's reason is a lack of cricket, the second day of the Test was abandoned while two of the four Friends Provident Trophy matches went the same way.

Before today Lancashire were the only side to have qualified for the knockout stage and they secured another victory with an eight wicket victory over Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens. The hosts batted first and were well placed at 122/1 after 21 overs when the rain stopped play. The match was reduced to 31 overs and Glamorgan struggled in the remaining overs adding 50 and losing seven wickets in those ten overs. The Duckworth-Lewis method rose the target to a stiff 208 but Lancashire completed the chase with little problem. James Harris took the wickets of Paul Horton and Ashwell Prince but from there Tom Smith with 87 from 88 and Mark Chilton with 58 from 42 took the visitors to a win with three overs remaining and eight wickets in hand.

The other completed match was between Surrey and Durham at The Oval. Durham were out of the running to qualify for the final eight when the match begun but like Lancashire they had an unneeded victory today. Batting first they scored 287 with Will Smith and Ian Blackwell scoring fifties. In response Surrey fell 60 short, they had started well but lost four wickets for nine runs mid innings to slow their progress. Scott Newman and Usman Afzaal scored half centuries while Gareth Breese took three wickets. Ben Stokes had a professional debut to remember; at just 17 he claimed two wickets including Mark Ramprakash with his third ball. At Hove Gloucestershire scored 306 in 50 overs but rain the Sussex response, Craig Spearman and Steve Adshead scored quickfire fifties. The fourth match between Derbyshire and Northamptonshire didn't see a single ball bowled.

A brief mention of the situation in Sri Lanka, I'm a complete dunce when it comes to the problems in the country but when the UN talk of a 'bloodbath' and say they expect thousands of civilians to die this year then it's clear the situation is very critical. The fighting is going on in the North of the island and the cricket grounds are in the South but still the scale of the fighting must lead to further concerns of the staging of the 2011 World Cup in the Indian subcontinent full stop.

Essex Lads Done Good

A short piece as I have been busy watching my Wikipedia user page getting vandalised.

Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara scored centuries on the first day of the second Test as England dominated and West Indies tasted some of their own medicine. They produced flat pitches when they were 1-0 up just a couple of months back and now they have to feel the same frustrations as England did. West Indies don't have a hope in hell of winning this match given the end of day one score, given the pitch and given their sides performance last week.

Andrew Strauss won the Test and elected to bat first, that continued the extraordinary run he has as captain whereby he's had the chance to bat first in 11 of the 12 Tests. No wonder his batting record as captain is so good. Today wasn't his day though as after the initial jousts he fell to the leisurely spin of counterpart Chris Gayle, a ball down the leg side which Strauss could only glove. Cook and Bopara then came together with the score on 69, they shared 64 on the first morning at Lord's but that was merely a warm-up. This time the pair shared 213 runs, a partnership which dominated the whole day and rarely looked trouble. Cook inside edged over his stumps and Bopara leg glance could only be parried by Ramdin but that was all the chances the Windies could muster in 65 overs of batting. Not surprisingly Bopara's innings was more appealing but Cook also looked in great touch compared to recent offerings. The stand was broken when Lionel Baker got the new ball to fly back through Bopara's gate, he had already reached a third successive Test century, his innings included 13 fours and a six which was sandwiched between two of those fours in a Sulieman Benn over. Cook and nightwatchman Jimmy Anderson remained to the close, the score was 302/2.

In FPT today there were two no results while Middlesex thrashed Scotland with Shaun Udal scoring an unbeaten 79 and taking three wickets and Worcestershire beat Hampshire with little outstanding performances.

Blazing Gayle

Chris Gayle has enlivened a boring Test match eve day by blazing away in his usual manner although this time it was his words not his batting. I thought the comments were bizarre, saying that you wouldn't mind if Test cricket would die out, on the eve of a Test match. What's he doing there then? If he doesn't want to play Test cricket then f*** off back to South Africa and give a guy who want to play a chance. Test cricket doesn't need a no technique, no skill slogger like Gayle, let him tour the world prostituting himself to the various Twenty20 leagues. A batsman who can't average 40 in this era is frankly crap no bones about it. Sadly the West Indies are still in such poor shape a player like Gayle is good enough to play for them. The fact such a great team as the West Indies is captained by this tw*t is as much a disgrace to West Indian cricket as that farce in Antigua and the Stanford circus combined. In the first Test he showed himself to be a hopeless captain so give the job who actually wants to be there and might do a half-decent job, what's wrong with Ronnie?

My weekly rant out of the way and onto another set of Friends Provident Trophy match, oh joy. Only three matches today with two wide margin victories and one tight finish, all games saw the traditional 'big' title chasing counties triumph over the 'little' making up the numbers ones. Starting first at The Oval where one of only two unbeaten teams in the competition not only lost but got a drubbing. Gloucestershire were that side and they were dismissed for 142 in pursuit of 306. Surrey's score was down to Mark Ramprakash who scored a 16th one-day century, he shared 94 and 96 run partnerships with Usman Afzaal and Matthew Spriegel. In reply Gloucestershire started off at a reasonable rate but having reached 109/3 they collapsed, losing 33 runs for seven wickets. At Headingley Yorkshire chased down Durham's 166, just. They needed eight wickets and 49.2 overs to get there but thanks to Richard Pyrah unbeaten 42 they did. It was a good day for Pyrah who took 3/23 as Durham, like Yorkshire, struggled on a difficult pitch. For the visitors Gordon Muchall top scored with 31. At Derby Lancashire booked their place in the quarter-finals by beating the hosts by 114 runs. Francois du Plessis starred with the bat striking 112 from 86 balls including 12 boundaries. Gary Keedy was the pick of the bowlers taking 4/43, opener Chris Rogers top scored for Derbyshire with 68 but they never looked like challenging Lancs total.

Trial And Error

Prepare for meltdown everybody, the review/referral system is going to become mandatory from October 2009, conveniently there's an Ashes sized gap between the end of trial and beginning of the rollout. It seems truly bizarre that after such an unsuccessfully trial they would take this decision but if you remember back the trial in English domestic cricket two seasons ago was also unsuccessfully, clearly the administrators wanted this in no matter what. The fact it won't be used for the Ashes speaks loudly of the confidence the ICC has in the new system. Apparently this gap is so the umpires can be trained, it's a shame they weren't before the trial, now the logical thing would surely be to do another trial after some training and see if the results are any better. On the umpires, is it really possible to teach old dogs new tricks? Well only with time will that be answered. Also to come out of the ICC meeting was the decision not to impose weight or depth restrictions on bats. For how much longer can the ICC bury their heads in the sand over this issue before they choke the sport to death? If people want to see bat dominating ball let them go and watch Twenty20, make Test cricket a fair test of bat against ball.

Into the daily county round-up now and I only just realised that Friends Provident Trophy matches are running for consecutive days until next Wednesday, I'm bored already. Not sure why this situation came about, it never seemed this bad last year. Maybe part of the problem is the World Twenty20 but Championship matches are going on at the same time so the calendar shouldn't be such a crammed mess. It does once again highlight the stupidity of the ECB to add another Twenty20 competition for next year. The county treadmill is never allowed off the highest setting. Anyway back to today's play and there were less runs than yesterday's feast with only one centurion, young James Taylor of Leicestershire. Conversely there were a number of good bowling performances, Danish Kaneria being the pick.

Starting bizarrely with Group A and Hampshire beat Nottinghamshire by six wickets at the Rose Bowl. Hampshire skipper Dimitri Mascarenhas destroyed the Notts top order with four wickets to leave them 50/6. A recover was led by Will Jefferson and Paul Franks and a total of 202 gave their bowlers something to work with. Dominic Cork finished with impressive figures of 3/13 from 9.1 overs. Notts bowlers were unable to make early inroads and with contributions from everyone Hampshire completed the chase comfortably with over six overs remaining, Ryan Sidebottom took two of the four wickets to fall. In the other match in the group Leicestershire kept their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage alive by beating Worcestershire. As previously mentioned James Taylor scored a century and with fifties from Kolpaks HD Ackerman and Boeta Dippenaar they posted 282 batting first. Worcestershire fell 18 runs of that despite Steven Davies smashing 62 from 46 as opener.

Middlesex's one-day form has been inconsistent this season and after 300+ yesterday they were dismissed for a lowly 165 today against Warwickshire. Young England batsman, of sorts, Eoin Morgan and Dawid Malan put on 79 after the early clatter of three wickets but after Malan was dismissed wickets tumbled again. The wickets were shared amongst the bowlers but the most notable performance in the field was wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose who took seven dismissals, a Warwickshire one-day record. The reply hit few snags with pinch-hitting Neil Carter scoring 56 from 45 and Ian Bell guiding Warks home with 60 not out. At Old Trafford the hosts beat Northamptonshire by six wickets with overseas star Ashwell Prince taking the honours for his 78. Northants had set a modest target of 211 with only Nicky Boje reaching fifty, Glen Chapple was the pick of the bowlers with 2/32. The home side reached the target with 15 balls remaining, Paul Horton and Francois du Plessis contributed forties on a difficult batting day. At Sophia Gardens Essex heavily beat the hosts by seven wickets with nearly 25 overs remaining. Glamorgan total of 124 was something of success from a position of 57/7 but it was never going to prove enough. The main damage was done by Danish Kaneria with 4/16 from 10 overs and David Masters who took 3/21, only Ben Wright with an unbeaten 40 escaped embarrassment. Graham Napier failed to take a wicket but he scored 41 off 36 in the chase.

Somerset Smash Scots

There were runs galore in the Friends Provident Trophy today with 2,227 of them in just four fixtures that equates to roughly 280 for each team, who needs the Indian Premier League or as Cricinfo have now called it the 'T20 League in South Africa', Lalit Modi would not be chuffed.

Anywho back to the matter in hand and the biggest scorers were Somerset who passed 400 for only the second time in their one-day history (the previous occasion was in 60 overs). Admittedly the score came at Taunton against Scotland but still it's a reasonable achievement. The main damage was done by Marcus Trescothick with 144 from 108, James Hildreth with 151 from 141 and Peter Trego who smashed an unbeaten 74 from 39, seamer Jan Stander saw much of the chaos from his bowling, he conceded 106 in ten overs. Scotland didn't have a hope of getting close and their eventually total of 252 was about what you would expect. They had three half-centurions with Gavin Hamilton, Ryan Watson and Neil McCallum but none could match the scoring rate of the Somerset top order. Alfonso Thomas and Trego collected three wickets apiece. In the other Group B fixture, Middlesex, dismissed for 65 in their last match, scored 322/5 at Canterbury. England call-up Eoin Morgan was the headline act scoring 161 from 136 balls, with 19 boundaries and two sixes. He was partnered for all of his innings with Nick Compton who himself scored 131. Phil Hughes had his first failure with 12 while Owais Shah in his first match in over a month was out for a duck. Kent couldn't muster any large partnership and fell well short on 242 all out, on a batsman's pitch Chris Silverwood took a highly creditable 3/26 from 8 overs.

In Group C Gloucestershire continued their brilliant start to the season by beating Yorkshire at Bristol. Alex Gidman chose to put the visitors in and it proved a wise move as they collapsed to 49/5, from there Anthony McGrath and Richard Pyrah recovered the innings with 67s but 217 wasn't to be enough. The hosts suffered a mid innings wobble losing three wickets for five runs but James Franklin and Steve Adshead struck fifties in a seventh wicket stand of 106 which saw them to the brink. Adshead was dismissed for 56 but Franklin and Jon Lewis got the team over the line with four balls to spare. The other match in the Group saw Sussex claim a third successive victory in the competition. The win over Durham was significantly down to two former England players, opener Ed Joyce continued his good form with his new county by scoring 127 while James Kirtley took career best figures of 6/50. Another former England player, Steve Harmison, had a poor day conceding 51 from six overs he was the most expensive bowler on either side.

Ian & Ryan Return

While MPs have been in the spotlight for their expenses over the past few days, another person who the British public felt short changed by was given a second chance today. Ian Bell, the most talented English batsman of the generation has wasted his considerable talent over a 46 Test period but after a short rehabilitation in county cricket he is back for another go at the big time. The effective polar opposite is Ryan Sidebottom, a good honest county bowler was Duncan Fletcher's view of him but when he left Ryan got his chance at the highest level he grabbed it with both hands. His form in New Zealand was exemplary and he carried a lacklustre England to the series victory but a year later his international career was written off by numerous pundits after persistent injuries crippled him in the Caribbean. Both Bell and Sidebottom have played well in county cricket although neither has been outstanding. Sidebottom has played two four-day matches, taking seven wickets at 31.42 while Bell has played eight matches scoring 479 at 68.42, however both his two centuries came before the first squad was announced since then his record reads: 27, 51*, 37 and 30*, the fifty came in a one-day match. I'm somewhat surprised by both selections, there seemed to be all this talk of new England and Andy Flower's new selection policy of picking form players and yet one match in and we've reverted back to picking the same old players. England generally don't pick back-up batsman for home Tests so you can only read into it that Bell will come into the team for Tim Bresnan, that would be terribly unlucky for the Yorkshireman who barely got a chance on his debut. There was supposedly a new don't even think of Ashes agenda but these selections go completely against that. If England do change a winning team and lose then they'll deserve it.

Into county cricket and there's a run of Friends Provident fixtures at the moment, they began today with seven matches. Sidebottom didn't play but Bell got a duck and Ravi Bopara made two, rejects Steve Harmison (1/59) and Monty Panesar (0/52) didn't fair much better. The team of the tournament thus far have been Gloucestershire and today they gave a right ole thumping to Durham, winning by 148 runs. Half-centurions from Hamish Marshall, William Porterfield and Chris Taylor saw them to 301, a score well in the distance as Durham's top order crumbled to 43/5 at the hands of James Franklin and Anthony Ireland, Gareth Breese scored 47 but it was too late. The other form four-day side, Nottinghamshire, also had a good day beating Worcestershire by four wickets at Trent Bridge. For the visitors Daryl Mitchell top scored with 59 in a total of 209, Notts had a mid innings wobble chasing, losing four wickets for 22 runs, but when Andre Adams is down to come in at number ten you have the depth to handle such situations. Adam Voges and Paul Franks shared an unbeaten 61 stand to take them to victory.

Surrey for the third time in a week were involved in a thriller but just like the previous two they fell short, chasing 314 against Sussex opener Scott Newman scorched 130 but they fell two runs short 15 were needed from the final over. Murray Goodwin's 144 had been the backbone of Sussex's total, his innings came from 119 balls and included 16 fours and 2 sixes. At Canterbury the hosts beat Warwickshire by four wickets with eight overs remaining, Wayne Parnell continued his impressive form by taking 3/27, including Bell, as the visitors were all out for 218 inside the 50. Five of Kent's top six contributed to the successful chase, Justin Kemp saw them home with 45. At Chelmsford Essex beat Lancashire by six wickets, on a bowlers pitch they reduced the visitors to 82/8 before a recover saw the total to 157, Ashwell Prince was top scorer with 44 before being bowled by Bopara, David Masters took 3/19 from nine overs. Essex opener Varun Chopra played the perfect innings with 72 from 99. Debutant spinner Stephen Parry conceded just 17 runs from his ten overs. At Northampton Derbyshire beat the hosts by 21 runs, Stuart Law scored 95 in Derbyshire's 286 while Lee Daggett took four wickets, all bowled. Despite Mark Nelson scoring 74 from 67 Northants failed to keep up with the require rate. The only other match of the day, Hampshire against Ireland, was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Oval Thriller

This is the blog's 200th entry so I should try and put some effort in but I haven't in the past 199 so why change the habit of a lifetime. No Test today but there was still plenty of county cricket including a thriller in the capital.

Surrey began the final day on 60/1 in their second innings and despite the Middlesex opening bowlers being injured Surrey lost wickets regularly to a position of 209/9, a final wicket stand of 33 between Murtaza Hussain and Stuart Meaker proved crucial eventually. Middlesex's target was 186 in 25 overs and there was never any doubt they would go after it especially with wonderkid Phil Hughes opening. Nick Compton opened alongside Hughes and they rattled up 93 quick smart to put them in the box seat but three quick wickets including both openers checked the progress. 'England's' bright new batsman, Eoin Morgan, showed his big hitting abilities and along with Neil Dexter left Middlesex with the comfortably gettable 17 from three overs with seven wickets left. However they crumbled under the pressure, first losing three wickets in two overs, leaving them as underdogs beginning the final over needing 10. A single from Ben Scott left captain Shaun Udal on strike for his first ball, he smashed it for six and suddenly they were back favourites needing three from four. Udal went next ball and Steven Finn strode to the wicket, he was nearly stumped first ball and was plumb lbw on his second. One ball left and Middlesex had a choice between Alan Richardson with a bad back and Tim Murtagh who couldn’t walk, they chose Richardson. He hit the final ball but needing three he was run out going for a second. Middlesex needed two more runs, Surrey one more wicket, a perfect end to the match.

Sticking to Division Two and there were a couple of interesting results as well as an expected one. At Northampton the home side upset Essex although the damage had been done in the first innings. Northants needed 160 more today with all ten wickets in hand and they reached the target losing just two wickets, Rob White scored a second fifty in the match. At Bristol the home side beat Leicestershire by ten wickets although like the aforementioned mention the first innings was were the match was decided, today Gloucestershire got the final four wickets they needed and chased down the 72 run target in routine fashion, the win makes them a surprise early leader of the division. At Canterbury the home side set Glamorgan an improbable target of 385 on the final day, the visitors began solidly before James Tredwell ran through the team taking a career best 8/66.

In the first division Nottinghamshire, my tips for Championship success, beat Somerset to go to of the table. Notts were set a fourth innings target of 261 and began the day on 112/3, Charl Willoughby trapped Samit Patel infront early on but from there it was plain sailing for Notts with Adam Voges and Ali Brown scoring unbeaten fifties. At Hove the hosts were set 317 in 56 against Durham but didn't show too much intent in chasing, Chris Nash scored 85 not out to make sure of the draw. At Edgbaston the only chance of a result was if Warwickshire failed to avoid the follow on target, they cleared it thanks to Jonathan Trott and Jeetan Patel ninth wicket stand which was eventually ended after 233 runs. Yorkshire had a quick dash before sticking them in again, Anthony McGrath and Adil Rashid scored fifties but Michael Vaughan wasn't used after a hamstring injury. One wicket fell and Ian Bell got a knock but the match was a stalemate from early in the day.

England Remember How To Win

England have won a Test match for the first time since 11th August and the first live Test since 8th June. It not been an impressive run but as the Ashes fast approaches they have relearnt how to win and the papers high on going Onions pun crazy yesterday could easily go over the top tomorrow in looking forward to a potential Ashes success. Luckily Andrew Strauss is sticking, at least in the press, to the 'concentrate on the next match' approach and as long as the players toe the same line then fine. However if they are starting to think of Sophia in July perhaps first they should take a trip across London and there anticipation might be quenched. At the Oval today Phil Hughes scored 195 following closely on the back of 118 and 139 in earlier championship matches. The 20 year old now has a first-class average just a touch under 70 and his Test average is equally healthy. He's been tuned up by Middlesex, although he barely looks like needing it, and the run machine shows no signs of malfunctioning. Some may question the quality of the cricket but Surrey's attack was led by Andre Nel, a man with a far better Test average than either Stuart Broad or Jimmy Anderson.

England were expected to win the Test today and so it proved, barring a couple of partnerships the West Indies imploded in similar fashion to the first innings. The eventual target was 32 and allowed the hosts to repeat the margin, ten wickets, of England A's win last week. The first stubbornish partnership came at the start of the day as Devon Smith and Lendl Simmons put on 48 for the third wicket prior to a shortened morning session, rain removed an hour's play. But just like yesterday the imminent interval proved a major danger, in the three overs before lunch three wickets fell. Graham Onions got the two settled men while Graeme Swann took the crucial wicket of Shiv Chanderpaul. Denesh Ramdin and Brendan Nash were the second stubborn pair and they were more successful, putting on 143 in the afternoon as England bowlers were subdued for the first time in the match. It was the largest partnership of the match and the only one above fifty for the Windies. Broad was the man to break the partnership when he bowled Ramdin shortly after tea. That left Nash with a tail not keen on leaving a warm pavilion for a cold spell in the middle and they returned quick sharp. Three wickets fell in four overs before Nash on 80 decided to try and chance his arm, unsuccessfully. Strauss and Cook completed the formalities in half an hour, to leave both teams a free weekend.

Once again I haven't got time for a county round-up but there was one result today, Lancashire beat Worcestershire by six wicket to claim a second Championship win of the season and go top of the table. For Worcestershire it's a third defeat in four and things aren't looking good for avoiding relegation.

GGs On Form, Windies Not At The Races

It was a golden day for the Grahams/Graemes as England took control of the first Test against the West Indies at Lord's. Graham Onions on his debut took five wickets in the final session after a dodgy first two while Graeme Swann took three crucial wickets and on a day of 15 wickets scored a valuable 63 not out. Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson both took two wickets on the day and England's attack is starting to look a force again after the numerous problems of recent times. Test cricket is normally considered the slow moving sloth of the cricket jungle but the rate of change in this Test at least made it look like a sloth on speed. The match looked even after the first day but all those dropped catches now look even costlier as the tourists wound the second wondering where to go from here.

Ravi Bopara and Graeme Swann began the day well against some poor Windies bowling, they put on 93 before Bopara chipped to Brendan Nash who this time took the chance. Jimmy Anderson was promoted to ten ahead of Onions and he survived to lunch despite a bang on the back of the head from Fidel Edwards. He didn't survive for long after the interval and Onions followed him after missing an Edwards full toss first up. Swann was left unbeaten on 63, a maiden half-century which included a number of lusty drives. The West Indies response got off to a blazing start with Chris Gayle taking the lead role in smashing boundaries off Broad, Anderson and Swann, who had been given the new ball ahead of three other pace bowlers. When Gayle was dismissed in the ninth over the score was 44, Gayle's 28 included six boundaries. Ronnie Sarwan scored two himself before he edged Stuart Broad behind on 13. Devon Smith carried the attack and after 17 overs West Indies were 95/2 but just before tea came the turning point.

Swann returned to the attack and dismissed Swann with a straight one and Shiv Chanderpaul next ball with one which spun, two big wickets shuck the Windies dressing room and it was still rocking like a boat in a storm after the interval as Onions showed his true colours after a few expensive overs. Lendl Simmons and Brendan Nash weathered the instant storm but when Swann got rid of Nash the Windies sunk. Onions claimed Simmons next ball and took the wickets of Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn in the same over. There was no way back from 119/8, Onions got Denesh Ramdin plumb in his next over and after a plucky final wicket partnership which was larger than the last six he dismissed Lionel Baker in the same manner. England enforced the follow on and in the short time available Anderson struck two vital blows with the wickets of Gayle and Sarwan. England failed to beat Sri Lanka and South Africa in recent Lord’s Tests after they followed on but with three days left there seems no hope for West Indies.

I haven't got time for a county round-up tonight but it was a good day for two England former players Anthony McGrath scored a career-best 211 and Glen Chapple after 6/34 yesterday he top scored with 89, both Roses sides have the upper hand. Australian Phil Hughes scored a third Championship ton in three matches. Very little form shown by the England rejects, Ian Bell is unbeaten on 33 overnight.