Ollie Pope struck an unbeaten 122 off 102 balls, while Dom Sibley added 79 as Surrey recorded their first win of the LV= Insurance County Championship season; Stuart Broad was among the wickets for Nottinghamshire, as they recorded their first win of the campaign.
Monday 17 April 2023 06:39, UK
Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley shared an unbroken 193-run second wicket partnership, as Surrey beat Hampshire by nine wickets at the Kia Oval in the LV= Insurance County Championship.
England batter Pope struck an unbeaten century, while opener Sibley finished not out on 79, as Surrey won the match comfortably after chasing 243 in their second innings.
Captain Rory Burns contributed 35 runs off 87 balls, as he shared a 54-run opening stand with Sibley, but it was Pope who was the star of the show, scoring his hundred in typical Baz-Ball fashion.
The 24-year-old smashed 14 fours and three sixes on his way to an unbeaten 122 off just 102 balls, with a strike rate of almost 120.
His second innings ton added to his 91 off 157 deliveries in the first innings to give Surrey their first win of the season.
Earlier, Daniel Worrall took 5-40 as the home side bowled Hampshire out for 258 in their second innings, with Nick Gubbins top-scoring with 84.
At Trent Bridge, Dane Paterson took a superb 5-46 as Nottinghamshire defeated Somerset by 165 runs.
In bowler-friendly conditions, Somerset were set 295 to win but were bowled out for 129, with Paterson leading the way.
Brett Hutton took nine wickets in the match, while Stuart Broad picked up his first scalps of the season as Nottinghamshire bounced back from their opening-round away defeat to Hampshire.
Ultimately, in a low-scoring contest in which only three batters passed 50, Somerset, who drew their opener against Warwickshire at Taunton last week, failed to gain any momentum in their second innings as they were bowled out in less than 40 overs.
At Edgbaston, Hasan Ali took the decisive wicket with six overs left to help Warwickshire win by an innings and 14 runs.
It looks like Kent would snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat, after battling through the final day, with Joey Evison falling one run short of a century.
But Warwickshire took the deserved victory, with Chris Woakes (3-59) and Chris Rushworth (3-58) among the wickets.
The home side declared on 453 in the first innings, with Yates and Hain scoring tons. They then bowled Kent out for 158 and enforced the follow on as Kent struggled with the bat.
Essex captain Tom Westley weighed anchor for over two hours to deny Lancashire the win.
Westley faced 120 balls in scoring 43 as Essex batted for two sessions to save the game, after a dispiriting morning when they regularly lost balls out of The Cloud County Ground.
Lancashire had set a nominal target of 340 in 68 overs thanks to a perfect example of the Bazball ethos by scoring 184 runs in the 28-over morning session, with 137 coming in the final 15 overs.
The big-hitting trio of Tom Hartley (73 not out), Colin de Grandhomme (38) and Tom Bailey (25 not out) hammered nine sixes during a sustained period of carnage.
Essex did not rise to the bait, though, and turned the McCullum-Stokes blue-sky thinking on its head as they settled in with the sole intention of saving a game that had lost 103 overs because of the weather. They had reached 128-4 from 58 overs when handshakes were exchanged on the draw at 5.52pm, both teams taking eight points.
James Anderson bowled 13 overs in bite-sized spells in his first match of the season, as he looks to build up his fitness ahead of a blockbuster summer of Ashes cricket, live on Sky Sports.
England's premier seamer still had the opposition playing and missing with some regularity and he trapped Sir Alastair Cook, to claim his former captain's scalp for the second time in the match.
Essex crawled along to 23 from the first hour when Nick Browne was doubled up by Bailey and became another lbw victim.
Westley and Dan Lawrence saw Essex through to tea two wickets down and 29 overs used up. But four balls after the interval, Lawrence shuffled across his stumps to be undone by an inswinger from Bailey.
Westley's vigil ended just as the final hour began when he was the fourth to go lbw to De Grandhomme after which he was left to Matt Critchley and Adam Rossington to see out time.
Sam Whiteman hit a maiden half-century for Northamptonshire to steer them to a first LV= Insurance County Championship victory of the season over Middlesex.
The Western Australia captain, who lifted the Sheffield Shield just last month, played positively for his unbeaten 60, striking seven fours and a six as Northants reached their target of 119 just before lunch on the final day's play to complete a seven-wicket win.
Northamptonshire had resumed on 30-1 in the morning, requiring a further 89 runs, but Middlesex's hopes of an unlikely victory were raised when skipper Toby Roland-Jones (1-26) removed Hassan Azad (14) lbw with the second ball of the day.
But, despite conditions favouring the bowlers, only one further wicket fell - Ethan Bamber (1-16) pinning Chris Tremain (13) in front - as the home side eased to their target.
