Hats, caps and helmets were hurled into the ring on day three of the third round of championship matches by England players past and present who sense that Zak Crawley might pay for his string of failures and fancy his opening Test spot.
Haseeb Hameed, now Nottinghamshire’s 28-year-old captain, carried his bat for 138 off 240 balls against Warwickshire – sprightlier than his strike rate of 32 in his 10 Tests for England. Nobody else at at Edgbaston has scored more than 50, where Warwickshire trail by 111 runs with only four wickets left.
Alex Lees, who has also played 10 Tests, scored 172 as Durham’s captain against his former county Yorkshire. Having lost their first two games, Durham needed an upturn and it came in his second-wicket stand of 279 with their new signing Emilio Gay. Yorkshire have a lead of only 12 runs with six wickets left.
Dan Lawrence, a bizarre selection as opener for England last summer, who batted even more bizarrely, is unbeaten on 117 off 108 balls on a flat pitch at Hove. Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope, who might have to consider opening if he wants to stay in the England Test side, had earlier scored 103 off 135. A draw against Sussex would be the visitors’ third in a row this season.
Pope said: “I felt good in the second innings against Hampshire last week, so to get to three figures is a good feeling. It feels like I have reaped the rewards for the work I’ve put in and, hopefully, it’s set me up for a good summer. The tempo of Dan’s innings was really good. He played the situation perfectly and played some amazing shots. It was high class.”
As classy a hundred as any by an opener over the weekend was the one made by Rehan Ahmed, against a challenging Lancashire attack, even if it was in division two. He has always had the strokes but as Leicestershire’s new opener he has started building an innings. The best example of his balance was the back-foot drive that was barely a shot as he had no need to follow through, such was his timing, which took him to 97.
Ahmed was dismissed for exactly 100, his second first-class century, but it was no wild swipe against England’s former, and largely forgotten, left-arm spinner Tom Hartley. It was still a naive shot, against his 149th ball, because it pitched outside leg stump and Ahmed pushed it to silly point. A demoralised Lancashire were slumping again at the close, 212 behind: if Rehan can run through their last seven wickets, his all-round game will be progressing to the point where he could be considered as an England number six or seven.
An aspiring England opener, Ben Compton took his overnight 144 to 178 against Gloucestershire, his highest innings for Kent. It was his second consecutive hundred, and he accounted for it by referring to the ever-improving pitches at Canterbury: “We’ve played on some better wickets this year in terms of pace in the pitch.”
A year ago, Sam Northeast was scoring 335 not out for Glamorgan against Middlesex at Lord’s. This time it was 27 and four. Middlesex can rest and rotate their four pace bowlers now that they have a one-Test left-arm spinner, Zafar Gohar, to keep one end tight. Glamorgan trail by 85 with only five wickets left.
If tickets for England’s four-day Test against Zimbabwe, starting at Trent Bridge on May 22, have not been selling like hot cakes, then at least Zimbabwe dominated Bangladesh on day one in Sylhet. Bangladesh’s batting seems to be going backwards and they were dismissed for only 191, the sixth time in their past 10 innings they have been dismissed below 200, to which Zimbabwe replied with 67 without loss, Brian Bennett scoring 40 off 37 balls.
Article courtesy of
Source link
