Key events
Suddenly the spectators in the East Stand pick up their bags and scurry up the aisle. The rain has arrived. This was Craig Overton last night after yet another monster performance: “It’s been a great season for me – and those personal milestones are nice. But it doesn’t really mean much if we don’t win the Championship.”
Rain
Clouds are gathering over Headingley and there are delayed starts at Hove, at Canterbury and at Grace Road.
Additional detail from Grace Road – the Bollywood filming event was for a Virender Sehwag biopic.
Digging in the full report from the cricket regulator, is a nugget that the groundsman’s preparation was hampered not only by the 35 degree heat but also “an unscheduled Bollywood filming event four days before, and I wasn’t allowed to work on the pitch. I wasn’t allowed to cover it or anything.”
Leicestershire pleaded guilty to a poor pitch but said they had prepared the best quality pitch that it could for the match.
The players are going through their warm-ups in the Headingley sunshine, and there is just one bobble hat to be seen. Quite a few coming through the gates on what might be the last day’s cricket here this season.
Wednesday’s round-up
It was advantage Warwickshire at the top but perhaps the most significant action of the day came off the pitch and at the bottom, with Leicestershire all but relegated after a points deduction.
The Cricket Regulator had charged Leicestershire after the Grace Road pitch was rated as poor for last month’s win against Glamorgan. The cricket discipline panel has upheld the charge, leading to the deduction of the 19 points picked up for the victory plus eight more as a penalty. A Leicestershire statement said “the club is reviewing its position and considering all available options”, but the deduction left them bottom of the table, 38 points adrift of the last safe spot. With Hampshire 225 ahead with seven wickets standing, Leicestershire’s hopes in what is now a must-win match are slim.
Warwickshire flourish a 19-point hand on the table and wait after a second two-day victory in succession. Essex, further weakened by overnight substitutions to Shane Snater and Tom Westley, gave them the upper hand by conceding another 40 runs for the last wicket, thanks largely to an unbeaten 88 from Sam Hain. The Indian spinner Manav Suthar, with five for 75, and Chris Woakes, with three for 33, were too hot for Essex and Warwickshire easily knocked off the 133 needed.
The morning bell at Chelmsford was rung by the BBC’s Dick Davies, retiring after 31 years covering Essex cricket. Up at Headingley, Craig Overton continued his one-man attempt to haul Somerset over the line. His 64 not out, full of humpty and grace, rescued his team from the doldrums of 86 for eight, in companionship with Migael Pretorius, who found his long-lost batting form with a free-flowing 58.
Overton was last man out to Ben Cliff’s, whose astonishing eight for 76 were the best bowling figures for a Yorkshireman at Headingley since Graham Stevenson’s eight for 57 in 1980. He led Yorkshire off grinning, applauding teammates behind.
Overton soon spoiled their fun, nobbling Will Luxton’s middle stump with his second ball, and removing Adam Lyth a couple of overs later. Jonny Bairstow came and went to a Nureyev catch at cover by Archie Vaughan but George Hill and Dom Bess stopped the rot with an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 74 as spectators in the East Stand enjoyed some afternoon sun to stretch Yorkshire’s lead to 139.
At Hove, Nottinghamshire were held up by an obdurate Sussex, who picked up the only Division One batting point of the round thanks to half centuries for Tom Clark, Charlie Tear and Tom Price.
Kent need 56 to beat Lancashire and get their promotion points on the board. Zak Crawley (84) and Matt Milnes (40 not out) ushered Kent to a first-innings lead of 53, before Milnes had a go with the ball and helped chisel Lancashire out for 192. Sam Northeast and Tawanda Muyeye took Kent towards a good night’s sleep.
Asa Tribe’s first hundred of the season, on a wicket where 20 wickets had fallen the day before, eased Glamorgan’s relegation nerves, even before the Leicestershire news.
Scores on the doors
Division One
Chelmsford: Warwickshire 191 and 138-2 BEAT Essex 134 and 189 by eight wickets
Grace Road: Leicestershire 244 v Hampshire 214 and 255-3
The Oval: Surrey 115 v Glamorgan 132 and 339-5
Hove: Sussex 308-6 v Nottinghamshire 240
Headingley: Yorkshire 212 and 128-6 v Somerset 201
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 465 v Worcestershire 270-5
Bristol: Gloucestershire 296 v Middlesex 326 and 17-0
Canterbury: Kent 214 and 84-2 v Lancashire 161 and 192 Kent need 56 to win
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire 310 v Derbyshire 372
Preamble
Good morning! It’s a beautiful one in Headingley, delicious autumn sun, but not in Leicester, where they are coming to terms with a brutal 27 point penalty from the Cricket Regulator last night that leaves them all but relegated. The club are “reviewing their position” and “considering all available options” but it looks pretty bleak for the Foxes. We’ll chew this over as we follow Somerset’s progress against Yorkshire and the other games round the grounds. Do join us.
