County cricket talking points: Surrey and Warwickshire survive the pack | Provincial championship

Ball one: Middlesex feel the heat from Burns and Smith

The Trans-Thames Derby showed why the southern county can expect another fight for the pennant in September, and why the northern side is in a nervous battle for survival. Two seam attacks full of experience and talent again had good bowling conditions in this hot spring and both did well. To nobody’s surprise, the difference was in batting.

Surrey found a pair of scores from captain Rory Burns (88) and his likely successor Jamie Smith (97) to match Middlesex’s top guns Sam Robson (76) and Pieter Malan (66). But the impact of the fall of the fourth wicket told the story, Middlesexs 188 for four flattered to disappoint, all out for 209; Surreys 190 for four was the basis for doubling the score before the end of the innings. A lead of 171 was enough for a five-strong Surrey seam attack and Burns collected a comfortable 22 more to stay top of the table.

Ball two: Rushworth proves worth it

Warwickshires’ seam attack is also enjoying the early season conditions, knocking Essex out twice in less than 100 runs to stay in Surrey’s bag, three points off the leaders.

It’s still something of a shock to see Chris Rushworths name on a Warwickshire card, but the veteran paceman is as comfortable as a bear in the woods on his move from Durham, after signing for the season. Of course, he’s so immersed in his work, relentlessly looking for error on the field and flaws in batter technique, that all he needs is a little juice under his feet and a little cloud over his head. Thirty places from five matches is something to add to his Dutch lifting power.

Ball three: Kent march to a draw at Canterbury

Hampshire might have expected to join the momentum after securing a first-innings lead of 278 at Canterbury, but the home side showed admirable resilience to win by four runs to draw level.

It may be old school, but Zak Crawley, Ben Compton and Jack Leaning all hit over three hours, with Jordan Cox not far behind. That Crawley’s strike rate proved to be the highest of the quartet was no surprise, but that it reached a pedestrian 42 certainly was.

The home team can consider the five points secured in a draw as critical in maintaining them in the fall; One suspects that Hampshire have already rejected giving up 11 extra points in their title hunt.

Fourth ball: Huttons name

Nottinghamshire drew level with Hampshire in third after sweeping Northamptonshire’s side innings at Wantage Road, seven wickets to Brett Hutton and Dane Paterson.

Hutton, despite that eye-catching moniker, often goes under the radar and is easily classed as one of those Green-level players who will never play for England, so why is he racking up 100 or more Championship caps?

Of course, that loses the Point spectacularly. The County Championship has history, culture and value in itself and Hutton has honed his skills to such an extent that in his four appearances this season there is an outstanding win with three Fivefers. He may not provoke the visceral thrills offered by his quick but sensitive team-mate Olly Stone, but it’s a joy to watch the craftsman at work, and few have done so more effectively in recent weeks.

Ball five: Abell can’t set the target

Lancashire v Somerset would have picked up a few X’s from the pools slip in their day, with the draw experts producing another at Old Trafford, enough to keep both sides unbeaten, the only such record in the division.

Wisden shows two centuries for teenage prodigy James Rew, who is currently just behind big hitter Cheteshwar Pujara as the country’s highest run scorer. However, Lancashires two wicketkeepers, George Bell and Dane Vilas, bowled 21 overs on the final day, which reflects the game rather poorly.

With the visitors starting the final day with a third lead of 149 and James Anderson unavailable for Lancashire, perhaps Tom Abell should have shown more ambition and gone with it, but one can understand why calculations on a flat pitch might not have settled into a suitable equation.

This is an example of how this column’s suggestion of donating in runs would work in such circumstances. Skippers should have the right to organize a chase on the fourth day in the presence of the match referee. At lunch, Vilas could provide enough runs in the book to set a target of 300 in two sessions, and Abell might (really would) have bitten. Situations like this don’t come around often, but surely better for Vilas to play a little poker than bowl a few rounds?

Ball six: Raine ends play with a match-winning shot

Durham beat Yorkshire by one point in a match that was as exciting as Lancashire was dull. The match had been swinging in this direction until Durhams eighth wicket fell, 73 still needed and only the injured Brydon Carse in the paddock.

To their credit, Ben Raine and Matthew Potts not only finished on day three, but started again on day four. Only thousands tuned in to the commentary Sunday morning to sigh the collective told you when Potts went down. to the new ball with two more runs left.

Carse was bowled and Ben Raine, doing a classic No.8 job, walked away as a hero with 50 not to his credit. The Yorkshires’ long wait for victory continues, with the Tykes anchored at the foot of the table; Durham goes on top.