County Championship Day 4 & Tables and CB40 cricket

Another round of Championship matches comes to a close and the tables are finally starting to shape up, the number of possible winners and losers is getting smaller. Meanwhile the CB40 goes on with another game tonight.

County Championship

Day 4

Northamptonshire v Leicestershire - Match drawn
Nor - 399 & 252-5
Lei - 299 & 227-8

Northamptonshire decided to bat on this morning and added a quick 41 for the loss of two wickets, taking their lead up to 352. Wakely finished not out on 38, while thrashed 37 in 26 balls.
     Leicestershire had almost no chance of winning but set out to battle for the draw. This became much harder when Thornely and Jones both fell before the score had reached 20. Sarwan added 14 and Boyce made 19, but the visitors were struggling on 87-4. Eckersley had held up one end for more than 40 overs but fell lbw for 57 and Northamptonshire were half way to their target.
     Another 27 runs had been added and 10 overs eaten up when Willey picked up his third wicket, removing Cobb for 28. Middlebrook finally got his reward when he bowled White having already bowled more than 20 overs, for less than 40 runs.
     Thakor (39*) and Henderson (20) then added 52, the highest partnership of the innings, taking Leicestershire past 200, but the tension mounted when Middlebrook bowled Henderson.
     Time though was nearly up and Leicestershire saw off the remaining overs, and seeing how short of 352 they were it makes me wonder again why Northamptonshire chose to bat on.

Points: Northamptonshire 9, Leicestershire 8


CB40 Cricket

Warwickshire v Kent - Kent win by 6 wickets
Kent won the toss and decided to field
War - 92
Ken - 93-4

Kent made full use of winning the toss as they drove into Warwickshire's top order in good bowling conditions. Evans (1) was the first to go and was quickly followed by Porterfield (2) and Troughton (1) leaving the hosts on 5-3. Maddy made 10 before becoming Davies' second wicket and Ambrose scored 11, taking the total to 33, before nicely rounding off the top five by being caught, just like the other four.
     Having taken three of those catches, Stevens then chipped in with the wicket of Javid before Cook took his second (Patel) as Warwickshire limped to 55-7. Stevens had Barker caught to become the fourth bowler to take two wickets, with two left up for grabs.
     Best made 15 while Clarke was not out for 35, but the end came quickly with Steven's finishing off the tail to take 4 for 25, meaning he had a hand in seven of the ten wickets.

Kent soon set about chasing down the measley total and reached 26 before Billings was caught for 8. Key was second to go with the score on 38 before Maddy removed Northeast and Stevens. A few nerves might have come into the Kent dressing room then, but Mahmood (20*) and Blake (18*) showed no signs of it as they raced through the final 39 runs with plenty of boundaries, to take the visitors to a comfortable victory in only just over half the overs.



Championship Tables

Division 1

	Team	Played	Points
1	Warwickshire	12	162
2	Sussex	13	151
3	Nottinghamshire	12	141
4	Somerset	12	130
5	Middlesex	12	115
6	Durham	12	88
7	Surrey	12	83
8	Lancashire	12	81
9	Worcestershire	11	76

Division 2

	Team	Played	Points
1	Derbyshire	11	146
2	Hampshire	12	120
3	Yorkshire	12	120
4	Kent	12	119
5	Essex	12	106
6	Northamptonshire	12	105
7	Gloucestershire	12	95
8	Glamorgan	12	86
9	Leicestershire	13	84