Sussex are following-on, and making a much better fist of it this time around (46-0) after being bowled out for 152. Three wickets each for Overton and Pretorius. Surrey have a lead at The Oval, Ben Foakes, after his turn behind the stumps, and a hundred last week is 43 not out. Surrey 273-5, a lead of 18 over Yorkshire. It’s Emilio Gay’s turn to enjoy the hard outfield at CLS< 40 not out in Durham 231-3. Hampshire are 65-2 after bowling Warwickshire out for 194. Stoneman and Gubbins the men out. Worcestershire have wriggled through Essex at top speed – all out for 157. Three wickets for the on form Tom Taylor, and Matthew Waite. Essex trail by 201 and presumably will follow on? Right, now that’s over for now, what else has been going on? And that’s the end of Jimmy’s spell for now – 5-1-24-2. Anderson Philip replaces him at the Anderson end. Old timer v old timer at OT as Wayne Madsen dons his pads for the rescue act. Quickly gets to the other end. Derbyshire 53-2. Another short snorter, Lloyd jags his head back but the ball skims the gloves and he’s caught behind. Derbyshire 50-2. Jimmy trying out some bouncers for size. David Lloyd ducks. A huge appeal for lbw – both arms out at quarter to three . No Jimmy, not today. A little hop, a little short-armed dab to third man for four. Lloyd has taken four off every Anderson over so far. Then a top-edge, then a bouncer which Lloyd ducks and still gets an involuntary bat edge on. Then a Jewell drive, glorious, for four. And now the WICKET! Angled in, and, like a perfect pearl, Jewell loses the top of off stump. Jimmy whispers in Marcus Harris’ ear. Three fabulous fours from Caleb Jewell off Tom Bailey’s second over – one a glorious straight drive. No middle-age spread on Jimmy, he is is still built like a racehorse. In theory I’d love to know his secret, but I fear it involves many hours in the gym. A slick new trim too. Four slips for Lancashire for the first time this summer (thank you Scott Read) . A snorter first up, a four flies through backward point off the second. Over safely completed, he takes his jumper from the umpire and stares at the footmarks. …the man himself. And now the hordes have drifted over towards the nets side of the ground, where Jimmy in sunglasses is doing that jogging thing with the rope ladder. And now a hip stretch. Phones are out, videos on. Hundreds of people emerge from the stands at OT in their shorts and pretty dresses and scowl at the heavy roller. Time for a quick cup of tea. But that’s the end of the “party”, as Anderson Philip is given out caught down the leg side. Lancs all out 458-10. Now for the after-hours illegal rave. Actually, they’re taking tea. A fabulous catch at cover! Jewell throws up his left hand and – somehow – catches one wellied by Tom Bailey – ends up flat on his back with a big smile on his face Enter No. 11, James Anderson, to a standing ovation, 318 days since his last game for Lancs, 309 days since his last Test match. He prods forward watchfully. And now a crowd-pleasing four. A weary Andersson celebrates after Hartely top-edges and with the force of his own body, tumbles over and ends up in the dust. Andersson takes the catch as it slowly falls to earth. Lancs 454-8. Some correspondence drops, hello there Romeo. “It’s only just struck me that this is Jimmy’s 43rd year, and he will go past Elvis in ten and a half weeks. ”I used to measure myself against Jesus, Elvis, Bogart and Hemingway but then thought it better to give up counting.” Perhaps Jimmy measures himself against Darren Stevens? Warwickshire all out. Turner polishes things off with the wickets of Simmons. Five for Abbott, a deficit of 106. Looking tricky for Northants at Sophia Gardens, Ben Kellaway falls just short of his century, but the lead 125. Gloucestershire still have a way to go to feel comfortable, 309 behind Kent. Both openers back in their ice bath, Ollie Price and Miles Hammond in the middle. A wicket for Kent loanee Jake Ball. Handscomb (51 not out) and Holland are riffing Leicestershire closer to parity at Lord’s. Leics 148-4. And in the Old Trafford sun, Lancs bat on and on, 445-7. That Ed Barnard is at it again, dragging Warwickshire towards 200 with an unbeaten 57. Warwicks currently 187-8, 113 behind. Four wickets for Kyle Abbott. Could be a pretty dreamy September for Middlesex fans with Kohli and Williamson in the middle order… Ali with the scoop: Andersson strides in from his namesake’s end. A meditative period falls upon OT. Lancs 430-7. Hello Gary Naylor! “What’s the ideal score for Lancashire here? My feeling is that 420 or so should be enough because they really need the win and that is more likely with a third innings thrash for Lanky and a fourth innings chase for Derbyshire. I don’t think you can build a winning position by insuring against the bowlers from going for 500+. Especially with Jimmy Anderson available - and he’ll probably veto the follow-on anyway.” It feels like they’re just chugging along here, waiting for the grand reveal. It’s been all go at Chester le Street – first Ben Stokes, with what looks like blond hair, warms up on the outfield, then James Minto is caught second ball after the break after a cracking 58. Lees has 58, McKinnney has zipped to 21 off 23 balls. Durham 147-1. Under the shade of the Old Trafford concourse, four boys are playing cricket with a coke bottle for a bat and a screwed up sweatshirt for stumps. Out in the sun, Lancashire have eased past 400…Jimmy time approaches. DIVISION ONE Chester-le-Street: Durham 107-0 v Nottinghamshire 407 Taunton: Somerset 338 v Sussex 68-2 The Oval: Surrey 145-2 v Yorkshire 255 Edgbaston: Warwickshire 103-6 v Hampshire 300 New Road: Worcestershire 358 v Essex 57-3 DIVISION TWO Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 216-4 v Northants 185 Bristol: Gloucestershire 48-0 v Kent 424 Old Trafford: Lancashire 380-6 v Derbyshire Lord’s: Middlesex 232 v Leicestershire 112-4 A wicket from nowhere at OT. Balderson bowled, a slither of an inside edge, off Morley, for 73. He can’t believe it and bends over his bat in disappointment. Lancashire 377-6, the end of the third century stand of this Lancashire innings. Round the grounds: Minto and Lees plough on: Durham 92-0 at Chester le Street. At Hove, Archie Vaughan did not reach a hundred, giving a dolly to mid-off for 80, Somerset 338 all out. Four wickets to Ollie Robinson. COverton and the returning Matt Henry have struck early for Somerset, Sussex 49-2, Haines and Clark out. Surrey have lost both openers at The Oval, but debutant Kurtis Patterson and Dan Lawrence have taken Surrey to 131-2. Three wickets for Abbot as Warwickshire wobble at 94-5. Webster steadying the ship, not out 40. And Essex haven’t had a great morning, Elgar joining Allison C and Westley back in the pavilion. Essex 51-3, still 307 behind. George Bell, all perfectly proportioned neatness, reaches fifty with a single, to join George Balderson (58 not out) in the half century club. At CLS, Minto has become the youngest cricketer to score a f-c fifty for Durham, at just under 17 and a half. And he’s the nightwatchman! Seventeen year old James Minto is having a morning to remember at Durham, a rapid 46 not out against Mohammad Abbas and the rest. Durham racing along to 72-0 after Notts were all out for 407. HH said last night how fast the dry outfields were. Good morning Tim Maitland: “Haseeb Hameed’s impressive, but not faultless, knock yesterday has put him back on top of the Division One run scorers list with 682 from 10 innings. It will come as no surprise to learn that carrying his bat and scoring over half his side’s runs has also sent his average soaring into three figures at 113.66. ”For completeness Adam Lyth is second on the list with 666, although I have no idea how a sextuple Nelson on individual statistics plays out. ”As for Notts, I imagine they are steeling themselves for a long hard day in the field. Listening to the live stream as play began, I heard the Chester-le-street pitch described as the driest Durham had ever prepared there. You didn’t need to nip down the A688 for one of Dominic Cummings’ famous eye tests to see that the outfield was just as arid: on day one Durham’s infielders didn’t chase the ball to the ropes when it penetrated the ring, more shrugged and jogged after it to collect it once it had hit something solid outside the boundary. ”I’m now visualising great Saharan sand dunes forming around Washington: the Angel of the North towering over a desolate desert landscape while salt flats surround Sunderland.” Thanks Tim (who wrote this before Has was left high and dry, not out for 206), and yes to the pitches – we’ve been a month without rain at Old Trafford and I guess the same at Durham. Worrying times (though if you briefly forget about climate, very lovely to see the blue skies). I did hear the forecasters say that rain was on the way for the bank holiday weekend. Bell and Balderson are batting beautifully this morning at OT, another bonus point in the bag and fours a plenty – 70 runs in the first hour. In the other division two games: Glamorgan have lost Carlson for a feisty 54, 149-4 against Northants; Gloucestershire’s Singh Dale, impressive against Lancashire, now has seven wickets against Kent including Benjamin (93) and Stewart (182) who frolicked wildly last night. Kent 424-9. And at Lord’s, Leicestershire have lost two more wickets this morning, Budingher and Ahmed, 73-3. Lurking with intent at New Road….first Charlie Allison caught brother Ben to polish off Essex, now Ben has bowled Charlie for 0. Extra confusing for a cricket scorecard that their initials are b and c. It was 59 years ago today, Bob Dylan played his famous concert at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. I don’t suppose any blog readers were there? and Somerset are now nine down, Vaughan 80 not out, Leach needs to find his inner Headingley. An early tumble of wickets round the grounds: OHD and Tom Latham gone at Edgbaston, where Warwickshire at are now in a spot of trouble at 42-4 against Hampshire; Craig Overton has been smartly caught by John Simpson at Hove, oh and Pretorius too – Somerset 362-8 and Archie Vaughan in danger of running out of partners while in sight of a century. And Worcestershire have been bundled out for 358 by Essex. At OT, four boundaries already after a slow grind yesterday – it took 47 minutes for the first ball to travel over the rope. Some interesting insight from the reporters network last night, that Luke Wells had asked to return to the top of the order “I’m obviously pleased to get a score. I actually called Benky the other day asking to go back up the order. I did have opportunities to win a couple of games in run chases batting at six, so I did have opportunities to impact the team there and was disappointed that I didn’t get a match-winning contribution score. “But I just felt, especially when everyone’s under pressure, we haven’t got the results we wanted. I’d rather go to what I know best, having done that for the majority of my career. “It paid off and the game is such a funny one because, you know, narratives completely change according to the result and what happens. Drop second ball or whatever, that gets caught, (it’s a) whole different narrative.” Incredible that over 6,000 people were at The Oval yesterday – well played to everyone there. Here at OT, Ben Aitchison has the new ball, playing his first Championship match since July 2023, after a terrible run of luck with injuries. A great journey down memory lane from Taha, and a thoughtful analysis on the disappearance of cricket from the national conversation. In Division One, a feisty Jonny Bairstow frisked 89 at a honey-warm Oval, where the Guardian football writer Jonathan Wilson and his stag do were among the 6,000 spectators. There were three wickets apiece for Surrey’s Jordan Clark and Tom Lawes and a gravity-defying catch by Ben Foakes, hanging in the air like an unvoiced memory. Adam Lyth added another fifty to his hefty season’s collection, but Yorkshire wilted after tea. The Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed was a sea of calm on a stormy scorecard at Chester-le-Street, carrying his bat for 206. Brydon Carse, playing in his first game for Durham this season after a toe injury, bowled through 14 overs, and grabbed three wickets. Somerset appeared to have thrown their batting order into a paper bag and pulled out the numbers at random - but the new approach had its successes against Sussex. The upside-down opening partnership put on just 21, but there were contributions down the order, including an unbeaten 70 from Archie Vaughan. Warwickshire’s Ed Barnard (four for 56) and Olly Hannon-Dalby (three for 47) riffed through Hampshire at Edgbaston, despite an unbeaten 52 from James Fuller. At New Road, a swarm of bees forced the players off the pitch where Worcestershire earned their first batting points of the season, ending on 354-9 against Essex. In Division Two, more than 2,000 children revelled in the heat of the concrete concourse at Old Trafford, where it has been a busy few days. On Tuesday, Keaton Jennings stepped down as Lancashire captain, replaced by Marcus Harris, and the club officially apologised for the bad start to the season. That bad start continued shortly after Jennings walked out and was caught off Blair Tickner for two, Josh Bohannon following close behind. But Luke Wells took charge of the rebuild against Derbyshire, his carefully crafted 141 his highest score at Old Trafford. At Lord’s, Ian Holland’s golden summer continued, his five for 35 giving Division Two leaders Leicestershire the upper hand over Middlesex. Northants lost nine for 80 at Sophia Gardens, brittle as overcooked flapjack, before Marnus Labuschagne made a duck on his Glamorgan return. At Bristol, Grant Stewart’s boundary-biffing 173 not out transformed Kent’s day as they made 386-6 against Gloucestershire. DIVISION ONE Chester-le-Street: Durham 2-0 v Nottinghamshire 470 Taunton: Somerset 317-6 v Sussex The Oval: Surrey 46-0 v Yorkshire 255 Edgbaston: Warwickshire 27-2 v Hampshire 300 New Road: Worcestershire 354-9 v Essex DIVISION TWO Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 82-3 v Northants 185 Bristol: Gloucestershire v Kent 386-6 Old Trafford: Lancashire 250-5 v Derbyshire Lord’s: Middlesex 232 v Leicestershire 22-1 Good morning from a cloudy Old Trafford – possibly not the best news for Derbyshire with Jimmy Anderson due to stretch that 42nd year old body later today. Play starts around the grounds at 11am, do join us.
Author: Tanya Aldred at Old Trafford