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trators with the counties cash cow competition to sell the two cross group matches required to be played by each county to bring the fixture count up to 12 from groups of six have been rather less successful in terms of the clarity of the three tables and in balancing jeopardy whilst it allowed counties to be matched for the first time in many years and no doubt friendships to be renewed in rivalry on away grounds the groups became very skewed all six counties in the central and west won at least half their matches while the north and the south comprising many teams who had lost their cross group matches saw half their members out of the running far too early as it happened the best eight sides probably did come through but perhaps some fine tuning might be required to ensure that more counties have something to play for in more matches come 2027 ball six the quarter finals on wednesday 15 july have shaken out as follows hampshire hawks vs essex nottinghamshire outlaws vs surrey yorkshire vs somerset northampton steelbacks vs gloucestershire predicting t20 matches is a fool s errand so i shall merely note that the bookies have surrey as marginal favourites and gloucestershire as outsiders for me essex looks the value bet perhaps more interesting is to note that only half of the eight quarter finalists host a hundred franchise money certainly talks in domestic cricket but not as loudly as it does in some other sports at least not yet finals day is on 18 july at edgbaston leave a comment posted in county cricket cricket the tooting trumpet posted by tootingtrumpet july 7 2026 the final over of the week in county cricket 7 july 2026 the blast is bubbling up in the heat with the knockout phase scheduled for next week plenty of counties are still in the hunt ball one after rew no after rew you can t win em all might be the oldest cliché in sport timing one s defeats is talked of rather less nevertheless it s a very useful habit to form northamptonshire lost their first match in the group stage having won eight in a row to ensure qualification for the knockouts next week and as is often the case after such a run the loss was a big one going down by 105 runs at home to somerset we witnessed another installment in the fraternal battle for supremacy of rew vs rew which sounds a bit dr seuss this time thomas bested his elder brother james 57 30 and with another product of the somerset development programme jos buttler looking very much in the twilight of his international career there could be a slot opening up in england s white ball squad their more immediate concern is to win three matches on the bounce to give their county a chance to go back to finals day and defend the trophy nobody s writing them off just yet ball two tariq the freak gloucestershire still somehow second in the central and west group are proving my point above in the reverse three consecutive defeats jeopardising what looked a nailed on progression the latest came at edgbaston where they ran into usman tariq who knocked over their top three en route to some very old school figures of 3 12 from his full allocation as you might imagine he employs methods that are very much not old school to achieve those results jumping sideways into the crease pausing like a bad penalty taker in his action and almost dropping to full round arm in his delivery even in cricket s most circumscribed job bowling in t20s there s room for innovation and eccentricity especially when the only real sin is to be predictable maybe other counties should seek out their own highly mysterious spinner ball three notts tie up opponents in chases greedily in addition to topping division one of the county championship nottinghamshire also top the north group of the blast courtesy of seven consecutive wins the last two of those victories have come by very tight margins one run vs lancashire and two vs durham there are many factors that contribute to a side getting over the line particularly when defending a target but clarity of roles confidence and the much maligned indefinable quality called team spirit play as big a role as any skills executed under pressure those qualities sit in reserve for a team in form durham were big favourites when they needed 58 off seven overs with eight wickets in hand but slow left armers george linde and liam patterson white got the squeeze on and their six overs in the match went for just 26 runs while each bagged a brace of wickets durham needed boundaries and couldn t find them whether under haseeb hameed with the red ball or joe clarke with the white notts find a way to win at least often enough and that s a very handy attribute in the stop start english cricket season ball four lyth muscles another huge score yorkshire look likely to join notts in progressing from the north group after topping 200 in each of their last two matches getting up in the last over against durham was a collective effort but setting the target of 208 for leicestershire that allowed hasan ali and andrew tye to do their thing with four wickets each was very much down to one man adam lyth only bettered by himself for yorkshire his 131 not out is the kind of knock that prompts people to say that 2014 is knocking at the dressing room and wants its innings back that was his golden season and at 38 he ll never add to his seven international appearances he needs just three more centuries to notch 50 for yorkshire and that much deserved milestone will mean a lot to a born and bred tyke ball five vince a convincing captain hampshire gained quick revenge for defeat at canterbury by inviting kent straight back to the utilita bowl where they won to consolidate their lead in the south group james vince top scored in both matches and his batting and captaincy in white ball cricket for his only county makes a big difference to hampshire s fortunes with england suddenly looking around for a test captain and harry brook the almost default option the national team may have to look at impacts on workloads that would surely provide an opportunity for new leadership for the white ball formats and perhaps a little experience might be welcome though vince is a franchise cricketer these days and lives abroad a deal that allows jacob bethell to lead the t20 side while vince drawing on 25 matches in the international 50 over game captains the odi xi it might just suit all parties ball six sun shining on surrey at long last surely that s not the misfiring 2026 version of surrey winning a critical match against essex to leapfrog them into second place in the south group it is you know jason roy laurie evans josh phillippe and ollie pope all enjoyed the short boundaries at chelmsford to post 240 that proved just enough after a late blitz from shane snater and zaman akhter almost wrested victory from the jaws of defeat for the home side sunday s return match at the oval in front of a big crowd likely recovering from the inevitable drama of england s saturday night match against norway in the world cup could be a showdown of its own in the midsummer heat 6 comments posted in county cricket cricket the tooting trumpet posted by tootingtrumpet june 30 2026 england vs new zealand report cards grading every player after the crowe thorpe trophy series england ben stokes 57 runs at 14 3 seven wickets at 21 9 retires when he is england s best bowler england s best captain and one seemingly unreachable recently century away from being worth his place as a batter alone but as he acknowledged in his interviews when the air goes out of the balloon it deflates very quickly indeed as anyone who has ever retired from any job will tell you he with typical generosity bowled just seven overs on the adjudged unsatisfactory pitch at lord s but put his back into it at trent bridge delivering jaffa after jaffa at a strong pace the ball hitting the cracks hard and jagging up and down and side to side he deserved more so much of his captaincy notwithstanding that strange chaotic denouement thrashing about in notitngham has been about instilling belief loving the work and inspiring the best in others if his own belief is wavering if he no longer loves his work and he can t get the best out of himself it s probably time to go before the great character of english cricket these last 20 years turns into a caricature grade b ben duckett 246 runs at 41 0 two catches back home at trent bridge and granted a life he looked at ease playing his natural game pulling and slashing square and driving through the covers he wasn t quite back to his best but it was enough to give him england s only century of the series and too briefly the hope of repeating the heist of 2022 on this ground the fact that he failed only once in his six knocks in the series can find a place in both credit and debit columns he didn t expose joe root to the new ball but he didn t push on often enough either grade b emilio gay 139 runs at 23 2 six catches his fielding whilst not perfect did lift the standard and that was very much required after the ashes debacle he looked the part at the crease unflustered by the hullabaloo of test cricket and possessing a lovely cover drive and plenty of scoring options without the recklessness that seeks to play one to every ball the analysts will be examining that fourth and fifth stump defence and there s certainly work to do on it if he is to establish himself long term he should keep his place for the second half of the test season but he might need a score if he is to hold it for south africa in the winter grade b jacob bethell 103 runs at 17 2 four wickets at 23 3 five catches is anyone coaching him in full flow his conception and execution of attacking strokes has a touch of the goweresque but he doesn t get into that zone often enough undone by poor shot selection and especially a propensity to play outside his eyeline he only once reached his happy place in the third test and it was at that point we witnessed what all the fuss was about he has passed 40 just twice in his last 12 innings which is not sustainable for a number three england did persist with zak crawley whose strengths and faults were similar the question is whether they were right or wrong to do so he chipped in with handy wickets without ever suggesting he could be more than a partnership breaker ball in hand and he caught better than most grade c joe root 171 runs at 28 5 one wicket at 44 0 two catches hey joe where you going with the bat in your hand to play for england has been the answer for 14 years but two poor matches with the bat and a shocker as captain in between albeit with significant mitigation might have him looking for new replies sooner than we might have thought this time last year he can expect his front pad to be ruthlessly targeted by seamers with the keeper pinning him to his crease until he solves the lbw problem and that is what it is a few long sessions on the bowling machine beckon grade c harry brook 217 runs at 36 2 no wicket six catches how do you solve a problem like no fear some and in growing numbers would indeed describe the future of english batting as a flibbertigibbet a will o the wisp a clown the tide is turning even the staunchest defenders of his wildly attacking approach accepting that there is a time and a place or more accurately a better balance between putting the pressure back on the opposition and loading it on to your teammates as you sky yet another to the man posted for that very shot that he leaves too many runs on the field is indisputable whether he will continue to leave matches series perhaps even a career on the field is now a matter for reasoned debate grade b jamie smith 101 runs at 25 3 seven catches he seems to have developed the knack as figures for missed chances reveal of unshowy slightly awkward competence behind the stumps punctuated by relatively rare but high profile errors but as when springfield decided on their monorail there s no turning the vocal lobby for ben foakes s return that will now grow under a new captain he eventually found some form with the bat but the cause had already been lost when he ran out joe root though the victim bore some contributory negligence in that in retrospect it might have been wiser asking him to sit the series out take his paternity leave and rediscover his early season form with surrey where he would have been keeping wicket grade c james rew 39 runs at 19 5 three catches graham gooch debuted with a pair things don t always go to plan the first time that said the man long trailed by me and plenty more as a test keeper looked naive and nervous throughout his debut a little frenetic with the bat and too grabby with the gloves he ll come back better for the blooding probably grade c jordan cox 52 runs at 26 0 one catch after so many false starts he got one and was then told to bat one above jofra in a team which one might describe as experimental well dr frankenstein might showed that bit of extra time at the crease which speaks to the class he ll need when he returns to the fold as he surely will grade b gus atkinson 60 runs at 15 ten wickets at 16 8 he lacks the box office appeal of an out and out speedster and has the kind of temperament that gives little away if it s all going his way or if it all isn t that leads him to being underrated because he s a very fine bowler indeed disciplined in his lines and lengths tight into the batter from the first ball if there s something in the wicket as there was at lord s he finds it if only he d said it s half eleven ben you know what these rugger buggers are like i ve a dodgy stream of the new jackass movie lined up and an uber five minutes away let s go eh grade b ollie robinson 30 runs at 15 0 seven wickets at 11 0 stop me if you ve heard this before but when he was on the field he was pure class but he wasn t there long enough made an explosive return the test team at lord s with three wickets in his first over the product of both knowing exactly where and how to land the ball and having the control to do so he would play as many tests as he likes were substitutes allowed in at the coach s discretion they re not and he won t grade a jofra archer 25 runs at 6 25 11 wickets at 22 8 the fact that he keeps hitting batters shows just how hard he is to play the line tricky to escape the length tricky to pick up and the action giving no time for a batter to get a read for their trigger movements worked very hard for his captain especially when asked to go to a bouncer attack but as is the case for a man who can bowl at 90mph criticism will come his way because he isn t up there for every ball with better support in the field and if he had played at lord s those figures would be considerably more impressive grade a matthew fisher 50 runs at 50 0 five wickets at 24 0 he let nobody down but he s very much the let nobody down kind of cricketer these days years on from his time as a teenage prodigy he took his wickets on his ...
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