Updates from around the grounds on the third day of playSign up to The Spin, our weekly cricket email 11.36am BST More rain at Headingley I’m afraid, and I think this could be a longer delay. There was just enough time for Gary Ballance and Jack Leanin…
Updates from around the grounds on the second day of playDay one: Brooks stars with bat and ball as Yorkshire rallySign up to The Spin, our weekly cricket email 11.01am BST All is well with the world here at Headingley. The sun in shining and Dickie ha…
• Late stand with Ben Coad plus three wickets puts visitors in trouble• 18 wickets fall at Chelmsford as Ed Barnard takes five at TauntonJack Brooks lit up a feverish evening session at Headingley as Yorkshire recovered from early strife against Nottin…
Live updates from across the County Championship100-ball plans are a gimmick likely to kill off Championship 11.25am BST Early action at Durham as they lose two in the third over to Kent’s overseas New Zealander Matt Henry, leaving them at 4/2. That ha…
The Warwickshire bowler was brilliant against Sussex in the first week of the season. Why not play him against Pakistan?By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket BlogWarwickshire’s Olly Stone is the fastest English bowler right now – and probably the fastes…
Brilliance of Harris drives Middlesex to win over NorthantsSign up to The Spin and get our weekly cricket emailAnd feel free to email Tanya or tweet @tjaldred 11.45am BST Lancashire 73/7. Bailey c Moores b Gurney 1. Gurney joins the five-fer club 5-25….
• Former champions demoted in 2017 are first to triumph this season• Harris takes most wickets and makes highest score in gameAnd so the first spoils of the 2018 Specsavers County Championship went to Middlesex, champions of 2016 but demoted to Divisio…
Latest from around the grounds on opening weekendSaturday roundup: Kent and Northants suffer collapsesEmail Tanya or get in touch below the line 10.26am BST Update from Headingley: further pitch inspection at 1.40. And words from the Yorkshire chief ex…
• Kent bowled out for 64 in 18.5 overs by Gloucestershire• Middlesex’s James Harris takes five-for against NorthantsAnd so within 48 hours the County Championship swung from the damply ridiculous to the calamitously camp. A combination of pitches sweat…
Latest from around the grounds on opening weekendVince back to his frustrating best for HampshireEmail Tanya or get in touch below the line 10.09am BST Good morning from Old Trafford where the lawnmowers are marching up and down, both teams are practis…
• Hampshire batsman hits rapid 75 before missing straight ball• Four games are washed out without a ball being bowledIt is not supposed to start with a whimper. Six Championship games: four called off without a ball bowled, at Headingley, Old Trafford,…
Yorkshire v Essex was one of four games abandoned without play due to rain as the 2018 county season got off to a miserable start 6.42pm BST Anthony McGrath knows all about miserable starts to a county season in Leeds having spent his entire playing ca…
How is your team shaping up? Fans give their verdicts on the season aheadI thought we’d narrowly avoid relegation before last season, so found our Championship win quite astonishing. But Simon Harmer won’t be the same unknown quantity this season and J…
Lancashire have recruited well and should prosper, Essex and Surrey may run them close while Sussex and Jason Gillespie are favoured to find their way out of Division Two Continue reading…
There are 30 or 40 players who could make the first Test against Pakistan and the start of the County Championship on Friday is there chance to stake a claimThe weather is miserable, the football season is approaching the business end – yes, it’s time …
Essex are defending champions and Middlesex are aiming to return to the top flight. Will we witness an historic summer?By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket BlogApart from 1947’s Denis Compton inspired sun-soaked, run-soaked season, perhaps every spring…
The County Championship returns on Friday with rare opportunities for unfamiliar names to earn England call-upsIt is never a good sign when the selectors are anxiously awaiting the start of the County Championship. It means there is a need for some new…
With the new county cricket season beginning next week, we’d like to hear your hopes for the summer aheadThe weather is looking a bit kinder than in recent weeks and soon cricket grounds around the country will be hosting domestic games. Friday 13 Apri…
• Middlesex appealed against over rate penalty in match with crossbow incident• ‘Rules relating to over rates are clear,’ says cricket discipline commission chairMiddlesex have lost their appeal against the two-point penalty imposed on them by the ECB …
It’s time to salute the County Championship’s standout players this season: Kumar Sangakkara, Alex Hales, Alex Davies, Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer
• Fans from all 18 counties review the year
• Will Macpherson’s verdict on the season
By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog, part of the Guardian Sport Network
It was said that Barry Richards, his career coinciding with South Africa’s isolation, became bored with batting that notch below international as it came so easily to him. Well, it can’t have come much more easily to the South African champion than it came to Kumar Sangakkara, an all-time great of the game, whose powers, at almost 40 and in his last season of first-class cricket, seem not so much undiminished, as enhanced.
