Durham v Surrey, Yorkshire v Sussex, and more: county cricket day two – live

July 30, 2025
7:31 pm

Key events

Off goes Finlay Bean, in comes Imam-ul-Haq, for his first match for Yorkshire. Uncle Inzamam also made his Yorkshire debut here, in 2007, during a disastrous spell at the club – three matches, four innings, 89 runs. It was, I’m told, a freezing day in August, so cold that the Yorkshire Post’s Chris Waters had to buy a fleece from the shop. Inzamam was standing at slip wearing four jumpers, wondering what on earth he’d signed up for.

Jim with a flamboyant flourish.

Hampshire are chugging along at New Road, though Gubbins and Tilak went cheaply to Allison and Taylor, Hants 186 for four.

And a huge cheer here at Scarborough as a young boy perched on the front row of the wooden benches catches a huge six off Bean, with no fuss at all.

The end of two centurions – James Rew, rather marooned this morning, caught for 166 – Somerset 361 for seven – and Tom Westley who gives leg slip catching practice for 148 – Essex 416 for five.

Gary Naylor’s eagle-eyed overview, for those who missed it yesterday.

In fact here is Hoppsy live from ~~CLS~~ his front room:

Bumble is on comms on the Durham feed which makes up for the fact that I can’t sit in the sun at Banks Home Riverside. And Durham have taken their first wicket after half an hour. Codi Yusuf, with his second ball of the morning, swung one back and Dan Lawrence, falling over a little, picked out one of two short midwickets: a trap well laid by Durham’s skipper Alex Lees. Lawrence, out for 88, had looked in mint form again. Six down, Surrey lead by 56 on a pitch that remains lively and is producing some compelling cricket.

Surrey, hoping to build up a hearty points lead at the top of the table after this match at Chester le Street, have lost Dan Lawrence for 88, a second wicket for Codi Yusuf. The lead is already threatening – 70, with plenty of firepower to come.

Detained by the lovely people from St Catherine’s hospice, based two miles above Scarborough, up in the hills with a view of the sea. It costs £6.2 million a year to run, only a third of which comes from the government. They are also gold awarded for their care of veterans – Scarborough is home to a fair few, those who retire here and those who find themselves here after their service has ended.

A possible bat-grass-boot chance at slip, but survived, and Yorkshire are 11-0. Let’s look around the grounds.

And Yorkshire get their man at last, a smart sliding catch by Duke to send Lamb on his way for a team face-saving 48. Sussex 222 all out, a last wicket stand of 72.

No Ben Stokes one of four changes to England’s XI for The Oval

Out go Stokes (shoulder injury), Archer, Dawson and Carse – in come Bethell, Atkinson, Overton, Tongue. Ollie Pope will captain.

1. Zak Crawley

2. Ben Duckett

3. Ollie Pope (c)

4. Joe Root

5. Harry Brook

6. Jacob Bethell

7. Jamie Smith (wk)

8. Chris Woakes

9. Gus Atkinson

10. Jamie Overton

11. Josh Tongue

Somerset start as they did yesterday, by losing an early wicket – Jack Leach heaving lustily at Dillon Pennington.

On go the players – with particularly energetic galloping by Yorkshire wicketkeeper Harry Duke, whose long blond hair swings past his shoulders. Yorkshire will not be keen for this tenth-wicket partnership to become a bigger irritation than it already is.

Harry Swindells retires

Thanks to Romeo BTL for this nudge – Harry Swindells, hero of Leicestershire’s one-day cup victory in 2023, has been forced to retire with a finger injury

Speaking to the club’s website, he said “I’ve been immensely proud to represent the club I’ve loved since I was five years old over the past eight seasons.

“I want to thank the Foxes fans for their unwavering support across my career. I’ve always felt their love, and hearing them sing ‘Harry Swindells, he’s one of our own’ was always an amazing feeling. Their passion that day at Trent Bridge was truly unforgettable, a shared memory I will treasure forever.”

Wishing him joy in whatever the future holds.

Harry Swindells: hanging up his boots at 26 Photograph: John Mallett/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock

I think we’ve been here before:

And from our not-so-roving correspondent, David Hopps.

Whiling away the hours watching Championship cricket in your dotage sounds so easy. In principle. It isn’t. Stuff happens. Today I’ve fallen foul of a somewhat inflexible Bee’s Nest remover who works on the emphatic Yorkshire principle that “someone will be at home all afternoon” means any time from noon sharp, rather than any of your soft-headed Southern-influenced ideas that the afternoon actually starts around 1pm, the time when my wife will be back home from a dog-walking social in some local gardens where the hours of attendance appear to be equally non-negotiable.

Sod’s Law will now invariably apply and he will pitch up around 3pm, if he pitches up at all, to reassert well-honed arguments about why Guardian-style ideas about saving the bees are thoroughly impractical and how the honeycomb is now so large that the ceiling could collapse by close of play. While all this is going on, I’m going to pass the time watching a bit of Durham vs Surrey where Surrey, 29 ahead with five wickets left and Dan Lawrence in inspired mood, look well positioned to take another step towards the title. Unless, of course, as befits my day, there is a sting in the tail…

Tuesday’s round-up

North Marine Road shimmies up between Scarborough’s terraces, a sloping patch of green overlooked on two sides. If the crowds do not flock like they once did, there were still plenty of bums on the salt-burned wooden benches. Yorkshire won the toss and duly ran through Sussex, courtesy of disciplined bowling and some nifty slip catching, as well as a sprinting over-the-shoulder swallow dive by James Wharton to catch a top edge off Tom Haines. But then came 30 overs of frustration as the last-wicket pair of Danny Lamb and Gurinder Sandhu added an unbeaten 60.

After a high-class partnership with Rishi Patel (85), Rehan Ahmed ticked off hundred No 5 for the summer. It was the highlight of the day for Leicestershire, who then crumbled to Matt Parkinson. His seven for 104 temporarily cooled the brows of Kent members, whose last place in the table was made worse by news that their club had been docked eight points for disciplinary breaches.

Fifteen wickets fell at Chester-le-Streetwith Durham all out for 153 at tea to the Division One leaders, Surrey, who finished 29 ahead.

At Trent Bridge, Somerset’s calamitous start – 25 for three, all to Nottinghamshire’s Mohammad Abbas – improved as James Rew (162no) and Tom Abell (156) added 313, overtaking Peter Denning and Ian Botham’s 310 to become their club’s biggest fourth-wicket stand.

At Old Trafford, Australia spinner Chris Green found the devil in the dirt for Lancashire, winkling out six Glamorgan wickets. Dropped on 29, Kane Williamson duly advanced to century No 2 in two innings for Middlesex, against his old side Gloucestershire.

Tom Westley added a third hundred in five innings to give Essex another good day. From 89 for five, Martin Andersson’s 105 escorted Derbyshire to 348 for eight and tamed the Yuzvendra Chahal wicket-munching machine.