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

July 23, 2025
6:11 pm

Key events

Vic Marks promised to update the blog on the pitch at Taunton. In the meantime, here is six-wicket Craig Overton dampening down speculation.

“The pitch did a bit all day, but not too much, as was shown when the batters applied themselves.

“There were 400 runs scored in the day, which suggests it wasn’t a minefield.

“It turned a little, but again I don’t think it was excessive. There was some very mediocre cricket played with the bat, which was perhaps a hangover from playing T20 cricket in recent weeks.

“Tom Lammonby played wonderfully well and showed that if you committed to your shots and tried to stick around runs could be made.”

And Lancs lose another, Ollie Price hanging onto a skier from Jack Baltherwick (1), that could have been easily misjudged. Lancs 302-8.

If I was rubbing my hand’s together in Kyle Abbot’s slip cordon, I might be a little nervous. “The dropped catches are incredibly frustrating. It hasn’t been good enough,” he told the reporters network yesterday.

“It takes a toll on the bowling group when you’ve put in three overs at a batter then change your line for one. There is a whole build up for those and then you are back to square one.”

Here come the umpires, centurion Matty Hurst and BTL man-crush Chris Green, who plays an immaculate defensive shot to van Buuren, long leg half way down the pitch. And oh, Matty Hurst has just been caught, head almost down to his belly button, he crawls off the pitch.

A 101-over day here at Cheltenham, where Lancashire are practising their slip catching and a nifty little mower pulls away the temporary nets from the outfield, off behind the sightscreen and into the car park. A healthy line of spectators, cushions in hand, marched past the handsome buildings with their iron-wrought balconies, past the park with its summer art exhibition, and into the college grounds.

An excellent, and sad, read on West Indies cricket by Taha in this week’s Spin.

Daniel Harris with all the doings from an overcast Old Trafford.

Tuesday’s round-up

The sandy-stoned gorgeousness of Cheltenham college, the white hospitality tents full of bonhomie and beer – it wasn’t long ago that the world’s longest-running cricket festival was a healthy homage to the county game.

But times have changed, and Gloucestershire lost £80,000 at last year’s festival, and a similar amount the year before. The future looks uncertain, but the 2,400 who came through the gate saw an intriguing day on a butterscotch outfield, that largely dodged the menacing dishwasher clouds that swung in from the north west.

Lancashire’s Matty Hurst reached his hundred to a enthusiastic round of applause, after holding the innings together against the off-spin of Todd Murphy, the zippy Zaman Akhter (four for 64) and Ajeet Singh Dale, who, festival rumour has it, is off to Old Trafford at the end of the season.

Kane Williamson enjoyed his red-ball debut for Middlesex, with an unbeaten 88 against Northamptonshire, a cameo companion to Max Holden’s 137 – his third hundred of the summer.

An eyebrow raising 22 wickets fell at Taunton, and in a Kookaburra round as well. Craig Overton hustled Durham out for 145, with six for 23; before George Drissell returned the favour for Durham, with five for 59. Tom Lammonby helped Somerset to 250, giving Durham just time to lose two wickets in the three overs before stumps.

Spectators at Sophia Gardens watched an epic Kent collapse – six wickets for seven runs against Glamorgan, while at Scarborough, Yorkshire’s top four kept top of the table Surrey at bay, despite the unavailability of their new signing Imam-Ul-Haq, with visa issues. There were three wickets for Dan Worrall.

Rehan Ahmed danced to his third consecutive century, from 118 balls, as Leicestershire bloomed from a sub-optimal nought for two after eight balls against Derbyshire. Lewis Hill was unbeaten on 132 at stumps, while Peter Handscomb perched on 99.

Essex had one of their better days of 2025, ushering Sussex out for 204, the clockwork Jamie Porter (four for 40) and Sam Cook reunited. Ethan Brookes’ 80 against his old club kept Worcestershire in the hunt against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Freddie McCann and Jack Haynes pocketed half centuries for Nottinghamshire on an emerald pitch against Hampshire at Southampton.