GLAMORGAN V MIDDLESEX AT LORD’S
Not many would have expected 1,316 runs for 15 wickets, at a partnership average of 87.73 in an early April Championship game. But that is what happened at Lord’s, with Glamorgan captain Sam Northeast, inserted by his opposite number Toby Roland-Jones, amassing an unbeaten 335, the highest ever score at Lord’s, before Middlesex went past their opponent’s score to condemn this match to a high-scoring draw.
The use of the Kookaburra ball might be partly the explanation for the high scoring but Northeast is also in rare form, having score 515 unbeaten Championship runs by the end of the game as he finished last season with 166* against Yorkshire.
The incredible Lord’s drainage enabled the game to go ahead and Glamorgan’s day one 170 for 3 was quite the statement of intent. 186* overnight, Northeast said: “I plan to be very greedy on day two.”
Having almost doubled his score on day two to overtake Graham Gooch’s 333 against India as the highest score on the ground (some 2,800 first-class fixtures since 1814), the skipper saw his bowlers find the going equally hard, the home side finishing the day at 130 for 1. Northeast’s 335* was not even his highest score, as he had hit 410* against Leicestershire in 2022, the ninth highest ever first-class score.
On days three and four Middlesex ground down the Glamorgan bowlers, Ryan Higgins hitting a career-best 221 (his first hundred at Lord’s) and four other batters scoring half-centuries, including new wicket-keeper Jack Davies in his first game since John Simpson’s departure for Sussex. This was also Middlesex’s first 400+ score since halfway through the 2022 season and their 655 was the second highest total in their history.
YORKSHIRE V LEICESTERSHIRE AT HEADINGLEY
A rain-affected match at Headingley was notable for the return of Harry Brook, who missed the tour of India and pulled out of the IPL after the death of his beloved grandmother. Brook looked like he had never been away, hitting a scintillating 60-ball hundred to help the home side rack up some useful batting points.
For Leicestershire, Ben Mike, who had come back to the club after a quiet year at Yorkshire, showed his all-round value, hitting 90 from No.9 and taking four wickets. At 215 for 8 in the first innings the visitors had seemed in trouble but a stand of 119 for the ninth wicket between Mike and Tom Scriven saw them post a competitive 354.
When Yorkshire batted, too much time had already been lost to rain but Brook, in company with Adam Lyth, who scored his own run-aball hundred, ensured the Tykes reached 250 in just 40 overs. They then declared to get some quick overs in to improve a sluggish first-innings over rate.
Yorksh
