Division Two, Round 1

A quick look over the first round of matches in the County Championship Division Two

In the first round of Division 2 matches, there were three draws and just one win.

In the only victory of the round, Nottinghamshire won the toss and put Sussex in to bat. A maiden first class century from Tom Clark helped Sussex get to 375 on a windy day at Hove. Notts piled on 534 runs for the loss of 9 wickets before declaring. Notts captain Steven Mullaney led by example with 192, ably assisted by 20-year-old Joey Evison’s career best of 109. Sussex, missing all-rounder Dan Ibrahim because of a shoulder injury sustained earlier in the match, managed just 172 in their second innings with Notts easily able to score the 14 runs required to win the match.

No play was possible for the first two sessions of day one due to rain at Leicester. When play started Worcester scored 348, with captain Brett D'Oliveira contributing an unbeaten 118. Leicestershire put on just 213 in reply, and when Worcestershire’s Ed Pollock smashed a maiden first-class century (112 in 122 balls) in a 2nd innings score of 234-5 declared, their victory looked highly likely. But Leicestershire’s Hassan Azad chipped away with 104 runs in just over six and a quarter hours, with last man Beuran Hendricks batting for 99 mins to ensure the draw.

At Sophia Gardens, Durham won the toss and elected to field which looked a good decision as Glamorgan struggled to 234 all out with rain stopping play at lunch on the second day. England opener Alex Lees put on 182 not out in a Durham’s reply of 383, but Glamorgan’s opening batsman Andrew Salter grabbed the headlines with 7 wickets for 45 runs off just 12 overs.At 66-4 in their second innings, things didn’t look good for Glamorgan but they held on to get to 220-5 by close of play and secure the draw.

At Lord’s, some excellent batting from Shan Masood helped Derbyshire to a draw. For The Middle, Stephen Eskinazi scored the season’s first century as part of Middlesex’ 401, although Mark Stoneman narrowly avoided being the first wicket of the season by a couple of balls, Durham’s Matty Potts bowling Glamorgan’s aforementioned Andrew Salter with the second ball of the third over. More on this game elsewhere on MTWD.

Nottinghamshire lead the fledgling table with 23 points, Durham 2nd on 15, Middx and Worcestershire have 14, Leicesteshire and Derbyshire have 12 pts, Glamorgan 11 and yound Sussex are bottom with 5 pts.