Rampant Rikki

A fine all round display by England's Rikki Clarke condemned Warwickshire to a big defeat in today's National League Games.

Clarke hit 70 from just 69 balls after Jon Batty elected to bat at Guildford, then followed up with the first 3 wickets as Warwickshire struggled in reply.

Surrey amassed a gigantic 315-8 from their 45 overs, with opener Justin Benning cracking 13 fours in his 53-ball 71, Ali Brown hitting 3 sixes and 3 fours in his 27-ball 46 and Azhar Mahmood applying the finishing touches with a brutal unbeaten 56 from 27 balls that featured 5 sixes and 4 fours. Only Brad Hogg had any modicum of control in bowling his full spell of overs for 33 runs and 2 wickets.

With opener Mark Wagh unable to bat through injury, the Bears were always up against the wall, and although perennial England hopeful Ian Bell continued his fine form on this ground with 89 from 70 balls and Jim Troughton hit 36 from 29 balls, they were all out 90 runs behind with over 10 overs remaining.


Surrey 315-8
(Benning 71, Clarke 70, Mahmood 56*, Brown 46, Ramprakash 40, Carter 3-53, Hogg 2-33)
Warwickshire 225
(Bell 89, Tudor 3-31, Clarke 3-34, Benning 2-54)


Rain proved a hindrance at Cheltenham, restricting Gloucester to 36 overs, but a blistering 46 from 32 balls by opener Craig Spearman set the scene for Mike Hussey to add a stylish half century and push the team to 211-9, although tidy bowling from Sajid Mahmood suggests he's bounced back from his International debut disaster.

Duckworth Lewis interpreted this as a target of 217, but the Red Rose were never at the races as Jon Lewis removed the first 4 men on his way to career-best limited overs figures. From 43-4 there was no way back, as only 4 men made it into double figures, and Lancashire were rolled over for a mere 114 with nearly 7 overs unbowled.


Gloucestershire 211-9
(Hussey 60, Spearman 46, Anderson 3-41, Hooper 2-26, Mahmood 2-27)
Lancashire 114
(Lewis 5-23, Fisher 3-34, Ball 2-16)


Finally at Southend, another young Englishman pressed home his all-round credentials with a fine display that helped Essex win a tight low scoring affair.

Some fine early bowling from Ben Phillips and Johann Louw had removed the top order cheaply as the home side collapsed to 56-5 and then 121-7 when Graham Napier joined James Foster at the wicket. Although Foster fell soon after for a valuable 39 from 53 balls, Napier squeezed vital runs out and his final score of 25 enabled the side to make it into the last of their 45 overs, although a score of 168 was disappointing.

Napier was soon in action with the ball as he removed the ever-dangerous Martin Love for 5, and he typified an extremely disciplined bowling effort, as Darren Gough picked up 2-18 from 7.3 overs and James Middlebrook failed to pick up a wicket, but only conceded 16 from his full 9 overs. Napier however was the star, as he collected 3 quick wickets to reduce Northants from 120-6 and in with a shout to 137-9 and dead in the water, the all-rounder finishing with 4-23 from his overs.


Essex 168
(Louw 4-30, Phillips 3-21, Greenidge 2-49)
Northamptonshire 138
(Napier 4-23, Gough 2-18, Brant 2-35)




Posted by Marc