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Law leads the way

Friday, April 23 2004

Yet again, Stuart Law shone above the rest of County Cricket in the second day of the current round of County Championship matches.

Kent vs. Worcestershire

Vikram Solanki and Andy Bichel did exactly what was required in extending their partnership to 122 before the England man fell to David Stiff, the young bowler's maiden First Class wicket. When Bichel fell soon after, the inning subsided to 357-9 before Steve Rhodes and Nadeem Malik survived almost an hour in adding 44 for the 10th wicket, Alamgir Sheriyar finally dismissing the number 11 to ensure a five wicket haul against his former county.

Malik was soon in action with the ball, removing recent England Test batsmen Rob Key and Ed Smith in consecutive balls to leave the home side reeling on 30-2, but skipper David Fulton and Matt Walker batted through to the close to give their side the slight edge in a very evenly contested game.

WORCESTERSHIRE 401 (Solanki 84, Peters 76, Extras 63, Bichel 50, Rhodes 42*, Sheriyar 5-94)
KENT 191-2 (Fulton 103*, Walker 57*, Malik 2-66)


Surrey vs. Middlesex

Surrey somewhat lost their way in the morning session, as all the batsmen got in, but when the 6th wicket fell at 253, the 4 to fall had all scored between 14 and 29.

Enter the veteran Ian Salisbury, who combined with Adam Hollioake to destroy the Middlesex pacemen in a stand of 125. Hollioake fell for 106 from 129 balls, and the last 4 wickets then fell for only 40, Salisbury last man out for a 95-ball 77. Chad Keegan picked up 5 wickets, but at great cost as he and Nantie Hayward conceded a combined 238 off only 41 overs.

Discarded Pakistani all-rounder Azhar Mahmood struck early in the reply, dismissing Sven Koenig, but Ben Hutton and Owais Shah looked to have got the away side firmly back in the game with a 171 stand at 4 an over, before that man Salisbury struck very late in the day to bowl the opener.

SURREY 418 (Hollioake 106, Newman 86, Salisbury 77, Keegan 5-138)
MIDDLESEX 176-2 (Hutton 78, Shah 77*)


Sussex vs. Lancashire

Stuart Law hit the 67th century of his career and his 2nd in 2 innings this season, but Mushtaq Ahmed bamboozled his partners at the other end as wickets fell regularly in the Red Rose's first innings. Such was Law's dominance that of the 106 added for the last 6 wickets, only Glen Chapple (10) and Sajid Mahmood (9) got off the mark.

Facing a deficit of 140, Ian Ward and Richard Montgomerie batted cautiously through the final overs of the day, but importantly showed the Lancashire quartet of Duck-catchers that staying in was possible.

SUSSEX 195 (Montgomerie 60*, Mahmood 3-41, Cork 3-61)
LANCASHIRE 335 (Law 171*, Sutcliffe 45, Mushtaq Ahmed 4-88, Mohammad Akram 3-79)
SUSSEX 51-0 (Ward 30*)


Posted by Marc