Thursday 2 July 2015 10:51, UK
Yorkshire needed only 82 minutes to wrap up a victory over Durham by an innings and 47 runs on the final day of their LV= County Championship Division One match at the Emirates Durham ICG.
The win saw Yorkshire pick up 23 points which enabled them to leapfrog their hosts, who claimed only three points, and move 11 points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand.
The defending champions came into the final day at Chester-le-Street needing six more wickets and they did it with the minimum of fuss, with Jack Brooks finishing as the pick of the bowlers with 4-66.
Durham's hopes appeared to rest solely on the shoulders of unbeaten centurion Mark Stoneman, but the opener was dismissed for 131 shortly after the second new ball was taken.
The visitors made the breakthrough in the day's fifth over with Steve Patterson (2-48) striking with his first ball when Gordon Muchall played very late at an in-swinger which trimmed his off stump to depart for 26.
That made it 251-5 in the 75th over and the new ball, taken after 82, did the rest.
Stoneman, who progressed in ones and twos, finally fell for 131 from 228 balls, including 14 fours and a six when he was lbw on the front foot to Ryan Sidebottom (2-41).
Sidebottom’s next ball was edged just wide of third slip by John Hastings, but the big Australian also fell lbw for seven to a Sidebottom in-swinger two overs later before Ryan Pringle hooked Jack Brooks straight to long-leg after making 22.
Brooks finished things off by having Jamie Harrison lbw for two and a flailing Chris Rushworth caught behind for three by Jonny Bairstow as Durham were all out for 302.
Yorkshire lead the table with 145 points, with Durham on 134 and Middlesex are now only four points further back in third place after defeating Hampshire by nine wickets on the fourth day of their match at Lord’s.
Hampshire resumed their second innings only 41 runs in front on 195-7 and were bowled out for 227 in 13 more overs.
It then took Middlesex just 17.4 overs to knock off the 74 runs they needed for a 22-point win, their fourth in the championship this season.
Hampshire, for whom it was a fourth defeat, slip to the bottom of the table and the threat of relegation is very much hanging over a team who have won just one of their nine matches to date.
Danny Briggs had added only 14 runs to his overnight score when he edged Toby Roland-Jones (1-57) to a diving Ollie Rayner at gully to fall for 19.
In the next over, the ninth of the morning, Tim Murtagh (2-41) had Gareth Berg lbw for 25 and James Harris (4-80) then trapped Brad Wheal lbw for one to take his match analysis to 8-128 and his season's tally to 53 first-class wickets.
Paul Stirling hit four boundaries, as Middlesex went in search of a quickfire victory, before being bowled by Berg for 16.
Sam Robson and Nick Compton then added an unbroken 39 to deny Hampshire's bowlers any further successes.
Robson ended on 36 not out and Compton - whose first innings 87 was so valuable to his side - finished unbeaten on 16.
Laurie Evans scored his maiden double-century as the match between Warwickshire and Sussex wound down into a high-scoring draw at a sun-baked Edgbaston.
The slow pitch was the only winner in Birmingham as the home side, replying to Sussex's 601-6 declared, batted throughout the final day to finish on 612-6 declared, with the players then shaking hands.
Evans, 27, hit an unbeaten 213 from 396 balls with 24 fours and Tim Ambrose scored 153 from 256 balls, with 18 fours in a record-breaking sixth-wicket stand of 327 for Warwickshire.
Their partnership was the highest ever sixth-wicket stand for the Bears, eclipsing the previous record of 226 which was set by Ambrose with Heath Streak against Worcestershire at Worcester in 2007, and the fourth-highest by any team in the County Championship.
Meanwhile, it is only the second time in a match at Edgbaston that both teams passed 500 in their first innings, the only previous occasion being the famous Brian Lara match against Durham in 1994, and the first time both passed 600.
Having started the final day on 367-5, Warwickshire advanced to 443-5 at lunch and then plodded onward.
The only wicket of the day fell with the score on 534 when Ambrose top-edged a sweep to Oliver Robinson at short fine-leg to become Peter Burgoyne's first first-class wicket for Sussex.
Evans ploughed on, though, and he eclipsed his previous career-best - 178 against Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston in 2013 – before reaching his double century towards the close of play.
Sussex spread the bowling workload among all 11 players with wicketkeeper Ben Brown taking off the pads to exhibit his slow left-arm either side of tea, finishing with figures of 0-31 from eight overs.
Both teams collected nine points for the draw, leaving them further adrift of leaders Yorkshire following their win over Durham.
There is still one day remaining in the match between Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire at Trent Bridge.
The visitors require another 311 runs to win after closing the third day on 13-0 after dismissing Notts for 366 in their second innings.
The hosts resumed on 115-3 and enjoyed a good start as Riki Wessels (55) and James Taylor extended their fourth-wicket partnership to 105 runs before Wessels was dismissed by Jack Shantry, brilliantly caught by Joe Clarke at deep point.
Taylor was then run out for 56 - Alex Hales who was acting as his runner due to a hamstring injury failing to make his ground when attempting a third run - to leave Notts on 201-5.
Samit Patel departed next for 31 - he was Saeed Ajmal's only victim - before skipper Chris Read and Brett Hutton came together in a crucial seventh-wicket stand, the pair adding 93 before Shantry trapped Hutton lbw.
Left-armer Shantry also dismissed Read for 73 - chopping the ball onto his off-stump after a 122-ball knock - as he claimed the final four wickets to fall to finish with figures of 5-48.
Worcestershire openers Daryl Mitchell (2no) and Richard Oliver (11no), who was dropped on 10, then negotiated a tricky five overs before stumps.
