Sky Cricket’s Benedict Bermange has poured over the latest round of LV= Insurance County Championship matches, bringing you some top stats on Essex spinner Simon Harmer, England Test captain Joe Root and Durham duo Chris Rushworth and Ned Eckersley…
Essex defeated Derbyshire by an innings and 15 runs, losing only three wickets in the process. Only once have they ever won a two-innings, first-class match losing fewer wickets. That was at Ilford in 1992, when they scored 510-2 declared and beat Glamorgan by an innings and 37 runs.
Simon Harmer achieved his career-best bowling figures of 9-80 in Derbyshire’s first innings. It was the eighth time he has taken at least eight wickets in a first-class innings, more times than any other bowler in the past 50 years:
Eight winnings in an innings in last 50 years
Harmer’s match figures of 12-202 were the best for Essex against Derbyshire since Don Topley took 12-179 at Chesterfield in 1988.
Joe Root was dismissed for 99 for Yorkshire at Glamorgan, the first time in his first-class career that he has fallen just one run short of a century.
His other near misses have been 98 for England against New Zealand at Lord’s in 2015 and 97 for Yorkshire against Somerset at Leeds in 2014.
Before his dismissal this week, Root had converted 18 of his previous 19 scores of 90+ in first-class cricket into centuries.
Root’s partnership of 118 with Steven Patterson set a new record for Yorkshire’s ninth wicket against Glamorgan, surpassing the unbroken stand of 70 between Dickie Bird and Don Wilson at Bradford in 1959.
Surrey vs Middlesex
May 20, 2021, 10:30am
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Hampshire defeated Middlesex within three days at Lord’s thanks to Kyle Abbott, who returned the third-best match figures ever for Hampshire against Middlesex of 11-85. That placed him behind only Derek Shackleton, who took 11-72 at Portsmouth in 1957 and 11-81 at Lord’s in 1960.
When he dismissed Worcestershire’s Jack Haynes, Chris Rushworth became the most prolific wicket-taker in Durham’s first-class history.
Durham’s leading first-class wicket-takers
In Durham’s second innings, Ned Eckersley struck 86 from just 57 deliveries. No-one has ever scored more runs from fewer deliveries for Durham in a first-class innings, and Eckersley’s was the third highest strike rate for the county in any innings of more than 50 runs:
Highest strike rate for Durham (50 runs or more)
He also equalled the county record of six sixes in a first-class innings, previously hit by Dean Jones, Ben Stokes (twice) and John Hastings.
Watch Surrey take on Middlesex in the LV= Insurance County Championship live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.30am on Thursday.
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