County Championship 2021

Yesterday was the start of the final round of Group matches, before the Championship will be fought out from August 30 -September 24 with a further 4 rounds of matches.
Places are still up for grabs, with 4 of the 6 spots, which will comprise Division 1, yet to be decided. Group 3 leaders Yorkshire & 2nd placed Lancashire qualified in last weeks round of matches, but the Roses clash at Headingley is far from a dead-rubber, with 50% of points accrued from both home & away matches being carried over into the Divisional stage. As Lancashire trounced Yorkshire at Old Trafford, they will take 11 points through into Division 1 & Yorkshire just half a point. Yorkshire have much ground to gain in the current match, & it didn't go to plan yesterday. having won the toss, under leaden skies they only managed 2 wickets all day. it was the right decision despite most of their wins coming off batting first, but they are the sixth worst side with batting bonus points, & they Jimmy Anderson factor must have played some part in choosing to bowl.
In Group 1, only only Worcestershire & Derbyshire are out of the running for a Division 1 & Middlesex unable to qualify from division 2.
For teams that finish on the same points, the tie-breakers that apply are, most wins, fewest losses, most points achieved between teams level on points, most wickets taken 7 most runs scored.

The match between Derbyshire and Essex has been abandoned due to a positive Covid test amongst the home team ranks.
As other team members have been deemed as close contacts they are now self isolating.

Joining Lancashire & Yorkshire in Division 1 are Nottinghamshire & Warwickshire from Group 1 & Somerset & Hampshire from Group 2.
With points carried over from the Group stages, into the Divisional stage, the Division 1 table has Warwickshire in first place with 21 points, Somerset 2nd with 18.5, Lancashire 3rd with 16.5, Hampshire 4th with 8.5, Nottinghamshire 5th with 5 & Yorkshire 6th with 4.5.

After being robbed of live cricket, with the cancelled Test Match, Sky will be covering todays Division 1 fixture from Taunton, where Somerset host Lancashire. After 2 heavy defeats, Somerset find themselves at the bottom, whilst is is unlikely that they can overhaul the 25.5 points deficit over Notts & win a long overdue Championship title, it's still mathematically possible. More realistically they will at least hope to gain some confidence ahead of the T20 Blast Finals Day on Saturday, albeit in a different format.
Lancashire will at least hope for a chance of a top 2 place, to content for the Bob Willis Trophy.

Somerset have won the toss & have put Lancashire in. Hardly a surprise, given the fact that it's difficult to distinguish the pitch from the rest of the outfield. Wondering if the mower has broken down. No doubt Winsaw will be somewhere in the ground with a pint of scrumpy in hand.

Somerset had Overton & Leach available after the cancelled Test, but Overton was unfit, & the unlucky Leach was awaiting the results of a PCR Test, so couldn't be cleared to play.

County Championship cricket - more by good fortune than expectation on Sky!! While we will take what we can get in this regard, it is not the way to treat this historic tournament (poor format not withstanding) Such a relief to get proper meaningful cricket on our screens given the relegation of it for that 100 etc. After a day up to lunch where it looked like Lancs may be 'booking in' Somerset bite back and make a real contest of the day! Fortunate to get the ball changed so easily perhaps, but have cerftainly made the most of it!!

I was interested to hear Butch' etc refer to the placid pitch at Taunton being one principle reason why Somerset have not won the CC. Maybe reference could have been made to the number of times recently Somerset were more or less in the box seat, and frankly bottled it!!

Didn't last long on the third morning with Somerset capitulating!! Maybe conditions were tough in the first dig (not all out for double figures though - and yes brilliant bowling) but the way they subsided second time around was not acceptable for a professional outfit!! Good bowling from Lancs again, but not world beating!! 3 for 5 and 6 for eighty second inns. never winning - much less competing - with those stats

Essex beat Northamptonshire, only 30 minutes into day 2. The match lasted just 96.3 overs, & Essex take the Division 2 title. It's their 5th red-ball trophy in the last 6 years. Northampton played poorly, but again this happened at Chelmsford, surely the worst wicket in the country, & not up to County Cricket standard, no excuses about weather etc. There's a pattern here, with low regular low scores, every year, & it's not all down to good bowling & bad batting. Were are the Essex bowlers playing for England ? Porter got into a few squads, but never gets a mention now. It's high time that the ECB took control over the pitches for 4 day cricket. Essex are serving up result pitches, in order to win titles, this can't be right, & other counties are up to the same tricks.

Warks look like rolling up Somerset for the big win. Lancs did well to get so close...