County Cricket Round-Up - 29th July 2013

County Cricket Round-Up - 29th July 2013Michael Carberry was again in superlative form for the Royals at Canterbury. Action Images / Andrew Couldridge Livepic

Hampshire steamrollered Kent in the Friends Life t20 to cement their place as South Group winners. Michael Carberry batted throughout their innings of 185 for six in making 83 off 56 balls. He shared 94 with Neil McKenzie (45 off 35 balls) for the fourth-wicket, while Liam Dawson finished things with a flourish, hitting three boundaries in five balls. Mitchell Claydon was the Kent bowler to cop the most punishment, conceding 55 runs from his four overs, while young off-spinner Adam Riley was the pick with none for 21 off his four.

The Spitfires’ run chase would have been a non-event but for a brief blitz from Darren Stevens. He dominated a third-wicket stand with Sam Billings (21 off 19 balls) and clubbed three big sixes to help his side recover from the effects of another miserly spell from Dimitri Mascarenhas (2-21). However, even following his innings the required run rate stood at around 12 an over and the remaining batsmen were unable to cope. Liam Dawson benefited and returned career-best figures of four for 19 with his left-arm spin. Kent eventually finished on 123 for nine.

Tomorrow’s FLt20 Fixtures: (all matches start at 1830 BST)
Mid/Wales/West Group, Glamorgan v Gloucestershire at Cardiff
The home side are one of three teams battling for a maximum of two places in the knock-out stages. A win would guarantee them a place in the quarter-final and all but eliminate Durham from the competition. They have added the fit-again Simon Jones and batsman Gareth Rees to the eleven that lost to Northamptonshire on Friday.

Glamorgan squad: Mark Wallace, Jim Allenby, Chris Cooke, Murray Goodwin, Marcus North (captain), Ben Wright, Nick James, Nathan McCullum, Graham Wagg, Dean Cosker, Michael Hogan, Simon Jones, Gareth Rees.

Mid/Wales/West, Northamptonshire v Worcestershire at Wantage Road
The match is effectively a dead rubber, with Northamptonshire already assured of a home quarter-final and Worcestershire already eliminated. The Steelbacks have rested David Willey for the match; he is replaced by Andrew Hall. They have made one other change to their 13-mna squad with Olly Stone coming in for Ben Duckett.

Northamptonshire squad: Richard Levi, Kyle Coetzer, Cameron White, Alex Wakely (captain), Steven Crook, Andrew Hall, Matthew Spriegel, James Middlebrook, David Murphy, Lee Daggettn Mohammad Azharullah, Rob Keogh, Olly Stone.

Mid/Wales/West, Warwickshire v Somerset at Edgbaston
The equation is simple for both sides. A win will see them advance to the quarter-finals, while a loss will see them knocked out. A tie or a no result makes things interesting and leaves them waiting on results elsewhere. Warwickshire have named an unchanged 12-man squad.

Warwickshire squad: Varun Chopra (captain), William Porterfield, Laurie Evans, Darren Maddy, Rikki Clarke, Chris Woakes, Ateeq Javid, Steffan Piolet, Jeetan Patel, Pete McKay, Boyd Rankin, Freddie Coleman.

Weather Forecast: A band of rain will skirt along the south coast in the morning before disappearing into the North Sea. After that it should be mostly dry, with only the slight chance of catching a shower. The evening will be sunnier with temperatures peaking at around 19 degrees Celsius.

County Cricket News In Brief:
Leicestershire’s Australian overseas player Joe Burns will return home in order to recover from a hip injury. He will be replaced in due course by West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan. The club have also confirmed that off-spinner Jigar Naik has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after having an operation on his dislocated shoulder.

Gloucestershire coach John Bracewell has told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that he is looking to extend the loan of Middlesex left-arm spinner Tom Smith beyond the end of the Friends Life t20 campaign.

James Vince has agreed a contract extension with Hampshire which will see him remain with the club until the end of the 2016 season.

Somerset’s Craig Kieswetter has signed a deal to play for Brisbane Heat in the 2013-14 Big Bash League in Australia.

Andre Russell has told BBC Hereford and Worcester that he would love to return to the club in the future. He said, “I would love to as long as everything was right. I’m not really in the West Indies team so anything can happen.”

Richard Levi will not be available for Northamptonshire’s Friends Life t20 quarter-final after being called up to represent South Africa A. He may, however, be able to return for Finals Day should the Steelbacks get that far, although coach David Ripley told the Northampton Chronicle & Echo: “We’d probably need to find some finance to make that happen but we’d hope to make it work.”

© Cricket World 2013

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