County cricket: Warwickshire are one win away from securing the title

1. Bamber finds the answers for Warwickshire

Points won in April count the same as points secured in September, but it does not feel like that. After winning just two of their first eight games of the season, Warwickshire have put together a run of four wins from five matches and now sit 11 points clear at the top of Division One. Win their last match of the season, at home to Leicestershire, and they are champions.

Warwickshire’s trip to Essex had looked like a tricky fixture and it still did at the end the first day. Nineteen wickets fell, with Ethan Bamber taking six of them. The next morning, Oliver Hannon-Dalby batted for nearly an hour with Sam Hain, whose 88 not out secured Warwickshire a lead of 57 – which is as good as 157 on a midsummer track to the title hunters. Over to Manav Suthar, who bowled out the home side, eight batters getting starts but only Paul Walter’s 42 passing 30.

It looked like a very bad result for relegation-threatened Essex, but cricket always finds a way of making things hard to understand – and it soon did.

2. Hants pants, and down to Division Two

That is because Leicestershire were penalised 27 points by pitch inspectors halfway through this round of matches (farcical) with a 10-day window to appeal expiring halfway through the next round of matches (farcical) after a Bollywood film set damaged the Grace Road square in mid-August (farcical).

To their immense credit, the Leicestershire players got on with their jobs with the necessary competence and urgency and won their crucial relegation battle against Hampshire. The captain’s role is more important than ever in such circumstances and Ian Holland’s nine wickets proved the difference between the sides. That said, 334 in the fourth innings takes a bit of getting. Rehan Ahmed and Nick Kelly did the heavy lifting before Ben Cox (surplus to requirements according to the same management that lent their ground to the film producers) finished the chase with 75 not out.

The defeat means that Hampshire will play in Division Two for the first time since 2014. They cycled through 21 players to find the support for Kyle Abbott (the top wicket-taker in the division), which says it all. The loss of Liam Dawson’s runs and wickets have been particularly keenly felt.

3. Bess breaks hearts of old friends

Somerset ran into two cliches at once in their match against Yorkshire: the curse of being eternal runners-up and coming up against a former player who bites the hand that once fed him.

On a Headingley pitch that offered a bit to the seamers, there wasn’t much between the sides until the home side’s middle order rolled over to leave the Tykes just 65 ahead with four second-innings wickets in hand. That sent ex-Somerset player, Dom Bess, out to join fellow all-rounder, George Hill. They were not parted for 56 overs, stretching the lead so far that the eventual target of 287 was dispiritingly distant.

Somerset lost seven wickets for 26 runs on the fourth morning, giving Ben Cliff match figures of 11-105, backed up by Ben Coad’s 5/57. It was hard not to think: “It’s happening again.”

By the time the rain came in late afternoon, Yorkshire had banished any fears of relegation and Somerset were contemplating their title chances being out of their hands on what must have been a very long journey home.

Dom Bess haunted his former team as Yorkshire beat Somerset. Photograph: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com/Shutterstock

4. Karvelas teaches Nottinghamshire a lesson

Nottinghamshire know what it takes to get over the line and hoist the pennant, but they were hammered by Sussex at the County Ground. Sussex have won more matches this season than the reigning champions, which is an extraordinary achievement given the penalties and uncertainties they have played under since April.

Ari Karvelas was due to take up a teaching job at Solihull School, but sacked that off to play cricket. He took his first five-wicket haul for Sussex, knocking over Notts’ top four with the first-innings deficit not even erased.

There were also seven wickets for Jaydev Unadkat, who is part of an influx of quality Indian bowlers brought in by counties after the IPL’s conclusion. In 21st century sport, it is the hard calculus of contracts and budgets that determine playing rosters rather than the long associations overseas players once built with counties. There’s no way past that, but the game is diminished as a result.

5. September is the cruelest month

Kent and Northamptonshire are still slugging it out for the second promotion slot behind Durham.

Kent beat Lancashire, so Northants were under pressure to get a result against a spirited Derbyshire side. Wayne Madsen rolled back the years (all 42 of them) with 151 and Ben Aitchison showed that Lancastrians can actually bat, making 106 from No 8. Nobody really got going for Luke Procter’s men against the canny medium pace of Brett Randell, Luis Reece and Nick Potts, and Northants had to fight tooth and nail to keep the first innings deficit to 62.

Potts and Randell were soon back with the bat making handy runs, their 99 for the eighth wicket tilting the match away from the promotion-seekers. With 349 to chase for the victory and 37 banked on the third evening with no wicket down, the fourth day was set up perfectly for a famous, if unlikely, Northamptonshire win.

Ricardo Vasconcelos made 132 opening, but whenever Northants looked like getting away, Mohammad Abbas or Randell would take a wicket and the momentum swung back to the fielding side. That said, George Bartlett was going well and, with plenty of time and four wickets in hand, the finishing line was in sight, just 23 runs away, when the umpires squinted at the light meters and took the players off. They didn’t return.

The draw puts Northants four points behind Kent in third place. Kent entertain Gloucestershire at Canterbury on Tuesday and Northants travel to Lord’s to face a jubilant and hungover Middlesex team.

6. Duke and Higgins make the difference

It can feel unfair, but it is also inevitable that players parachute into XIs for the domestic one-day finals. Harry Duke and Ryan Higgins were playing for Middlesex in the One-Day Cup for the first time this season. Duke, who has joined on loan to address a wicketkeeping crisis, has been a revelation since joining from Yorkshire. And Higgins is just Middlesex, isn’t he?

In a tight match with nothing between the sides, Kelly’s was the key wicket. And the catch was taken by … Higgins. Who else?