The Rothesay County Championship is set up for a thrilling finale next month, but until then The Hundred and the less-publicised Metro Bank One-Day Cup take centre stage for August.
In the final Kookaburra round of the season, Surrey and Yorkshire were the big winners in Division One, whilst the seemingly-doomed Worcestershire were joined in the bottom two by Durham with three games to play.
Meanwhile, Glamorgan strengthened their grip on a top-two finish by beating a resurgent Lancashire to take advantage of three draws across the remaining Division Two matches.
Jake Libby’s twin hundreds for Division One’s bottom side was a standout effort but who else joined the Worcestershire opener as a star performer in the latest round of action?
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Jake Libby (Worcestershire)
The Worcestershire opener struck not one, but two centuries against Hampshire, though the hosts were unable to earn a much needed win and had to settle for a draw after abandoning a potentially memorable final day chase at New Road.
The 32-year-old, who had only previously made three figures once in the County Championship this season, carried his bat in the first innings for exactly 100 but could only watch wickets tumble from the other end as the Division One bottom side squandered a promising position by losing eight wickets for 62 runs.
Set an imposing 358 in 53 overs, Libby then led a brave Worcestershire pursuit alongside Kashif Ali (65), with the pair displaying real intent in a 134-run partnership for the second wicket.
A composed Libby timed the ball sweetly and rotated the strike in a commanding manner, reaching his 13th Worcestershire hundred before falling shortly after for 106 off 122 balls with the score on 213, with regular wickets thereafter continuing to peg back the relegation-threatened Pears, despite some aggressive middle order cameos, with the two teams shaking hands at 303-8.
Ben Compton (Kent)
Left-handed opener Compton passed 1,000 runs for the campaign with a career-best double century as Division Two basement side Kent played out a rain-affected draw with leaders Leicestershire at Canterbury.
After the hosts were frustrated by a tenth-wicket stand worth 108 which propelled the promotion-bound Foxes to 471, Compton anchored the reply with a magnificent 221 off 380 balls which saw the 31-year-old climb to the top of the run-scoring charts across both divisions.
His eight-hour knock, including 20 fours and one six, was spread over three days as the rain only allowed for 9.5 overs to be bowled on day three, meaning any chances of a positive result were slim and once Compton eventually guided his side past the follow-on target, the draw was inevitable.
Haseeb Hameed (Nottinghamshire)
Nottinghamshire skipper Hameed is enjoying an excellent season with the bat, now leading the Division One run-scoring charts with 1,108 runs at an average of 79.14.
His superb 208 against Somerset at Trent Bridge was also his second double century of the campaign, spearheading his side’s unlikely title charge which did take a dent after they lost ground on Surrey following their fourth consecutive draw with the Kookaburra ball.
Hameed constructed three century partnerships with Freddie McCann, Joe Clarke and Jack Haynes, before the former England Test opener was run out in the 125th over with Notts amassing 544 on a lifeless pitch evident by Somerset’s Lewis Gregory decision to opt against using the second new ball.
Experienced in-form batter Westley was one of three Essex centurions as they remained just above the relegation places following their draw with Warwickshire at Chelmsford.
The five-time England Test player notched a third century in four matches, showcasing typically classy stroke play on his way to 148 – passing 14,000 First-Class runs in the process – as the hosts racked up a mammoth 602-6d on a benign pitch.
A combination of Warwickshire resistance and the weather wiped out any hopes of Essex earning a second successive win but there was time for Westley to register another half-century as he remained unbeaten on 51 when the rain arrived to bring an earlier than scheduled end to day four.
Tom Abell (Somerset)
Somerset’s Abell made a career-best 156 on day one against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in a record-breaking partnership with wicketkeeper James Rew.
After a challenging first hour in which they found themselves 0-2 and 25-3, having been put into bat, the pair dominated proceedings to take the upper hand with a remarkable fourth-wicket stand worth 313 – overtaking Peter Denning and Ian Botham’s 310 against Gloucestershire in 1980 as Somerset’s biggest ever.
Alongside Rew (166), the assured Abell struck 19 fours in what was his first century of the season, eventually falling to the short ball just moments before bad light forced the players off the field near the close of day one.
Following a long stint in the field, the visitors suddenly found themselves in an unlikely position of jeopardy at four wickets down and still in a deficit but Abell (51) and Tom Banton (43*) put on a vital 87 runs to ensure what had seemed an inevitable draw.
Matthew Revis (Yorkshire)
Local lad Revis is one of the form players in county cricket at the moment, becoming the first Yorkshire player to post three centuries in as many Championship matches since Gary Ballance in 2019, this time with a career-best 152 unbeaten to help the White Rose boost their survival chances with a comfortable innings victory over Sussex to jump out of the bottom two.
The 23-year-old all-rounder, who is bound to be on the England Lions radar in the near future, walked out to the middle with his side already ahead of Sussex’s 222 thanks to the platform laid by Adam Lyth’s century but set about building a commanding lead in entertaining fashion.
With strong support from George Hill (75 off 93) in particular, Revis’ 188-ball innings contained 14 fours and two sixes which guided the hosts to 545-9d at Scarborough and ultimately condemned the visitors to back-to-back innings defeats which has dragged them firmly into the relegation scrap.
Justin Broad (Northamptonshire)
Northamptonshire all-rounder Broad followed up his 157 against Kent earlier in the month with an eye-catching career-best effort of 171 in their draw at home to Derbyshire.
Responding to the visitors’ 377, the game was in the balance at 154-5 until Broad added 127 with George Bartlett (66) and 208 with fellow centurion Rob Keogh (125) – the highest ever sixth and seventh-wicket partnerships for Northants against Derbyshire.
Broad’s knock was also the highest score by any number seven against Derbyshire, coming off 273 balls with 18 fours and one six, grinding down an increasingly lacklustre bowling attack as Northants racked up 550-9d.
Chris Green (Lancashire)
Not for the first time Australian overseas Green – a T20 specialist by nature – has featured in the selection of standout performers this season for Lancashire but after his recent exploits with the bat, this week it was his bowling which did the damage, albeit in a losing cause against Glamorgan as their hopes of making an immediate return to Division One took a major hit.
It started well for the in-form Red Rose as Glamorgan slumped from 199-3 to 261 all out on a spin-heavy first day at Old Trafford, with Green sending down 34 overs and removing all of the top five batters on his way to career-best figures of 6-82.
Lancashire struggled with the bat to leave them up against it, with the visitors going on to build an unassailable second innings lead of 472, though Green was able to pinch a further three wickets to his tally just before the declaration.
Mason Crane (Glamorgan)
Staying in Manchester, where another spinner Crane played a star role as Glamorgan took a major step towards promotion to Division One with their first Championship win at Old Trafford since 1993.
The 28-year-old leg-spinner ran through the Lancashire batting order in a crazy afternoon session on day two, with the hosts losing their last seven wickets for 30 runs, claiming career-best figures of 6-19 from just 10.3 overs which included the scalps of Marcus Harris and Phil Salt.
Lancashire made a better fight of it second time around in a desperate attempt to close the gap on their opponents in second place but in the end fell way short of their unlikely 473 target, with Crane, who was a touch on the expensive side, more importantly removing the dangerous Keaton Jennings and Harris, before bowling James Anderson for his ninth of the match to seal the 154-run win.
Sai Kishore (Surrey)
Indian left-arm spinner Kishore’s brief two-game stint in the County Championship ended in success with a five-wicket haul to help Surrey beat Durham and strengthen their position ahead of Notts at the top of the Division One table.
Kishore claimed two wickets for the third innings running in a Surrey shirt, though it was the seamers who did most of the damage as Durham were dismissed for just 153 on day one.
It was in the second innings where the short-term overseas import came to the fore, recording figures of 5-72 off 41.4 overs to bowl the hosts out for 344 and leave a task of 176 for a fourth win of the campaign which they completed with little alarm on day three.
Matt Milnes (Yorkshire)
In a round dominated by the spinners, right-arm seamer Milnes produced a brilliant performance in the second innings to secure Yorkshire’s emphatic victory over Sussex.
Following his two wickets in the first innings, Milnes marked his first red ball appearance of the season with a 5-fer on day four as Sussex were dismissed for 195, still 128 runs away from making the hosts bat again.
His figures of 5-31, a first 5-fer in the County Championship since 2021 following a number of injury setbacks, included the huge wicket of James Coles for a first-ball duck and Dan Ibrahim on 51, before finishing the game in successive deliveries after some lower order resistance.
It was announced shortly after the match that the 31-year-old would be returning to his former side Kent in 2026, though he may still have a key role to play for Yorkshire with just three points separating a group of four teams nervously looking over their shoulders ahead of ninth-placed Durham.
Honourable Mentions
In total, there were 21 different centurions during the latest round of action.
Rehan Ahmed (119) once again put the England selectors on high alert with his fifth of the campaign for Leicestershire, whilst New Zealand great Kane Williamson‘s 153 was his second Championship ton in as many matches for Middlesex.
Twenty-year-old Charlie Allison (133) impressively made his third hundred of the season for Essex, in the same match Warwickshire’s Ethan Bamber (107) memorably surpassed his previous high score of 46 as the nominated nightwatchman.
Michael Pepper (107*) and Ed Barnard (108*) both also reached three figures in the high-scoring draw at Chelmsford.
Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth (115) passed 1,000 runs for the third successive campaign with his fifth Scarborough ton.
Somerset’s James Rew (166), Derbyshire’s Martin Andersson (105), Lancashire’s Luke Wells (102), as well as Glamorgan duo Sam Northeast (132) and Kiran Carlson (108) all made their third centuries of the season, whilst there were firsts of the campaign for Gloucestershire’s Joe Phillips (136) and Northamptonshire’s Rob Keogh (125).
From a bowling perspective, Kent’s Matt Parkinson claimed 7-137 against Leicestershire to make it 15 wickets over the last two rounds and India’s Yuzvendra Chahal took eight wickets in the match for Northamptonshire – including 6-118 in the first innings – though it was not quite enough to see off Derbyshire.
Elsewhere, there were also five-wicket hauls for Durham’s Ben Raine, Essex’s Matt Critchley, Worcestershire’s Tom Taylor and England prospect Sonny Baker for Hampshire.
By Dom Harris
