The new County Championship season got off to a thrilling start this Easter weekend despite the best efforts of Storm Dave.
There were emphatic wins for Sussex and Middlesex, and a series of nail-biting draws – not least at Wantage Road, where Northants were just one wicket away from succumbing to a Jimmy Anderson-led Lancashire attack.
With England’s first Test against New Zealand less than two months away, Daily Mail Sport looks at the winners and losers from the opening round of matches…
D-day creeps up on Crawley
Zak Crawley began the new season under more pressure than any other member of England’s top seven, but completed a poor start when he fell lbw to Durham’s Matthew Potts for the second time in the game.
Crawley, who averaged just 27 during the Ashes, had been dismissed for nine in Kent’s first innings, before getting no further than 20 second time round.
With England making it clear that the first seven rounds of the championship will count towards selection for the New Zealand series, starting at Lord’s on June 4, he could do with a score when Kent host Northamptonshire later this week.
At least his side escaped Chester-le-Street with a draw, thanks to an unbeaten 109 from Tawanda Muyeye.
Zak Crawley fell lbw to Matthew Potts twice, for nine and 20, in his first innings of the season
If not Zak, then who?
Crawley’s double failure handed a gilt-edged opportunity to Glamorgan’s uncapped opener Asa Tribe, but he managed only 11 and 19 as Yorkshire clung on for a draw at Cardiff.
Emilio Gay, another top-order England Lions player with Test ambitions, had already kept his name in the hat with the season’s first century – a superb 128 for Durham against Kent.
But Dom Sibley, who won the last of his 22 caps nearly five years ago, scored a middling 25 and 27 in a high-scoring draw between Surrey and Warwickshire at Edgbaston, while Haseeb Hameed, captain of defending champions Nottinghamshire, hit an equally indeterminate 33 and 27 as his side’s game against Somerset petered out at Taunton.
Smith keeps his eye in
Having played perhaps the worst shot of the Ashes when he slapped a Marnus Labuschagne bouncer to deep cover at Sydney, England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith needed an early-season pick-me-up – and duly ticked off a second-innings 132 to help Surrey to safety at Edgbaston after conceding a first-innings deficit of 216.
He added 217 with Dan Lawrence, who made an unbeaten 161, while Test reject Ollie Pope scored just 20 and 16.
If Smith breaks a finger between now and June, the chasing pack of wicketkeepers includes Somerset’s James Rew, who started with an impressive double of 64 and 122 against Nottinghamshire.
Jamie Smith’s classy second-innings century from No3 helped Surrey to secure a draw after they had been in deep trouble against Warwickshire at Edgbaston
Sussex into the black
Financial mismanagement meant Sussex started with a 12-point penalty, but they immediately took care of that with a 222-run thrashing of newly promoted Leicestershire at Grace Road.
Henry Crocombe hoovered up career-best match figures of nine for 69, but of more relevance to England was the performance of Ollie Robinson.
Dropped from the Test side after the tour of India in early 2024 because his attitude upset the management, Robinson – now Sussex’s red-ball captain – set his side up for victory with first-innings figures of five for 42, his haul including Australian Test opener Jake Weatherald for 83.
Two others pushing for the role of England’s steady new-ball bowler also enjoyed good games. Durham’s Potts put his Ashes nightmare at Sydney behind him to return match figures of five for 87 against Kent, while Essex seamer Sam Cook – yet to add to the cap he won against Zimbabwe last year – took four wickets in the innings hammering of Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl.
Cook’s team-mate Matt Critchley produced the performance of the opening round, following a career-best 173 with match figures of six for nine for his leg-spin.
Ollie Robinson hasn’t played for England since being dropped in early 2024, but will push for re-selection if he keeps up the early-season form he showed against Leicestershire
Oh, Jimmy!
An unbeaten 95 from George Bartlett helped Northamptonshire to a remarkable draw at Wantage Road, after Anderson bowled Lancashire to the brink of victory.
Having taken a first-innings five-for, Anderson – who turns 44 in July – reduced the hosts to nine down on a tense fourth evening with the wickets of Lewis McManus and Louis Kimber. But Michael Jones dropped Ben Sanderson in the slips, and Northamptonshire’s last pair saw out the final 15.3 overs.
There was better news for another former England seamer, as 38-year-old Toby Roland-Jones helped Middlesex to an innings victory over Gloucestershire at Lord’s, having knocked over five of the visitors’ top six to ensure they followed on.
At Derby, Martin Andersson’s 228 wasn’t enough to defeat Worcestershire, who finished seven down after following on. Teenage opener Daniel Lategan scored 89 and 49 for the visitors.
