3 hours ago
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Key events
Ben Cliff’s long legs march back to his mark at the Howard Stand End. Abell immaculately leaves, and another. The Yorkshire fielders are very enthusiastic.
Yorkshire huddle, Lammonby and Abell march past them to the middle. Bess with the ball to finish his over from last night.
A desperate day for Notts yesterday. This was HH last night“I never doubt the effort or commitment from the boys, they always give 100 per cent every day but unfortunately we find ourselves up against it tomorrow.
“The message for tomorrow is that we’ve got to fight our corner and try and get back into this game. I know the character and skill is there and we’re going to have to do it again.”
Somerset are in the safety of the dressing room and only one man in whites is out in the middle, Matt Revis, who caused all sorts of trouble with the ball last night. The clouds are high at the moment and no sign of immediate rain.
Roundup: Bess frustrates old teammates to jolt Somerset's title ambitions
It was a tense day at Headingley, cold enough in the shade for the stewards to wear gloves, but hot on the pitch where Somerset wobbled but just about held on to their Championship dream. It took more than a session to break Yorkshire’s overnight partnership of George Hill and Dom Bess, who played with swaggering patience in a seventh-wicket partnership of 166.
Hill finally fell to a top-edged pull for a season’s best 89 to Craig Overton, who chased him to the rope to say well done. The former Somerset player Bess followed for 77, all material for Tom Abell’s best man’s speech at Bess’s wedding next month. Set 287, Somerset had a catastrophic start when Josh Thomas was caught behind in the first over, and a couple more wickets followed, the fielders providing regular reminders that the title has never gone to Taunton, before Abell and Tom Lammonby saw things through to the close. Tomorrow’s magic cider number is 214.
Leicestershire, reeling from the 27-point penalty heaped on them by the Cricket Regulator, made international news after the chief groundsman attributed some of his pitch problems to the filming of a new Sourav Ganguly biopic “Dada”, starring Rajkummar Rao, at Grace Road. Out in the middle, the match had become an instant relegation battle with Hampshire – a draw would send both teams down; but a winner would take at least a mathematical chance of survival into the final game. Leicestershire dug their heels in and removed the last six Hampshire wickets for 80. And after being set 334, they were 156 for three at stumps, but crucially without Rehan Ahmed whose eight fours in his 55 had got the pulse racing. Rishi Patel, batting for the last time at Grace Road before he moves to Southampton, hit 27.
The reigning champions, Nottinghamshire, hobble into day four after Ari Karvelas, diverted temporarily from a teaching job in Sussex’s hour of need, fizzed out their top four, and Jaydev Unadkat knocked out three more, leaving the second innings in tatters. Notts lead Sussex by only 31 with three wickets in hand.
And once more to the drawing board for Lancashire, who suffered an eighth defeat in 10 as Kent easily knocked off the 56 runs needed to take them into a prime Division Two promotion place. Their only rivals, Northamptonshire, were frustrated by Derbyshire’s Nick Potts (57) and Randell (45) and must chase another 312 to return to nose to nose at the top.
Score on the doors
Division One
Chelmsford: Warwickshire 191 and 138-2 BEAT Essex 134 and 189 by eight wickets
Grace Road: Leicestershire 244 and 156-3 v Hampshire 214 and 363 Leics need 178 to win
The Oval: Surrey 115 and 177-2 v Glamorgan 132 and 594 Surrey need 435 to win
Hove: Sussex 358 v Nottinghamshire 240 and 149-7
Headingley: Yorkshire 212 and 275 v Somerset 201 and73-3 Somerset need 214 to win
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 465 and 161-6 v Worcestershire 448
Bristol: Gloucestershire 296 v Middlesex 326 and 298-6
Canterbury: Kent 214 and 142-3 BEAT Lancashire 161 and 192 by seven wickets
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire 310 and 37-0 v Derbyshire 372 and 286 Northants need 312 to win
Preamble
Good morning and welcome to the final day of this penultimate round. There are last-gasp buddlejas growing in the pavement cracks all over Headingley, much like today’s assignment for Somerset, for Notts and for Northants.
Somerset need 214, but they’ve lost three wickets and batting was fiendishly hard last night. They’ll be hoping a new dawn and an older ball brings some succour. Notts must to batten every bolt to keep Sussex at bay, while Northants need another 312 to keep up with Kent, who, like Warwickshire, watch and wait.
Join us as the story gets told. Play starts at 10.30am.
