- Round three starts Friday (17th April)
- Bottom v 2nd clash
- Fourth v fifth in the other tie
Round three of the County Championship starts on Friday (17th April) with only two games this week. Second place Lancashire travel to bottom side Gloucestershire, and Northamptonshire host Middlesex.
Gloucestershire v Lancashire
Gloucestershire will be looking to pick up their first win of the season, but after two innings defeats, it could be a long campaign. They lost to Middlesex by an innings and 14 runs, followed by a heavier innings and 225-run defeat to Durham. So far, they haven’t made much of an impression with either bat or ball, and that will need to change if they are to climb off the bottom.
Gloucestershire Squad: Bancroft (c), Bell, Bracey, Charlesworth, Hammond, Miles, Phillips, Price, Taylor, van Buuren, Williams
Lancashire could easily have won both of their games this season. They were just one wicket away from beating Northamptonshire, who held on for a draw. They did manage to beat Derbyshire in another tight game, as they won by only 29 runs.
There is a familiar name atop of the leading wicket takers list – Jimmy Anderson, who has 14 wickets at an average of 13.64. It appears that the batting needs to improve a little to match their efforts with the ball. Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon both scored runs in the first match, but not in the second game. A little more consistency there is all that is needed.
Lancashire Squad: Anderson (c), Bailey, Balderson, Bell, Bohannon, Coughlin, Singh Dale, Harris, Singh, Hartley, Hurst, Jones, Stanley, Wells
Northamptonshire v Middlesex
Northamptonshire sit fourth in the table after two draws this season. Their hard-fought draw with Lancashire was followed by another against Kent, where they were in a strong position before a rain-affected final day allowed Kent to hold on.
Readcricket’s player of the week Luke Proctor scored a massive 261* in the last game, and with centuries for Ricardo Vasconcelos (127), Calvin Harrison (153) and Nathan McSweeney (101*) in that game, the batting is on fire.
On the bowling front, Harry Conway has 13 wickets so far this season, and with Ben Sanderson taking 9, it seems that the bowling is working well as well.
Northamptonshire Squad: Proctor (c), Bartlett, Conway, Harrison, Kimber, McManus, McSweeney, Sales, Sanderson, Vasconcelos, Weatherall, Zaib
Middlesex are one space behind their hosts this week, after a win and a loss. Middlesex lost by 57 runs to Worcestershire last week, and their win came against Gloucestershire in week one.
Leus du Plooy scored 182 in week one but that is the only centurion so far. Last week, the highest score was 43 by Joe Cracknell in the second innings, so they will need to start strong with the bat. Ryan Higgins and Toby Roland-Jones both have 10 wickets so far so both will want to keep that form going.
Middlesex Squad: du Plooy, Cracknell, De Caires, Geddes, Higgins, Holden, Morgan, Robson, Roland-Jones, Sharma, Gohar.
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