As part of the coverage for this year's LV= County Championship, Mark Butcher will give his views on the week's fixtures exclusively to ecb.co.uk. Here are his thoughts on the fourth round, starting in the second tier.
Division Two
Northamptonshire v Lancashire - Wantage Road, LV= Match of the round
The two relegated counties have both made a pretty good start. Northants had a fine win at Leicester, despite being put in, and Lancashire have won their first two games under Ashley Giles.
It’s interesting what’s happened with Ashley over the last year or so. After what happened with England, he just wanted to distance himself from cricket for a while. That time out simply confirmed his love of the game and he’s come to Lancashire with a real zeal and enjoyment.
One of his great strengths has always been the way he relates to players, understanding the ups and downs of being a professional cricketer as well as working bloody hard!
The signs are that Lancashire are benefiting from that already. The names that have struck me from their first two performances have been Kyle Jarvis, the fast bowler signed from Zimbabwe, and Alex Davies.
The keeper-batsman might have been disappointed not to register a maiden Championship century in the win against Kent at Old Trafford, when he was out for 99. But Ashley will be delighted to see one of the less familiar names in the team making such an important contribution, and given that they are not going to see much of Jos Buttler it’s important for Lancashire that they’ve got a wicketkeeper capable of scoring runs.
Essex v Gloucestershire - Chelmsford
What a good start it’s been for Essex. Not just in terms of results but also the fact that two of their youngsters, Nick Browne and Daniel Lawrence, got big hundreds.
Now they go back to Chelmsford, where you’d expect Monty Panesar to become increasingly important as the summer goes on. Essex seem to be promotion challengers every year, but they haven’t been able to get over the line for a while now.
Winning games like this one, at home to a Gloucestershire team who are already finding the going tough after a wide-margin defeat to Derbyshire, will be important for their promotion prospects.
Glamorgan v Derbyshire - Cardiff
Despite losing their first game, things are looking pretty good for Derbyshire. It sounds like a commanding performance to beat Gloucestershire down in Bristol, and no surprise that it was Mark Footitt who got the wickets they needed to capitalise on the double-century from Martin Guptill in the first innings. This is Guptill’s last game before he links up with New Zealand.
Draws in their first two games, against Leicestershire and Surrey, have confirmed the suspicion that Glamorgan need Michael Hogan fit and firing to give them a bit more wicket-taking potential.
Derbyshire will have to find a new opening partner for Ben Slater with Billy Godleman suspended, and I was pleased to see Shiv Thakor making a contribution in Bristol. I think he’s a talented cricketer, definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Kent v Leicestershire - Canterbury
Two counties coming off a loss, which means they will be saying pretty similar things in each dressing room - this is a real chance to get off the mark.
Leicestershire’s run without a win goes back a lot further. Looking at the scores fromtheir defeat against Northamptonshire, it was their inability to polish off the lower order that cost them. That’s where the support bowling behind Clint McKay and Charlie Shreck is important.
I’ve been worried about Kent’s bowling too, although the batting which seemed to be their strength is also causing them problems. I see Rob Key was talking about lots of players getting to 30 or 40 but not being able to go on with the job, and that cost them dear up at Lancashire. They will see Leicestershire as a good chance to put that right.
Division One
Middlesex v Durham - Lord’s
The first Saturday start of the season, which should mean a good weekend of cricket at Lord’s between two teams who will be feeling pretty good about themselves.
After showing resilience to get a draw in their last game against Nottinghamshire, Middlesex had to come from behind yet again against Somerset, after conceding 400-plus to Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth on the first day.
To get a win from there will have given them a huge boost, Adam Voges and James Franklin to the fore in an excellent run-chase. I’m looking forward to seeing Nick Gubbins bat. Great name!
As for Durham, two wins from two, with Scott Borthwick making a telling contribution with the bat in the second innings.
Obviously it’s great for him and great for Durham that he’s making these runs in the top order, but I hope for the sake of his international prospects and for English cricket that it’s not at the expense of his leg-spin.
Worcestershire v Somerset - New Road
This is another big game, but in a very different way, between two counties who have lost their first two matches.
That’s probably not such a big surprise for Worcestershire, who have competed against both Yorkshire and Sussex in the first innings only to pay the price for a bad session in the second. But for Somerset to lose a second consecutive home game must have come as a huge blow.
They’ll be wondering how they managed to lose that game against Middlesex after scoring big runs on the first day, and continually losing games you should win does start to take its toll a bit on your psyche.
That makes this a crucial match for them, and they’ll probably be pleased to be playing a team having similar struggles.
