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 fifth round.
Division One
Yorkshire v Hampshire - Headingley, LV= Match of the round
The cavalry return for Yorkshire - Liam Plunkett,Adil Rashid,Jonny Bairstow and Adam Lyth - which will be warmly welcomed by the faithful, not to mention Geoffrey Boycott who’s been off his long run recently.
It’s been a slightly frustrating start for them but they’ve done pretty well considering how many guys they’ve had missing, with a win and two draws.
I think it’s good for the Championship actually, to have these guys coming back into this round to generate more media interest, especially Adam Lyth, with the speculation that he is in line to open the batting with Alastair Cook in the Tests against New Zealand later this month.
That will be an interesting challenge for him, the tension will be rising with the attention and expectation, but that’s a good thing I reckon, because it will be interesting to see how he reacts.
I’ve liked the little bits I’ve seen of him, especially with the century he made when they won the title at Trent Bridge last September– he looks a good compact player.
But he could do with some time in the middle because it’s been a while now since he made those runs for Yorkshire in their Champion County game against the MCC in Abu Dhabi.
#YCCC squad to face @hantscricket on Sunday in the @LV_Cricket#YCCCpic.twitter.com/dQk1rA39jx
— Yorkshire CCC (@Yorkshireccc) May 8, 2015
Warwickshire v Worcestershire - Edgbaston (starts tomorrow)
Great result for Worcestershire to beat Somerset by an innings. They’d showed some good signs and battled really hard in their first two games back in Division One, so getting over the line will give them all a huge boost.
I think the signing of Alex Gidman could be a significant one for them in their bid to remain in the division - he’s a very solid pro who will give them experience and solidity in the middle order.
They’ll have Moeen Ali back for this one as well, against a Warwickshire team who haven’t really been able to get going yet because they’ve only played in two of the first four rounds of games.
Durham v Nottinghamshire - Chester-le-Street
There might have been a bit of talk about this one among the England lads in Ireland, with James Taylor and Alex Hales due to return to the Notts squad, and probably to face up to Mark Wood.
Fast bowling hasn’t been Durham’s problem, with Chris Rushworth making such a good start to the season, and they could be spoilt for choice in this one if Graham Onions is fit again after missing the Middlesex game at Lord’s where they lost their unbeaten record.
When you have a quality attack like that it’s so important that your top order can go out and get runs on the board, and that’s where they’ve been struggling, Scott Borthwick aside.
Hales will remain the centre of attention for Notts with the start to the season he’s made, and I’m sure that will be creating quite a lot of conversations in England selection meetings.
Sussex v Middlesex - Hove
Second versus first, so another one to look forward to and follow closely. You’ve got to be pleased for a lad like James Harris, who has found the going tough since joining Middlesex from Glamorgan. A match-winning nine-wicket haul has put a smile on his face as well as those of his many supporters.
I remember facing him when he came on the scene with Glamorgan and he obviously had potential, but he would seem to be another guy who fits my theory that bowlers grow into their actions. In other words, repeating what comes naturally is how they build the strength to guard against injury. Ask Jimmy Anderson!
Sussex were missing a few seamers for their last game up in Durham, where Oliver Robinson came in from nowhere to grab all the headlines, but they’ll still have Steve Magoffin and Ajmal Shahzad to go up against the Middlesex guys like Harris and Steve Finn.
Division Two
Surrey v Leicestershire - The Oval
Billed as the haves versus the have nots, this is a fixture that has often had bigger things riding on it. As it is, Leicestershire won't be intimidated by their trip to the smoke.
Surrey have drawn their first two games, and haven’t been able to take wickets on flat pitches despite scoring a decent amount of runs.
Leicester had a real go in their last game in Kent, and even though they’re still looking for that elusive Championship win, there are definitely some good signs.
Clint McKay and Charlie Shreck combine a wicket-taking edge with a control they’ve lacked in the past, and Mark Cosgrove will be dangerous to Surrey if it’s another flat pitch at The Oval because of the speed at which he scores.
Derbyshire v Northamptonshire - Derby
Hashim Amla is down to make his debut for Derbyshire, as a pretty useful replacement for Martin Guptill.
But Northants are going fairly well themselves, with a good strong draw against Lancashire to follow their win at Leicester.
I was really pleased to see Steven Crook making a big impact in his first game of the season, having come into the side to give David Willey a breather. He’s one of those guys that just makes things happen, batting or bowling.
In a different lifetime he might have found himself playing representative cricket. He’s got the ability to light up a game.
Kent v Glamorgan - Canterbury
Kent are still yawning and stretching a bit from the winter, and still find themselves at the bottom of the table.
But at least they’ll be happier after getting their first draw of the season against Leicestershire, especially with one of their young batters finally getting a decent score with Daniel Bell-Drummond’s century in the second innings.
As for Glamorgan, the main talking point in their rain-affected draw against Derbyshire was Jacques Rudolphdeclaring behind in the first innings.Derbyshire were unhappy about loss of potential points but that in itself highlights what I think is wrong with the bonus-points system.
In a country like ours where a lot of games are rain-affected, captains should be encouraged to play positive cricket to try and win matches rather than fiddle around with bonus points. Get rid!
Lancashire v Gloucestershire - Old Trafford
What an extraordinary bounceback from Gloucestershire. They’d received a hammering from Martin Guptill and Derbyshire in their last game but dusted themselves down and picked up a cracking win of their own against Essex.
It was another low-scoring game at Chelmsford so they had to scrap for it, with Liam Norwell producing the stand-out performance.
It doesn’t get any easier for them though, having to go to Old Trafford to face a Lancashire team who are sitting pretty at the top of the table.
