Key events
A month before WTC final, Rabada announces drugs ban
A huge loss for South Africa, if he can’t play.
Fifty for Zac Crawley
Gets there with some wristy gorgeousness. I check his stats and realise I’ve fallen for the narrative that he’s consistently failed whereas in fact he’s just failed in the first innings. For the last three games he’s hit a fifty in the second.
Matt Henry to return to Somerset
The messianic Henry will be available for selection on May 16. It’s quite some mess that he’ll have to clear up. Somerset all out 145 at Taunton, though Gregory, Pretorius and COverton added a precious 48 for the last three wickets.
Here is some Simon Harmer (4-43) magic:
Eyes to Lord’s, where, whisper it, Zac Crawley and DBD have survived the new ball. Six fours in ZC’s 40. Kent 73-1, trail Middx by nine wickets.
Saqib Mahmood, elbows like an open window, wristband on, charges in from the Anderson end. A bouncer flies over Charlesworth’s head and continues rising over the slips and down to the rope. The sun is out but there is lots of hand-rubbing and hands shoved in trousers going on. Gloucestershire 4-0, Lancs lost their last two wickets for 13 runs after lunch, including John Turner for a golden duck with two in two for Tom Price.
Six first ball, century, duck: Andy Bull tells the tale of Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Rabada suspended for recreational drug use
Kagiso Rabada suspended for recreational drug use.
Kagiso Rabada confirms in a statement through South Africa’s players union that he is currently serving a provisional suspension after testing positive for a recreational drug pic.twitter.com/gUd9Uu1Vhu
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) May 3, 2025
Lunchtime scores
DIVISION ONE
Southampton: Hampshire v Durham 434-7
Taunton: Somerset 106-7 v Essex 206
Headingley: Yorkshire 205 and 9-1 v Warwickshire 253
DIVISION TWO
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 431 v Derbyshire
Old Trafford: Lancashire 437-8 v Gloucestershire
Grace Road: Leicestershire 304 v Northamptonshire 87-6
Lord’s: Middlesex 238 v Kent 129 and 25-1
Elsewhere in Division Two:
Glamorgan, who hadn’t passed 300 before yesterday, have passed 400. Van der Gugten 60 not out in 424 for eight against Derbyshire.
In the battle of the East Midlands, Northants are crumbling in the face of Green-Scriven-Van Beek-Hull: 96 for five v Leicestershire.
And Kent are batting again, but have already lost Compton to the unstoppable TRJ. Kent 19-1, trail Middx by 90. Wishing the out of runs Zac Crawley and DBD, plenty.
I wonder if Lewis Gregory gets fed up of propping up Somerset. He and Rew lay down the dustsheets and start again. Actually, Rew has gone for nine. Somerset 97-7.
Yorkshire are already batting, and have already lost makeshift opener Dom Bess, not going for the heave-ho, but tentatively pushing and losing his leg stump to a beauty from Ethan Bamber. Yorks 9-1.
Phone in pocket
And trouble for Tom Bailey at Old Trafford, when what certainly looked like a mobile phone fell out of his pocket when he was mid-run. Players’ phones are forbidden on the field of play, so – if it is what it looks like – the match referee will want a word.
I only went around the ground to buy a couple of coffees, but things have happened. Three wickets at Taunton has quickly changed the rhythm of that game – Somerset 78-4, Harmer 2-28.
Here at OT, Luke Wells has fallen victim to the search for bonus points. He hit the first ball of Wells’ over for six, tried to swipe the second over square leg and was lbw. Balderson followed soon afterwards. Even so, Lancs have scored more batting bonus points over the last two days than they have all season: 403-8.
Clark is still in at Southampton, 132 not out, but he’s lost Drissell, b DAwson, for 69. Durham 382-6
And Warwickshire are all out for 253 at Headingley, Sears 4-45.
Singh Dale takes a rest after five cracking overs, one for ten this morning, replaced by Akhter at the SJA end.
Down at Taunton, Essex are yet to make a breakthrough morning, though Simon Harmer has slipped into the Jack Leach shoes from yesterday. Umeed and Davey have put on 42, the deficit 160.
Fifty on debut for Beau Webster at Headingley, and he lays into his countryman Jordan Buckingham to take Warwickshire into the lead. Warwickshire 215-7, a lead of ten. On this pitch, a lead of fifty or so would be very handy.
“Salutations Tanya!” Lovely to hear from you Tim Maitland.
”I’m pondering the ramifications of Jack Leach bowling 30 overs of spin on the first day of a County Championship in early May, when it used to be that such nurdlers would be grateful if they saw as much as an occasional over at the end of a session until the football season was over, while the seamers filled their boots on verdant pitches under leaden skies.
”Could one of the previously unforeseen tragedies of global warming be spin bowlers suffering stress injuries before “the fields are rich in grass, and buttercups in thousands grow*”?
*W.H. Davies All In June. Thanks Duckduckgo.
Unforseen tragedies as well as the forseen tragedies is a depressing throught for a Saturday morning.
That’s what Gloucestershire were after! Harris plays on to Singh Dale – a deserved wicket – after adding only two to his overnight score. It was interesting listening to Harris after play last night – he said that he had pretty much given up on playing for Australia (though of course he’d be interested if they came calling) and that gave him a kind of freedom.
Three batting points for Lancs, and a delayed shout out for Ollie Robinson (the Durham one) who dropped off my radar yesterday. After seven innings in which he’d not passed 22, he clocked up 76 against Hampshire, stirling support for Graham Clark. This was Clark at stumps:
“Robbo is a class act and probably hasn’t scored the runs he would have liked this year, but he has backed himself and stayed true to himself and came out firing today. He might be disappointed not to get a hundred but he played beautifully and put us in a great position.”
A nice read with your elevenses:
Jimmy Anderson will be looking longingly at the clouds plonked on top of Old Trafford, but it is Singh Dale who has the ball at the Jimmy Anderson end for the first over of the day. He delivers a snorter to Wells, that has him jumping like a fire cracker, in an excellent first over.
A view from Headingley from five-wicket Ethan Bamber:
“I loved it out there. These are the games you want to play in. I really enjoyed it.
“It’s fast moving and probably finely poised after day one. I got a fair share of luck, including one caught at third-man. But I felt alright. Hopefully we can push on with the bat tomorrow.
“There’s a good amount of grass covering (on the pitch) and maybe a few divots.
“It was a bit soft underneath at the start and hardened up. It’s nice to bowl on, for sure. As they showed – they bowled really nicely – you can build pressure and there’s a ball in there. But you do get value for shots.
“It will be interesting to see how the game progresses from here.”
Friday’s round-up
Joe Root and Harry Brook pulled on their Yorkshire boots to warm up for the Zimbabwe Test.
It didn’t go entirely to plan on a 16-wicket day at Headingley. Root fenced uncharacteristically at Ed Barnard and was caught for a 17-ball one and Brook ran through a spicy repertoire before he was caught for 33. Jonny Bairstow hustled to 47 before being bowled in a blaze of exploding stumps, but he and the tail had ushered Yorkshire past 200. Ethan Bamber finished with five for 47. Warwickshire then lost six wickets in the evening session.
Gloucestershire completed their 100% losing record at the toss in 2025 and were invited to bowl at Old Trafford. The energetic and swift figure of Ajeet Singh Dale soon removed George Bell and Keaton Jennings, but Marcus Harris had arrived with his overnight bag.
Harris started with neat accumulation but rolled out his greatest hits once he’d passed his hundred – a glide through midwicket, a whip to the rope through backward square, a glorious flick off the toes for six. At stumps, he was 165 not out and the leading scorer in the country with 559 runs.
Somerset prepared an emerald pitch at Taunton but it was Jack Leach, wheeling in for 30 overs from the River End, who caused havoc, inducing a mid-innings collapse and picking up three for 35. Essex squeaked past 200 before Sam Cook, freshly called up by England, removed Archie Vaughan in the first over of the Somerset reply.
There was a return to form for Rishi Patel at Grace Road, his 105 a model of patience and skill as wickets fell about him. The South Australian Harry Conway grabbed five for 68 on his Northants debut.
Toby Roland-Jones, the Middlesex captain, (five for 33) skittled through Kent, who were dismissed for 129. Poor Zak Crawley’s early season woes continued when he was lbw for six. Graham Clark’s unbeaten 110 put Durham on top against Hampshire. And there were fifties for the Jersey international Asa Tribe, Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram as Glamorgan passed 300 for the first time this season against Derbyshire.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Southampton: Hampshire v Durham 330-5
Taunton: Somerset 9-1 v Essex 206
Headingley: Yorkshire 205 v Warwickshire 157-6
DIVISION TWO
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 336-6 v Derbyshire
Old Trafford: Lancashire 342-5 v Gloucestershire
Grace Road: Leicestershire 304 v Northamptonshire 6-0
Lord’s: Middlesex 158-4 v Kent 129
Preamble
Good morning from a chillier Manchester, clouds piling to the left, magpies mobbing to the right. Welcome to day two of this first May round of matches – plenty of wickets yesterday, can the batters strike back today? Sam Cook might fancy a few morale-boosting Somerset wickets before being measured up for his England cap.
The coffee is on the counter, do help yourself. Play starts at 11am.
