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Dimuth Karunaratne will return to competitive cricket with two four-day matches for Sri Lanka A in the forthcoming tour of Bangladesh. He had fractured his index finger in early May, effectively ruling him out of the ongoing tour of the West Indies, but has now begun training, and will aim to have matches under his belt ahead of July’s home Tests against South Africa.Sri Lanka A are set to play three four-dayers in Bangladesh, but because the third of those matches clashes with the start of the first Test against South Africa, Karunaratne is expected to play only the first two. Nevertheless, he has been named captain of the Sri Lanka A side – which also features Dasun Shanaka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Lakshan Sandakan and Danushka Gunathilaka, all of whom have played Tests for Sri Lanka over the past year. Fast bowler Shehan Madushanka has also been named in the squad, after his recovery from injury.Sri Lanka A’s first two four-dayers will be played in Cox’s Bazar, before the teams move to Sylhet for the third match. A three-match one-day series is to follow in Sylhet, for which the selectors are expected to name a separate squad.Sri Lanka A squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt., first two four-dayers only), Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Lahiru Thirimanne, Ashan Priyanjan, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka, Shammu Ashan, Manoj Sarathchandra, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lakshan Sandakan, Nishan Peiris, Shehan Madushanka, Nisala Tharaka, Dilesh Gunaratne.

ScorecardAfter they were dismissed for 88 and 85 in their previous championship game at Hove, Glamorgan’s batting woes continued at Sophia Gardens on the opening day of their game against Durham. They were dismissed for 154 from 49 .1 overs with tail ender Rory Smith top scoring with 36.Durham had no problems when they batted, with Alex Lees, who has left Yorkshire and signed a three year contract with his adopted county, leading the way to a chanceless half century. The visitors were 75 for 0 at the close, and trailing by 79 with all their wickets intact.Glamorgan were undone by the visitors’ pace attack, with Chris Rushworth and new signing Matt Salisbury sharing six wickets, as the batsmen struggled in overcast conditions.Nineteen overs were lost at the start of the day due to a persistent drizzle, and after Paul Collingwood had no hesitation in bowling first after an uncontested toss, Glamorgan were soon losing wickets against an accurate visitors pace attack.Jack Murphy was the first to go when, after scoring the opening 17 runs of the innings he was well caught low down at third slip off Rushworth, and after Connor Brown and Nick Selman- who had laboured for 26 balls and 46 minutes over his two runs- were out, Glamorgan were 26 for 3 at lunch.Salisbury, who was initially on a loan deal with Durham before signing a contract until 2020, has also played for Essex and Hampshire, and was the pick of the seamers, ending with 3 for 34 from 13 accurate overs.Kiran Carlson and David Lloyd resisted for 16 overs as they shared a partnership of 51 for the fourth wicket, before Carlson, shouldering arms to Salisbury, was bowled off stump. After Chris Cooke went for a duck, also deceived by Salisbury, much depended on Lloyd , but when Collingwood appeared with his cutters, the former England all rounder induced Lloyd to give him a return catch.Smith played an useful knock towards the end, but after Rushworth had dismissed him , Durham’s latest overseas signing, the Indian spinner Axar Patel, ended the innings by taking the final two wickets in nineteen balls.Durham had 28 overs left to bat, and although conditions might have eased, Cameron Steel and Alex Lees set off purposefully, and were seldom in any trouble against the Glamorgan pace attack. Lees was the dominant partner, driving elegantly through the offside and racing ahead of his partner.Lees reached his half century from 53 balls out of 59, which included a large proportion of boundaries -eleven-, but shortly afterwards the light deteriorated and play was called off for the day with eight overs remaining.

Wessly Madhevere is eager to establish himself as Zimbabwe’s No. 3 in ODIs after making the most of an unexpected opportunity in the opening match against Australia in Townsville.Madhevere only found out shortly before the game started that he was in the team when Sean Williams was ruled out having taken a blow on the elbow at training on Saturday. An indication of how late the change was made came from the hasty scribbles on the team sheet.”To be honest I didn’t know I was going to play,” Madhevere said. “Was told [on Saturday] I wasn’t going to play but found out that Sean wasn’t doing too well with the elbow and that’s when the coach told me that I was playing.Related

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“I normally get nervous the day before, especially when I know I’ll be playing, but today I was kind of relaxed.”Madhevere went on to make his fourth ODI fifty and a new career-best of 72 to give Zimbabwe a platform from where they could have accelerated at the death, but after he gave a return catch to Adam Zampa’s final delivery they lost 6 for 15 to be bowled out for 200 with 15 balls unused.However, Madhevere wants to take on the No. 3 role in a more permanent capacity having made 5 and 2 in the position on the previous occasions he had batted there, in the recent series against India.”I see myself batting there, it’s one of the crucial positions when you want to be exposed to the pressure, so that’s one of the key areas and I quite like that challenge,” he said. “It also helps me grow as a cricketer if I get exposed to it right now, then it will be easier for me in the future.”Madhevere, who made his debut in early 2020, began his ODI career with a solid run of scores, making his first three half-centuries in the space of eight innings against Bangladesh and Pakistan, but after that he had only reached 20 once in 13 innings before facing Australia.He built steadily against seam and spin, reaching his fifty from 67 balls, and said he found the Townsville surface similar to those he had played on while at school in South Africa.”I quite enjoyed it,” he said. “Got exposed to those kind of conditions while I was at school so I knew what was happening.”Madhevere added that he felt 250-260 would have been a competitive total and Zimbabwe are hopeful that spin will be become more of a factor in the remaining two games. Sikandar Raza caused a few problems with his offspin while legspinner Ryan Burl collected three wickets as the Australians played aggressively against him.The second ODI takes place on Wednesday.

Sussex 94 for 5 (Pattinson 3-27) trail Nottinghamshire 240 (Mullaney 70, Slater 55, Robinson 4-44) by 146 runsEngland fast bowler Ollie Robinson took four wickets on his return to competitive action as Sussex bowled out Division Two leaders Nottinghamshire for 240. In reply, however, they sunk to 49 for five before closing on 94 for five on an eventful opening day of their latest LV= Insurance County Championship match.Robinson, whose problems in recent months have included a bout of Covid, a tooth infection and food poisoning in addition to a persistent back injury, dismissed the first four names on the Nottinghamshire scorecard to finish with four for 44 from 16 overs in his first appearance since May.He produced two particularly high-quality deliveries to bowl openers Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater, albeit 89 runs apart, the latter making 55 as one of two Nottinghamshire players to post half-centuries in an otherwise largely miserable-looking scorecard in which skipper Steven Mullaney’s 70 was vital in giving the innings some substance.James Pattinson added a useful 39 batting at nine before taking three wickets in his principal role as spearhead of the Nottinghamshire attack. Much responsibility will rest with Cheteshwar Pujara, captaining the side here, to build on his 34 not out if Sussex are to claim any advantage tomorrow, although the Indian Test star needed checking over late in the day after being struck on the helmet by a ball from Dane Paterson.”I had an injection and it took about 10 days to feel fully settled. I started my rehab slowly with a bit of gym work but two and a half weeks in I started bowling and could tell straight away it felt better,” Robinson said.”I would have liked to have bowled in a Second XI game but the fixtures just didn’t allow that, but last week I bowled 30 overs, the week before 24 and the week before that 18. So I was able to come into this match feeling I could give 100 percent. I felt a bit rusty as I suppose after a few months it is going to be, but the ball came out OK.”I’ve had a few conversations with the England coaches and said that I wanted to bowl as many overs as were needed by the team, with no restrictions, and they have allowed me to play this game to 100 percent. I’m hoping to play in a Lions game early next month after which the South Africa series comes up pretty quickly, so I’m hoping that with a couple of good games I can be back in the mix.”After Sussex won the toss and made the home side bat first on a wicket with a good covering of grass, Robinson quickly put Nottinghamshire on the back foot, dismissing Hameed with his 12th delivery.Hameed fell four short of a maiden 200 against Derbyshire last week but went for just five this time, offering no shot to a ball that came back a long way to clip his off stump.Slater put early runs on the board as a fast outfield added value to any attacking shot, particularly with a short boundary on the Bridgford Road side.But he lost partners in Robinson’s fourth and fifth overs as Ben Duckett clipped one straight to backward square leg and Joe Clarke nibbled outside off stump to be caught behind at 41 for 3.Nottinghamshire went to lunch at 87 for 4 after Lyndon James was caught at second slip off seamer Ari Karvelas for 7, having been dropped by the same fielder on the same score in the previous Karvelas over.Back after lunch, Robinson struck another blow by removing Slater for 55 with the ball of the day, pitching on middle and hitting the top of off.Tom Moores flailed at a wide loosener from 20-year-old left-armer Sean Hunt to be caught behind and Liam Patterson-White nicked a loose drive to second slip off Karvelas as Nottinghamshire slipped to 152 for 7.Mullaney was dropped at second slip on 26 and by the keeper on 53 but made the most of his opportunities otherwise, hitting eight fours and two sixes, helping Pattinson add 65 for the eighth wicket.After Pattinson nicked one behind, the last two wickets fell quickly as left-armer Brad Currie, who took 6 for 93 on his debut at Lord’s last week, picked up the final three, including Mullaney who was perhaps unlucky to be given leg before to the left-armer coming round the wicket, before Paterson was caught behind off an inside edge.Nottinghamshire missed out on a second batting bonus point but in the context of the match their 240 began to look a decent effort as Sussex stumbled to 49 for 5.Pattinson pinned Tom Clark leg-before, Paterson produced a beauty to beat Fynn Hudson-Prentice’s defensive push on his return from a stress fracture and then Pattinson took two in five balls, ending Ali Orr’s good start with a ball to match Paterson’s and squaring up Oli Carter for another lbw.Paterson then drew an edge to second slip from James Coles to leave Sussex with half their wickets gone and still 191 behind, but Pujara and Archie Lenham survived the last 18 overs to cut that deficit to 146.

Captain Kurtis Patterson
Coach Phil Jaques
SquadR=Rookie, CA=Australia contractSean Abbott, Trent Copeland, Pat Cummins (CA), Oliver Davies, Liam Doddrell (R), Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Mickey Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley, Liam Hatcher, Josh Hazlewood (CA), Lachlan Hearne, Moises Henriques, Baxter Holt, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Nathan Lyon (CA), Blake Nikitaras (R), Jack Nisbet (R), Kurtis Patterson, Will Salzmann (R), Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Lachlan Shaw (R), Steven Smith (CA), Mitchell Starc (CA), Chris Tremain, Hunar Verma (R), David Warner (CA), Adam Zampa (CA) In Liam Doddrell, Ryan Hadley, Hayden Kerr, Blake Nikitaras, Lachlan Shaw, Will Salzmann | Out Josh Baraba, Harry Conway (SA), Peter Nevill (retired)Winter moves
The main departures were Peter Nevill’s retirement after a distinguished career in front and behind the stumps, as well as a leader, while Harry Conway has gone to South Australia. Last season’s breakout star Hayden Kerr has earned his first full contract alongside young batters Ryan Hadley and Blake Nikitaras. Will Salzmann, 18, is a highly regarded allrounder.Related

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Last season
Due to border restrictions, New South Wales faced Victoria three times in the first part of the season. They lost the opening two games to put their campaign on the back foot, but when the Shield resumed in February they secured wins against Queensland and Tasmania. However, it wasn’t enough to keep them in finals contention and in the last game of the season South Australia chased down 326. The biggest issue for NSW was a lack of first-innings runs where their highest total was 294 in the final outing. Overall, there were just two individual hundreds.Player to watch
On that note, it is an important season for captain Kurtis Patterson. In the last two seasons, he has averaged 21.29 and 28.11 respectively. He needs to lead a batting revival from the front as a senior player.”In particular our first innings batting last year just wasn’t good enough,” Patterson told ESPNcricinfo. “On day one [of pre-season] we had three or four really key areas to work on and guys really taking the reins in four-day cricket was a big one. That’s guided how we’ve trained around our red-ball stuff. I’ve always thought your captain’s hat is off when the team is batting, that’s easier said than done, but I feel in a better place having had a year captaining under my belt. Feel that separation is a bit easier now that I’m not too stressed out about team things.”NSW will also hope to see further development in their two wicketkeepers – Matthew Gilkes and Baxter Holt – following the retirement of Nevill. Holt is expected to start in the Shield side but he will need to build on a first-class average of 14.77.

New South Wales Shield fixtures

October 3-6: vs Western Australia, WACA
October 18-21: vs Queensland, Drummoyne Oval
October 31-November 3: vs South Australia, Wollongong
November 12-15: vs Tasmania, Blundstone Arena
November 22-25: vs Western Australia, SCG
December 1-4: vs Victoria, Junction Oval
February 11-14: vs Tasmania, SCG
February 21-24: vs Queensland, Gabba
March 2-5: vs Victoria, SCG
March 14-17: vs South Australia, Karen Rolton Oval

Australia radar
Beyond the big three quicks, David Warner, and Steven Smith, who NSW may not see anything off this season, Nathan Lyon is expected to be available for three or four Shield games before the Tests begin in late November. They will hope for a return more akin to 2020-21 (42 wickets at 25.97) than 2021-22 (four wickets at 62.75) but he won’t be available for the latter part of the competition due to the India Test tour.An interesting one could be Adam Zampa who, in theory, will be free for red-ball cricket in February. He has not played a first-class match since 2019. Elsewhere, Sean Abbott is the likeliest to be pulled away for Australia duty (he will miss the opening round due to the West Indies series) although probably only around white-ball cricket now enlarged squads are no longer needed. It’s a long shot, but another strong season for Chris Tremain, who took 24 wickets at 15.95 last summer, could push him into the list of back-up quicks. Tanveer Sangha‘s back injury appears likely to curtail his ambitions of pushing further towards international selection for a little while, but he will hope for a strong second half of the season.

Keegan Petersen’s participation in South Africa’s Test series in Australia could be in doubt after the batter was stretchered off the field in the CSA T20 Challenge final.Petersen was fielding on the deep square boundary in the sixth over of Titans’ innings and sprinted to deep midwicket to cut off a Theunis de Bruyn flick. He prevented the boundary but went down immediately, clutching his left hamstring and grimacing. He was taken off the field and left the ground in an ambulance.Earlier, Petersen scored a 51-ball 63 and added 115 for the second wicket with JJ Smuts as Dolphins set Titans a target of 163.South Africa’s three-match Test tour to Australia starts on December 17. The first round of South Africa’s domestic red-ball matches starts later this week, though Dolphins are only due to play their opening match from November 17. There will be three rounds of fixtures before the Test team departs for Australia, and those matches would have been vital for Petersen, who had a poor tour of England. Petersen scored only 122 runs in five innings at 24.40 in England, and is still without a Test century after ten matches.Should Petersen be unavailable for the Australia Tests, South Africa will need a replacement at No. 3. Rassie van der Dussen, who broke his right index finger in the second Test in England, is expected to be fit and could slot into the role. South Africa’s batting will also be boosted by Temba Bavuma, who missed the England tour with an elbow injury, and they have back-up options in Ryan Rickelton and Khaya Zondo.The series will be the team’s first international engagement post the Mark Boucher era. Boucher resigned from his post as head coach to take up a role at Mumbai Indians. Malibongwe Maketa has been named interim coach to take South Africa to Australia.

England Women have suffered a major injury setback at the start of their tour of the Caribbean, with Alice Capsey sustaining a broken collarbone after landing heavily in the field during the first ODI in Antigua on Sunday.Capsey, 18, had been promoted to open the batting for the first time, making 17 from 13 balls, but is set to fly home from the UK and is now a serious doubt for the rest of England’s winter engagements, including the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.”Alice Capsey sustained an injury on the field during the first ODI against West Indies Women,” read an ECB statement. “Upon further examination, she has broken her left collar bone and will be unavailable for the remainder of the tour. Capsey will now return home to the UK.”The injury occurred as Capsey dived at fine leg to intercept a top-edged hook during England’s 142-run win the first ODI. She was in obvious pain as she remained on the ground for several minutes to receive treatment, but was eventually able to walk from the field before being taken to hospital for further treatment.It’s a major setback both for Capsey personally, but also for England, who had hoped to bed her into her new top-order role, alongside Sophia Dunkley, as part of a new more attacking outlook under the incoming head coach Jon Lewis.Capsey was awarded her first ECB central contract in November, and had just returned from her maiden stint with Melbourne Stars in the Women’s Big Bash.Nat Sciver, the senior allrounder who made her comeback from a three-month mental health break to be named Player of the Match for her decisive innings of 90 off 96 balls, said she and the team were “gutted” for Capsey.”When anyone goes down on the pitch you’re not really sure what’s happened and it’s a weird thing to stand as a group on the pitch and feel sorry for your team-mate, feel sorry for your friend,” Sciver said.”We found out this morning that she’s going home, so just really, really gutted for her. She’ll be back, she’ll be back firing, I’m sure.”It’s a broken collarbone and I don’t know how long that means the recovery time is. She’ll be as gutted as anyone really to be missing out on this trip and I don’t know what that means for the new year.”

Sydney Thunder survived a wobbly chase to secure a BBL finals berth after a tense three-wicket victory over Melbourne Stars at the MCG.The finals positioning came down to the last match of this riveting regular season with Thunder needing a win to leapfrog Hobart Hurricanes, who had pushed into the top five after a remarkable two-run victory over Brisbane Heat earlier in the day.Eerily similar to that game in Launceston, it went down to the wire after a nervy Thunder almost botched their chase of 120.But Thunder, who have been up and down all season, did enough in a see-saw of a contest to claim fourth place and will host an elimination final on Friday against fifth-placed Heat.It ended another underachieving season for Stars, who finished bottom of the ladder with just three wins.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Thunder stumble over the line

Chasing a low target, Thunder had early wobbles with David Warner’s run of low scores continuing after being undone by extra bounce from quick Luke Wood.Warner lasted just three deliveries and has made just 63 runs from five innings since his long-awaited return to the BBL. He is likely to have one more chance to better those returns at elimination final.Thunder were boosted by the return of batter Jason Sangha, who was out for five weeks due to a broken collarbone. But Sangha couldn’t get going and was stumped off a sharp delivery from spinner Adam Zampa.Thunder kept losing wickets and appeared to be headed for the same fate of Heat earlier in the day. But a hard-hitting 28 off 18 balls from Daniel Sams and composed batting from skipper Chris Green and Nathan McAndrew got Thunder over the line and into the finals.

Zampa gives it his all

Zampa has had a rough season after taking the Stars’ captaincy reins from injured Glenn Maxwell. But he remains their talisman and did his very best to thwart Thunder’s finals hopes. He enjoyed a spinning MCG surface and turned the match by outfoxing Alex Ross and Sams to leave the contest in the balance. It wasn’t a flawless effort with Zampa dropping a sitter to reprieve Green on 1 in what proved a costly missed chance. The Stars did what they could to fight all the way to the finish and perhaps in that respect they made it a reasonable send off for coach David Hussey.Adam Zampa celebrates dismissing Jason Sangha with Marcus Stoinis and Joe Clarke•Getty Images

Qadir shines, Sandhu injured

Thunder vindicated Green’s decision to bowl after a disciplined performance from the attack. They bowled well in partnerships from the get go to shackle last-placed Stars, who appeared to be going through the motions in what was a dead rubber for them.Legspinner Usman Qadir, the son of legendary Pakistan spinner Abdul Qadir, stole the show with a three-wicket haul. He bamboozled Stars’ struggling batters with flighted deliveries and combined well with Green, who was typically miserly to finish with 2 for 19 off four overs. Qadir has proven a reliable part of Thunder’s attack after being drafted into the squad for injured spinner Tanveer Sangha.The team’s hierarchy will be well pleased with the performance of the attack after seamer Gurinder Sandhu limped off the ground with a suspected calf injury having bowled two overs. He appears in major doubt for Friday’s final.

Stoinis’ struggles caps tough season

Marcus Stoinis’ season might have been doomed from the start when he fell first ball in the opening game against Thunder shortly after contracting Covid-19. He made just 14 runs in his next three innings before finally rediscovering his belligerent best with a couple of powerful half-centuries. But a hamstring injury derailed his momentum and Stars’ season was basically shot when he returned.Stoinis was hoping to at least end things on a high and find some form before he heads to the UAE’s ILT20. He targeted Qadir in the sixth over and clobbered a six down the ground but couldn’t repeat the dose later in the over to hole out. It summed up a disappointing season for Stoinis, where nothing seemingly went right and he finished with just 190 runs at 23.75 from nine matches.

Bangladesh brushed aside Pakistan in a seven-wicket win in the first T20I in Dhaka. Bangladesh’s bowlers and fielders did the main damage when they bowled out Pakistan, for the first time in T20Is.Parvez Hossain Emon struck an unbeaten 56 in the chase, slamming five sixes and three fours in his 39-ball effort. It helped Bangladesh to complete the chase in 15.3 overs.Pakistan were already on the backfoot when they were put to bat. Taskin Ahmed took three wickets while the fielders effected three run-outs. Mustafizur Rahman bowled Bangladesh’s cheapest four-over spell in T20Is, conceding just six runs. It was an all-round bowling effort from the home side, though it got off to an iffy start.

Bangladesh get lucky

Pakistan’s batting collapse actually started after a dropped catch. Taskin spilled an easy chance at short fine leg after Fakhar had top edged a slog sweep in the first over. Taskin’s guilt was short lived as he removed Saim Ayub in the next over, caught at long leg.Bangladesh’s luck got better in the third over with Mohammad Haris, who struck a century in the last encounter between the two sides, depositing Mahedi Hasan’s long-hop into Shamim Hossain’s lap at deep midwicket. On hindsight it was a careless shot, targeting the longer of the two boundaries, with two men patrolling the fence.

Fakhar caught in run outs

Pakistan’s hard press despite the two early wickets backfired. Tanzim Hasan bowled a superb first over to Salman Agha, who finished up mistiming a scoop to wicketkeeper Litton Das. Bangladesh’s dot-ball pressure resulted in Mohammad Nawaz’s run-out in the eighth over, when Fakhar point-blank refused to take the risky single towards short midwicket. Fakhar was then run-out himself, when Khushdil Shah refused him a second run in the 12th over. Fakhar slipped in the middle of the pitch while turning, with Litton whipping off the bails.Fakhar Zaman top-scored for Pakistan with 44 off 34 balls•AFP/Getty Images

Fizz, Taskin close out innings

Mustafizur removed Khushdil who had struck a six and a four in his 17 off 23 balls. He could have had a wicket the next ball but captain Litton wasn’t convinced with the lbw appeal against Faheem Ashraf. Replays showed three reds.Mustafizur remained undeterred, finishing with figures of 2 for 6 from his four overs. It is the fewest runs conceded by a Bangladeshi bowler in a completed four-over spell in a T20I.Pakistan then lost three wickets in three balls in the final over. Taskin took two while there was a third run-out as the visitors were bowled out for 110.

Bangladesh shrug off early wickets

Bangladesh’s 111-run chase began poorly when Tanzid Hasan fell to a catch at mid-on in the first over. It gave left-arm fast bowler Salman Mirza his first wicket on T20I debut. He added a second when Khushdil took an excellent catch slip, off Litton’s thick outside edge.Pakistan’s use of Ayub to bowl the next over was perplexing but Bangladesh didn’t mind. Parvez launched him high into the midwicket stands for the first six, followed by Towhid Hridoy slamming him over long-on for another six. In the next over, Parvez blazed Mirza back over his head with a one-handed follow-through that looked gorgeous.

Parvez puts finishing touches

Pakistan didn’t help themselves when they dropped Hridoy on 12 and 30. In the sixth over, Abrar Ahmed couldn’t hold on to a tough chance at deep third, running in but spilling the chance. Then it was wicketkeeper Haris who dropped Hridoy off Abrar in the ninth over.Parvez was nonchalant at the other end. He pasted Abrar and Nawaz for two more sixes in the 11th and 12th overs, before Abbas Afridi removed Hridoy for 36. Jaker Ali struck two fours in his first four balls, before Parvez laid into Ashraf. He flat-batted one over mid-off before whipping his fifth six, which took him to his fifty. Parvez finished the over with another flat-batted strike, this time over mid-on.It left Bangladesh just six runs to win in the last six overs. Haris dropped Parvez again, on 55, before Jaker struck a superb pull shot to complete the win with 27 balls to spare.

The stage is set for one of the most memorable ends to a Rothesay County Championship season with the battle for the Division One title and relegation places still very much alive heading into the final round this week.Nottinghamshire put themselves in pole position to win their first title in 15 years after snatching a 20-run win over three-time reigning champions Surrey last week. It was a contest to highlight the very best of the Rothesay County Championship and leaves Notts needing a maximum of 10 points to be crowned champions when they host Warwickshire at Trent Bridge starting Wednesday.With excitement building in the east Midlands after their success at the Kia Oval, Notts captain Haseeb Hameed has warned they will still need to produce “four more days of quality cricket”.Related

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“We have to go into the game with that mindset and focus because Warwickshire are a really good team,” Hameed told ecb.co.uk. “I think you can see that across the whole County Championship this season – anyone can beat anyone. It has been a really tight and tough year and that’s probably why it’s so close at the bottom as well.”There are no easy wins in this division and we go into the final round knowing we have to play four more days of quality cricket.”Surrey have been the county to catch for the past four seasons as they have set the bar high for the chasing pack. They will draw on that culture of success as they look to become the first county, since the great Surrey side of the 1950s, to win four titles in a row when they travel to Hampshire.Rory Burns’ team know that anything other than a win will probably not be enough while Hampshire, who could welcome back talisman Liam Dawson from England duty, have plenty to play for themselves as one of five counties that head into the final round looking to avoid relegation.The south-coast club are just two points above Durham, who sit inside the relegation zone on 140 points, but the northern-most county do have their fate in their own hands as make the journey down the A1 to a Yorkshire team who need 10 points to be assured of staying up.Sussex and Essex both have 150 points and know avoiding defeat in their final-round matches against already-relegated Worcestershire and third-placed Somerset respectively would be enough to retain their place in the top tier.It sets the scene for an intriguing final round at both ends of the table and Hameed admits he’d have it no other way.”At the start of the season the goal of every team would be to put themselves in the position we’re in heading into the final round,” he said. “It’s a great position to be in, but there’s work still to be done and that’s the focus. There is going to be a bit of noise around and there will be some excitement I’m sure across the four days with everything that is going on at the top of the bottom of the division.”We just have to be ready to go on Wednesday morning and focus on doing what we’ve done in the 13 matches so far.”Hameed is not letting himself think about becoming a title-winning captain, after reviving his career since moving to Notts from Lancashire ahead of the 2020 season. The 28-year-old, who has 10 Test caps, scored 1235 runs when he helped Notts win promotion from Division Two in 2022 and could surpass that mark this week as this season’s second-leading runscorer.”I just want to lead from the front and do my job. I’ve been here five or six years now and it feels like home and I’ve enjoyed my cricket,” said Hameed, who also highlighted the influence of his opening partner Ben Slater, who could pass 1000 runs for the season this week.”It’s been great establishing an opening partnership with Slats. He’s had a great season and has loads of experience which is so important. But I come back to it – the whole team knows we have to focus on our job because Warwickshire are a quality team. I’d love to see a good crowd at Trent Bridge and hopefully we can make it a week to remember.”In Division Two, Leicestershire will head into the final round knowing the title – and a return to Division One for the first time in 22 years – is already assured. The Foxes’ star allrounder Rehan Ahmed, who has struck five Championship centuries in a breakout summer with the bat, was not born when they were last in the top-flight.Leicestershire make the short trip to Northamptonshire to round out their season while Glamorgan, who under head coach Richard Dawson have secured their place in Division One for the first time since 2004, will host Lancashire at Sophia Gardens.Kent welcome Derbyshire to the Spitfire Ground in Canterbury while Middlesex host Gloucestershire at Lord’s.