The Cricketer reflects on round four of the 2023 LV= Insurance County Championship season by nominating a standout XI after the fourth week of fixtures...
The Leicestershire opener had never made a first-class century before the start of this season and came into 2023 in the final year of his contract at Grace Road.
He has started like a train though, tonning up to lead the county to their historic win at Headingley in the opening round and ensuring on Sunday against Glamorgan that there was to be no sting in the tail for Paul Nixon's men, batting through the day for his second County Championship hundred of the month.
"Personally, the century against Yorkshire was kind of a monkey off my back and I feel like I know now how to score hundreds at first-class level," he said once a draw was confirmed, unbeaten on 134. "I feel I have a process I can trust and go back to and repeat."
The weather was ultimately Sussex's undoing in Bristol, but the stoicism of Gloucestershire's No.4 in the midst of a batting collapse around him ensured that Paul Farbrace's men would run out of time to have a concerted go at bowling out the home side on Sunday to force an unlikely win.
Hammond, with half centuries in two out of three matches in 2023, ended unbeaten on 87 in the first innings, which included playing the principal role in a 50-run stand for the last wicket alongside Ajeet Singh Dale. Head coach Dale Benkenstein admitted that the partnership essentially "saved us".
It guided Gloucestershire from 198 for 9 to a final total of 248, more importantly taking valuable time out of a game where rain was always likely to have the final say.
Rishi Patel has started the season superbly (Getty Images)
Another week, another hundred for the Indian master, whose plunder of county attacks goes on and on. He was frustrated to fall cheaply twice last week and was determined to maximise a current form that meant he opened this season with a match-defining century against Durham.
After being put in to bat at Bristol, he made 151 off 238 balls, setting up the game for Sussex, who were in the end defied by the Westcountry weather.
There is not much that Pujara has not seen before in his first-class career, but for the first time in his life he went to bed unbeaten on 99 – he had been 98 not out in a Test against England 11 years ago. "I ended up getting a double hundred," he smiled afterwards.
On this latest ton – his seventh for Sussex in red-ball cricket – he added: "I played many dot-balls as well, considering the form I was in. Even as a batsman when you are in form, on that particular pitch you had to work had to score runs."
Jamie Smith came into this season on the back of a breakthrough winter with England Lions, and he has followed through on the promise of a hundred against Sri Lanka A with a decent start to the summer with Surrey, culminating in a match-winning knock of 88 against Warwickshire, described by Gareth Batty in glowing terms.
Smith has made bigger runs than this – he hit a double hundred against Gloucestershire in 2022 – but Barry called this "the best I have seen him play". It gave Surrey a 131-run lead on first innings that proved pivotal in a game for the most part dominated by quality seam-bowling.
"Against a very strong attack in difficult conditions, for him to play with the maturity he did and then to have the flourish at the end with that extra 30 quick runs just showed how good a player he can be," said his head coach. "If he keeps playing like that, he will be another one that we won't be seeing around much which is a big positive for him and for England."
The Cheteshwar Pujara run-train rolls on (Getty Images)
As his former employers were being bowled out cheaply at Lord's, Ollie Robinson was making his maiden first-class hundred for Durham at better than a run-a-ball.
The 24-year-old is supremely watchable with the bat and an excellent wicketkeeper; his departure from Kent was a consequence of the struggle to keep multiple glovemen satisfied at once, with Sam Billings the club captain and Ben Foakes' England deputy, which meant that Robinson – who toured Sri Lanka with England Lions over the winter – compelled to look elsewhere.
Durham – Ben Stokes' county, coached by an Australian in Ryan Campbell who has declared himself to have little time for draws – have bought into Bazball as much as anyone, so their win inside three days over Derbyshire, set up by Robinson, was testament to that approach.
"I've got a couple of new bats so I was pretty happy with that," said the wicketkeeper.
Leicestershire could have been forgiven for fearing the worst when Chris Cooke and Sam Northeast came together with Glamorgan perilously placed at 186 for 6, with flashbacks to the scenes of last year when the pair shared an unbroken stand of 461 en route to a declaration at 795 for 5, of which Northeast made 410 unbeaten.
So, when Northeast edged Michael Finan behind for 40 – a 370-run deficit on last year's carnage – Lewis Hill's side would have felt somewhat thrilled with the situation. But Cooke made 191 in that historic 2022 win and he was once again an immovable object, sharing this time a 211-run partnership with Michael Neser for the eighth wicket.
He was eventually bowled comprehensively by Chris Wright, but only once he'd made 132 to give Glamorgan a lead on first innings in a game always destined for a draw. He averages 62.2 in 12 matches against Leicestershire.
Chris Cooke once again proved a thorn in Leicestershire's side (Getty Images)
In a game where seamers took all 31 wickets to fall and not a ball of spin was delivered in the three days of cricket required to force a result, it was a cameo from Ryan Higgins in Middlesex's middle order that gave them a crucial 43-run lead on first innings.
He made 71, adding to twin scores of 70 against Essex and Northamptonshire already this season, as well as 53 against Nottinghamshire. He has 12 wickets in that time for good measure.
Without his counterpunch, which effectively begun when his team was 90 for 6 and in danger of letting Kent off the hook for their own batting display, Middlesex may well have been on the wrong end of a result that was ultimately emphatically theirs.
He launched two sixes on top of eight fours in a terrific hand that only ended when he holed out to long-on.
As England's big-name fast bowlers return to fitness simultaneously, the stocks have not looked in such good shape for some time, which means that Brydon Carse has fallen down that pecking order.
But there is also a school of thought that he is perhaps best-placed of all of those on the fringes to make a late push for Ashes selection, with his pace, bounce and much-improved ability with the bat, which manifested itself as a maiden first-class hundred in Durham's hammering of Derbyshire over the weekend. He smashed 108 off 120 deliveries, before adding three wickets for good measure in an innings victory.
Carse had a busy winter as part of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape side that won the SA20 and then with England Lions in Sri Lanka, and he has carried that momentum into April, with 11 wickets in three matches, to go with this landmark century. It might have come a week earlier, only for Carse to fall nine runs short against Glamorgan.
Kemar Roach and Don Worrall are a formidable combination (Getty Images)
Durham lost Chris Rushworth over the winter and struggled last year to bowl sides out once Potts was on England duty, so his availability through April – and the likelihood of that continuing into the summer – has been a boost for Ryan Campbell's side, who saw him blow away Derbyshire's top order in the first innings at Chester-le-Street and then run through the visitors' tail when Leus du Plooy's side followed on.
It meant eight wickets in the match and a seventh five-wicket haul in first-class cricket for the 24-year-old, whose rise in the last 12 months has been another major success story for the fast-bowling talent factory that Durham has been for the last two decades.
Kemar Roach and Dan Worrall come as a pair these days, so this place could easily have been taken by Worrall. As Roach put it himself: "He says he is a big fan of me and I am a big fan of him as well, so we go perfectly hand in hand."
They have 30 wickets between them at 18.6 apiece so far this summer, but Roach edges it for a second-innings burst that reduced Warwickshire to 22 for 4 in seven overs to all but end a tense game as a contest.
Roach finished with match figures of 8 for 67, including the wicket of Rob Yates in both innings and the key lbw in the second innings of Sam Hain.
"Kemar and Dan complement each other perfectly," said Batty. "They are basic opposites which is great. They are highly-skilled, highly intelligent and with the experience to back it up."
It was a landmark week for Tim Murtagh (Getty Images)
Saturday was Tim Murtagh Day at Lord's: 10 wickets in the match for just the fifth time in 260 first-class matches and the remarkable landmark of 1,000 wickets for Middlesex across all formats.
It was some week for the 41-year-old who, by his own admission, hadn't been overly chuffed with the decision to leave him out of successive April clashes with Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire in conditions that are made for the pedestrian wobble-seam of a great of the modern county cricket era.
He dismissed Zak Crawley and Sam Billings twice in the match and went to 1,000 with the lbw of Matt Quinn, attempting a hack so inglorious that Murtagh – himself an ungainly slogger these days – might have been proud of.
Every year, he is asked about retirement, and the answer never changes Could this be the last hurrah?
"I've taken it season by season for the last 10 years, so I'm not going to change now."
Those who narrowly missed out: Dan Worrall, Nathan McAndrew, Ethan Bamber, Timm van der Gugten, Chris Wright, Peter Handscomb, Michael Neser
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