Yesterday we declared that the County Championship was the most exciting league competition in the world - not that you would think so from the Sky Sports schedule.
The first day's play of the penultimate round of matches the 2011 season certainly lived up to our rather bold statement.
Not for the first time this season, Lancashire's bowlers dug their batsmen out of a hole after Hampshire made early inroads at Liverpool - only Sussex and Hampshire have scored less than Lancashire's 28 batting bonus points.
By the close of play, a 99 runs partnership between skipper Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg had lifted the Red Rose county to 337 for seven: the 77 long year quest for an outright Championship win may yet prove successful.
Meanwhile at Edgbaston, the big news was that Shivnarine Chanderpaul DIDN'T SCORE A CENTURY, although Ian Westwood did as Warwickshire made a steady start against Nottinghamshire.
The other big news was that we started our County Championship casserole yesterday, putting all the ingredients into our pot. The aim is that we will leave it to simmer and watch it slowly come to the boil over the next week, so that it is ready simultaneously with the tumultuous conclusion of the title race. It's certainly coming along nicely so far...
Where next?
Cricket XIs: Cricketing Criminals
Read all our County Cricket coverage
See if you agree with our other County Championship XIs of the week
Ten to watch in 2011: Adam Lyth, Jade Dernbach, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Samit Patel, Alex Hales, Danny Briggs, Ben Stokes, James Harris,Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid
Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes
If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep
Comments