News Round-Up: Monday 15th April 2024

Surrey put themselves in a good position to force an opening win as counties pile on the runs

Surrey ended the third day at The Oval with a deficit of 61 runs as Somerset, with Lewis Gregory and Kasey Aldridge at the crease, closed on 204/6. Once again the spin combination of Cameron Steel and Dan Lawrence caused problems as they claimed five wickets between them. A wet and windy forecast looks to be the only route to survival for Somerset on what is a good batting pitch.

Elsewhere, batters continued to make hay against the Kookaburra ball. At Edgbaston, Durham were asked to follow on having made 517 in their first innings. Warwickshire, who made 698/3dec in their first innings, had the visitors reduced to 12/2 at the end of the third day to give themselves a chance of victory.

In the second division, Yorkshire require six wickets to take victory against Gloucestershire at Bristol. The home side has an unlikely 401-run deficit to overcome to claim victory against a Yorkshire side widely tipped for promotion.

All matches are subject to potential delays caused by wet conditions as storms return to the UK following a much brighter weekend.

IPL: Weekend Round-up

Delhi Capitals beat Lucknow Super Giants by six wickets to record just their second win in this years IPL. Overseas batter, Jake Fraser-McGurk on debut, made 55 from 35 balls which included five sixes to leave a positive impression on all those watching.

On Saturday the Rajasthan Royals claimed a narrow victory against Punjab Kings courtesy of a six from the bat of Shimron Hetmyer from the penultimate ball delivered by Arshdeep Singh. The equation was two runs required from the final two balls when the West Indian finished things off in style.

The Sunday double-header saw wins for Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings against Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians respectively. Rohit Sharma's unbeaten century was in vain as Mumbai fell 20 runs short of CSK. CSK's Matheesha Pathirana claimed 4/28 to see off the threat from the home side and ensure that a stable partnership with the former MI captain, could not be formed.

The IPL returns to Bengaluru on Monday with RCB playing host to Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chinnaswamy. RCB sits at the foot of the table having recorded just one win from their opening six encounters.

In Brief

Travis Head and Steve Smith will play for Washington Freedom in the second season of Major League Cricket. The team's Indian owner has a partnership with New South Wales and the franchise is coached by Ricky Ponting and has Moises Henriques as captain.