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The umpires walk out for a cursory inspection of the covers, and scurry back.
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A hundred for Rehan Ahmed!
What a cracking season he’s having ! At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, he’s looked a million dollars in the two centuries I’ve watched. Today, 104 not out, 121 balls, 14 fours, one six, rescuing Leicestershire from 0-2 to 146-2.
Only one player has scored more County Championship hundreds than Rehan Ahmed in 2025.
The 20-year-old also averaged more than 40 with the bat in the Blast…
— Yas Rana (@Yas_Wisden) July 22, 2025
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Updated at 09.21 EDT
And here comes the rain, filing in from the north west. The players stroll in with Lancashire 105-2. Hopefully it will blow over quickly.
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Six for big Craig
Durham not having their best day: 76-7.
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An enormous black aerial blanket is approaching Cheltenham college with intent.
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A lunchtime email, hello there, Anthony Aldred.
“Today an inspiring group of young elderly men and women took part in a walking cricket festival at The Oval. All had a great time with laughter as well as a good competitive spirit. A long time ago some of my children played Kwik cricket for Send Cricket Club colts on The Oval outfield during the lunchtime of a West Indies Test Match. Not quite the same but now I have done it too. Walking cricket is brilliant. I stopped playing in my early 50s and never thought I would play again yet here I am at 78 performing on a Test ground. Opened the batting too!”
Well done Dad! I hope there is video footage.
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Updated at 08.53 EDT
Going to hunt down some lunch, back shortly.
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Lunchtime scores
DIVISION ONE
Southampton: Hampshire v Nottinghamshire 20-1 rain
Taunton: Somerset v Durham 33-3 rain
Hove: Sussex 69-4 v Essex rain
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Worcestershire 67-3
Scarborough: Yorkshire 82-0 v Surrey
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire v Leicestershire 118-2
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan v Kent 111-2
Cheltenham: Gloucestershire v Lancashire 82-2
Merchant Taylors’ School: Middlesex 90-0 v Northamptonshire
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Hit for Six: The Danger Zone
Some lunchtime reading, in the form of the new Hit for Six report The Danger Zone, six years after the first shocked Shane Warne into speaking out.
Hit for Six: The Danger Zone focuses particular on India – and the extreme heat that some IPL games are played in. It reveals that 36 per cent of 2025 IPL matches were played in “Extreme Caution” conditions, with an additional 12 per cent in the “Danger” zone.
It also reports that there has been a 125 per cent increase in hazardous heat days in Mumbai since 1970, with Thiruvananthapuram recording over 100 in 2024 alone. The report features voices from the Indian grassroots game, where there are none of the safeguards of franchise or international cricket. .
“All of us talk about it. My teammates and I are noticing that cricket doesn’t feel the same. It’s a bit scary because we don’t know how bad it’ll get. Mohammad Kaif, Wonders Club, Noida.
You can access the report in more detail at the bottom of the page here.
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Updated at 09.02 EDT
Rain forces an early lunch at Hove, Southampton and Taunton.
Sussex dine four down, with two wickets to Khaleel Ahmed.
And a wicket here at Cheltenham, as Jennings departs, disgruntled. Lancs 75-2.
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Kookaburra – merry, merry king?
I spoke to Rob Key (for the Cricket Paper) about the Kookaburra ball at the end of the last round. He was thoughtful about it
“The misconception is that we are using the ball because of the Ashes, but it is because we want the county game to replicate as much as possible the international game, where people bowl more quickly and with more skill on flatter, truer surfaces. It is a long-term vision.”
“It is a small change that has a big effect on the style of cricket played. What we are looking for is players who take on pressure and soak up pressure. We are obsessed with one to one coaching in this country but this is a game learned out in the middle, carving out runs.”
On the tensions between cricketers/spectators/selectors “If you want to get a result you probably do have to play a different kind of cricket. We are looking at the process rather than the results, which is different to the way the county DOCs look at things.”
That it produces boring cricket: “I often think that the way a game is played shows the intent of the team. If the ball is not doing much and you’re scoring at two and a half an over, that’s a mentality thing, and it depends on your attitude towards risk as a team. The games are not meant to be over in two and a half days.”
On spinners.“We have a whole generation of spinners in the last 15 years who found themselves surplus to requirements, but if you look at the game between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire [in the first of the Kookaburra rounds], Farhan Ahmed and Liam Patterson White bowled 110 overs between them.”
Key’s data deep dive showed that there was 25 percent more spin bowling in the first kookaburra round than there was in the round before.
Interestingly, the decision on when and whether or not to continue with the Kookaburra lies with the county DOCs, who meet with the ECB at the end of the season.
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Inspection at 12.30 at Southampton
Delays also at Taunton and Edgbaston.
Here, off-spinner Todd Murphy wheels in, tea towel tucked into the waistband of his trousers. An excellent addition to the spinners in glasses club.
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In Division One:
Adam Lyth and Finlay Bean have taken Yorkshire to 56-0 against Division One leaders Surrey at Scarborough.
Ethan Bamber and Ed Barnard chopped off Worcestershire’s openers in the Midlands Derby at Edgbaston: Worcs 40-2.
Durham have been briefly saved by the rain at CLS, Somerset’s Craig Overton took two in two, Durham 33-3.
It is also raining at Southampton, where Notts lost HH early, to Eddie Jack. Notts 20-1.
Sussex, who will be joined by Gloucestershire’s Tom Price next year, on a three year contract, have lost three wickets this morning to Essex. Simon Harmer is already two overs into his work. Sussex 50-3.
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With a reminder (thank you) from BTL that this is a Kookaburra round, a potter round the other Division Two games.
Sam Robson and Max Holden have serenely taken Middlesex to 36-0 against Northants at Merchant Taylors’; Rehan Ahmed and Lewis Hill are making merry after Leicestershire’s disastrous start, Leics 44-2; and Kent are fizzing along at five an over against Glamorgan, though they’ve lost Compton for 17. Kent 61-1.
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Currently battling with a parasol to protect laptops from the mizzle.
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Pleasingly enthusiastic applause as Wells edges behind off Akhter. Lancs 28-1.
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Updated at 06.38 EDT
Mark Ramprakash is a very thoughtful columnist.
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There is, I’m afraid to report, some rain in the air here in Cheltenham. De Lange went off after a couple of overs and is, I think, still nursing something or other. Seagulls drifting about, a few pints making their way around the boundary edge. Lancashire 23-0.
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Leicestershire’s romp to Division One has hit further tacks in the road – currently one for two, with Budinger and Patel both gone for ducks.
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And from the College Hall end, Ajeet Singh Dale, who was so impressive at Old Trafford earlier this season. Rumours are that he is soon headed to south London, though Lancashire were also interested.
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A very enthusiastic tannoy announcer jollies up the crowd before play – and if you’re thinking of coming along, bring your bank card as it is a cash-free ground.
And here come Gloucestershire, lead by Cameron Bancroft. Marchant de Lange takes the first over from the Chapel End – we were watching him in warm-up, he’s built like a rugby player, all tree-trunk legs and oak-table chest. Rapid too, as Jennings edges him through the slips for four.
Cameron Bancroft flips the coin. Photograph: Jacob Hurry/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 07.42 EDT
Looking out from the balcony at a barley sugar outfield, the clouds towering over Cleeve hill. Jimmy Anderson, still captain despite Marcus Harris’ return, has won the toss and decided to bat.
Overheard in the queue, Jimmy is the first knight of the realm ever to play at Cheltenham.
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DIVISION TWO TABLE
1 Leicestershire 157
2 Derbyshire 126
3 Glamorgan 124
4 Gloucestershire 111
5 Northamptonshire 108
6 Lancashire 102
7. Middlesex 99
8 Kent 89
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DIVISION ONE TABLE
1 Surrey 140
2 Nottinghamshire 139
3 Sussex 123
4 Somerset 117
5 Warwickshire 117
6 Durham 108
7 Hampshire 105
8 Yorkshire 91
9 Essex 88
10 Worcestershire 73
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The future of the County Championship
Part XXXXV…the votes are (starting to come) in: Surrey and Somerset have announced that they want 14 Championship games, with a return to eight teams in Division One and 10 in Division Two; Middlesex also want 14, but with ten teams in the top tier, while Durham and Lancashire support the 12/6 conference idea.
The PCA, meanwhile, have put their weight behind the conference plan and a reduction in the number of games to 12, alongside a reduced Blast schedule.
“A change in format of the County Championship to 12 league games is the only reasonable option” said Olly Hannon-Dalby, PCA chair, breathing “new life” into the competition.
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Gary Naylor’s excellent round-up of the Blast, as it goes into hibernation.
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Fixtures
DIVISION ONE
Southampton: Hampshire v Nottinghamshire
Taunton: Somerset v Durham
Hove: Sussex v Essex
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Worcestershire
Scarborough: Yorkshire v Surrey
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire v Leicestershire
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan v Kent
Cheltenham: Gloucestershire v Lancashire
Merchant Taylors’ School: Middlesex v Northamptonshire
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Good morning! Torrential rain in Manchester (good luck for the Test …) has turned into thoughtful clouds above Cheltenham, at the start of this two-week late-July dip in the Championship waters. Fortified with porridge from the cafe opposite the station, I will follow the rucksacks to Cheltenham college. Play starts at 11am – do join us to rummage around cricket, the universe and everything.
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