County cricket: it’s all to play for in last group games of Royal London Cup

With the two group winners going straight into the semi-finals and the four second- and third-placed teams going into a play-off stage, there is much to play for in Group A, with the last round of matches to be played this week. Four teams (Sussex, Middlesex, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire) are bunched at the top of the table on 10 points each, with Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire also still in with a shout. Whisper it, but the Royal London Cup might just be a cricket tournament with a well thought out structure.

Middlesex snapped their five-match streak with a defeat to Gloucestershire at Radlett, a result that keeps the visitors’ hopes alive, but they will need favours from Somerset and Surrey if their tenuous hold on third spot is to be maintained.

The home side’s 256-9 was an old-fashioned score (in my mind’s eye, about half of Benson and Hedges Cup matches featured a first innings there or thereabouts) and it took a mix of old and new batting styles to chase it down.

Ben Charlesworth offered a bit of nostalgia, his 97 occupying 40 overs as he anchored the chase (it would have been Sadiq Mohammad in that hypothetical B&H match). That set it up for Jim Foat’s modern day counterparts, Jack Taylor and Zafar Gohar, to hit more boundaries than the West Country folk hero ever would have, a partnership of 45 in seven overs closing out an easy win.

Leicestershire will have to beat Durham to ensure qualification after losing the East Midlands derby to Nottinghamshire, who will have to beat Surrey to have any chance of progression.

The match produced two career-best bowling performances. Old stager Chris Wright bustled in to take 6-35 to restrict Notts to 255-9, then Brett Hutton found enough movement with the new ball to