County cricket: London sprawling as Surrey and Middlesex top tables

Having played out a draw on the deadest of tracks in the previous round at Bristol, Surrey were back in South London with a greenish strip was served up for play. Looking down, it was so green that Northamptonshire captain Ricardo Vasconcelos discounted the blue he saw looking up and decided to bowl. At 133-4, it didn’t look the worst decision, but Rory Burns had chased a few widish ones and missed (rather than nicked, as he had done so far this season) and was demonstrating again that his temperament can compensate for his shaky technique if he gets that bit of luck.

Sam Curran, under ECB instruction to limit his bowling, played as a batter and looked two classes above anyone else on show, the ball pinging off his blade with a very satisfactory twang. Without Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope, Surrey’s team looked a bit of a hotchpotch, but given any kind of platform, a late order of Colin de Grandhomme, Gus Atkinson, Jordan Clark and Jamie Overton are not all going to fail, and it was Atkinson and Overton who got in and biffed the home side’s score out to 401.

Northants’ batters were then impaled on their captain’s hubris, scoreboard pressure and a nipping pitch a tough gig. The seamers knew they just needed to keep it there or thereabouts and Rory Burns packed the slips for the inevitable edges. Surrey stay top of the Division One and look ominously well stocked with gamechangers.

Hampshire are tight on the heels of the Londoners after a splendid match of two-innings cricket at the Ageas Bowl.

The fourth day dawned with Gloucestershire requiring 257 for victory and Hampshire eight wickets – as ever, the draw also lurked in the shadows. There’s a generation of cricket followers who will look at that target and think that