National Counties Trophy review - Appleby century breaks Northumberland duck

Northumberland ended a six-year wait for a National Counties Trophy win thanks to a century from opener Alasdair Appleby which took them to a three wickets win over Lincolnshire in the first county match staged at Allendale. Northumberland had lost ten consecutive games in the competition since they beat Cambridgeshire in May 2016 but Appleby's first century in the Trophy helped them break the drought. Ad/> The left-hander followed up a century against Cheshire in the T20 competition last month with 118 from 111 balls with five sixes and 16 fours.

CricketNational Counties Trophy review — Browne brilliance fires Suffolk past Norfolk30/05/2022 AT 17:05 Appleby and Stuart Poynter added 109 for the third wicket and although Northumberland stuttered as they closed in on a target of 275 they got home with 15 balls to spare. Half centuries from Ben Wright and Jack Timby, on his first county appearance in three years, who shared a fourth wicket partnership of 109 but it was not enough to save Lincolnshire from defeat. Former Durham batsman Gary Pratt scored the day's other century, a competition-best 122 which helped Cumbria beat Herefordshire by 18 runs at Cockermouth.

Pratt's century was his fifth in the competition and it dominated a fourth wicket partnership of 146 with Matt Sempill (49). Herefordshire recovered from one for two thanks to a third wicket partnership of 116 between Zain ul-Hassan and Jujhar Johal. Jake Rowe sustained the chase with a half century on his competition debut before Sempill took two wickets in ten balls.