Frizzell County Championship Division Two - 3-6 July Preview

Division two seems, at this early stage to be splitting into two mini-divisions of its own, with Essex, Middlesex, Derbyshire and Worcestershire in pursuit of promotion while the rest struggle to contend with apparently limited playing resources. The division has seen far more gap between top and bottom, and far more results this season - last year Warwickshire were promoted with five wins, now, not even half way through the season two teams have already reached that number.

Derbyshire v Gloucestershire - Derby
Gloucestershire lost narrowly to Essex, after making a challenging declaration target last round, while Derby sat to round out and saw themselves overtaken at the top by Essex and Middlesex. Gloucestershire's last game saw three big individual scores and a bowling performance from Australian Ian Harvey that will have warmed the hearts of their supporters and the like of which is rarely seen in defeat. The west country side, for all their reputation as one day specialists, are certainly capable of raising themselves - though they need at least one more bowler to regularly perform alongside Harvey and Lewis. That said, like Glamorgan, Somerset and Lancs they suffer from a wet climate and with the rest of the country unseasonably dry in spring are at a particular disadvantage.

Derbyshire, for their part, have the highest win ratio in the championship with a remarkable five successes from six games, their success has also been based on less high scoring players than the other counties at the top of division 2, with only Di Venuto passing four hundred runs so far, that has been compensated for by everyone else mucking in with the bat and by their bowlers - led by the irrepressible Dominic Cork mowing down all comers.

Glamorgan v Essex - Swansea
The Welsh county have suffered from erratic form, erratic weather, limited resources and walking into some remarkably good days for their opponents, the absence of Matthew Maynard, a leader on the pitch and a key batsman for three of six games has also hurt. Their overseas player Michael Kasprowicz has had more one day success than in the four day game. Their two root problems are not enough regular run contributions - which goes part way towards explaining their awful total of just eight batting points from a possible thirty, and the fact that when Thomas and Jones are absent from the attack then opposition batsmen are able to stick around for a long time building totals.

Their visitors on the other hand have benefited from team work, and opportune spells of form, when Irani and Hussain have been absent, then Robinson and Habib have taken on the job of scoring their runs, and always they have had leading international run scorer and keeper par excellence Andy Flower. With leading bowler Irani out then the rest of their on paper limited bowling has lobbed seeming hand grenades. The way in which Essex have attacked their recent games is shown by the fact that of their seven top bowlers by average none take more than nine overs to take a wicket - a statistic matched only by Surrey's 1999 tour de force in recent years, and they had four international strike bowlers to lead the way!

Middlesex v Worcestershire - Lord's
With Graham Hick having returned to peak form with a bang last week to lead the Worcestershire batting and Middlesex having the best record with the willow in either division this is a serious battle of the batsmen, Middlesex's 27/30 batting points is a phenomenal achievement, and shows where their powerhouse is, eight players average over forty and their eight centuries are shared between six men. With the ball they have seemed less assured, though now Razzaq and the eccentric but extremely able Phil Tufnell look to be getting into the season to compensate for the absence of Noffke and big `Gus Fraser.

At Worcester things are looking brighter by the week, Alan Donald has now arrived and coinciding with his impact Hick has delivered in spades, often the start of a run of big innings from him. These welcome contributions come into a side who's other bowlers and batsmen have already been performing well with runs and wickets both plentiful and shared around.

Northamptonshire v Durham - Northampton
At the other end of the table Northants and Durham have had a torrid year so far raising only one win from fourteen games between them, as against nine losses. While Durham play at the traditionally bowler friendly Riverside Northants reside at their batsmen's paradise, but both share the same greatest problem, other sides are able to build huge totals against them on a regular basis, and both have displayed batting frailties.

Hussey has so far amassed an total of 852 runs from seven appearances, and Mal Loye has added another 536, figures that are hard to credit in a played seven, lost five context. Carl Greenidge is still the only Northants bowler to have taken a fivefer though Brown now joins him with a sub fifty average. They need the other regular bowlers to either take wickets or get their economy rates down to, or preferably below three to make any impression on the table.

For Durham, who have eight bowlers already past the fifty over mark one gets the feeling that there is more to come, and that now that they've started to score some runs a bit more focus should bring about a first win and maybe even a run of successes.