Hussey brothers send tons of reminders

With the Test top order faltering, the Australian batsmen in the county ranks sent a host of reminders to the selectors during a round of big scoring in the County Championship. The Hussey brothers led the charge at Nottingham and Chester-le-Street with a double-century for David and a hundred and a half-century for Michael.

David Hussey, the younger sibling, hit a career-best 232 to jump to third in the averages - his mark is the best of players with more than three games - with 1062 runs at 75.85 as Nottinghamshire thrashed Warwickshire by an innings and 151 runs on Tuesday. Hussey launched Notts' 514 at Trent Bridge with a display of 22 fours and six sixes that was easily the highlight of a prolific season already including a century and seven fifties.

Dropped by Victoria last summer, Hussey has hit back strongly in England and is one of the reasons his side hold a single-point advantage over Kent at the top of the Division One. However, he picked up only 9 in the wet draw against Middlesex at Trent Bridge, which finished on Saturday, and will be happy for a rest after back-to-back matches.

Playing at Durham, Michael Hussey may be in a different class of competition, but he has been in equally good form and his side is also top of the table. In nine matches, three fewer than his brother, Hussey has 982 runs at an eerily similar average of 75.53. His haul was boosted by a first-innings 146 in the rain-affected draw against Leicestershire and another 61 in the second. Mick Lewis grabbed three wickets as Durham gave up a 128-run first-innings deficit.

Andy Bichel's blazing batting continued with 87 from No. 9 in the first innings of Hampshire's tight Division One draw with Kent at Southampton. After making a century in the last match, Bichel swiped nine fours and two sixes in his 90-ball innings, and added seven wickets for the game. He was dismissed for 2 as Hampshire finished at 8 for 241 chasing 307. It was a quieter match for Shane Watson, who added 16 and 30 to two second-innings victims, and Hampshire are now third.

Phil Jaques's summer of plunder showed no signs of stopping with 106 in Yorkshire's rainy Division Two draw with Somerset at Taunton. But Jaques was overshadowed by Somerset's Matthew Wood, who made 297 in a total of 581. In the second innings Jaques reached only 14, which was his lowest score in 10 innings, but Yorkshire are still second in the push for promotion.

At Northampton, Martin Love followed an opening 2 with 177 as Northamptonshire swept past Derbyshire by 182 runs. Forty-five behind Jaques, the division's leading scorer, on 1114 runs, Love picked up his fourth hundred of the season while Damien Wright scored 22 and 43 and delivered three wickets. The horrible run for Derbyshire, who are 40 points adrift of the field, gathered another loss as Jon Moss struggled for 0 and 6 and Michael Di Venuto picked up 43 and 47. However, Di Venuto scored 129 from 131 balls the next day to set up a three-run win over the leaders Sussex in the National League Division Two.