December 25, 2024

Darren Stevens scores 190 off 149 balls for Kent: county cricket updates – live!

Darren Stevens #DarrenStevens

11.18am EDT 11:18

He’s at it again! Stevens, with the ball in his hand now, has Marnus Labuschagne out lbw! Glamorgan are 16-2, in response to Kent’s 307.

10.41am EDT 10:41

It is true. Play has also been abandoned at Northampton, with no play at all possible today.

10.40am EDT 10:40

I do believe, though I wasn’t really paying attention to the announcement, that play has been abandoned for the day at the Oval.

10.28am EDT 10:28

Darren Stevens makes 190

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

Updated at 10.36am EDT

10.22am EDT 10:22

It’s over! Stevens has gone for a 148-ball 190, an innings of the utmost and most delicious ridiculousness.

10.14am EDT 10:14

Tim Keward emails from Canterbury: “The appalling weather conditions alone would suffice to merit this as an exceptional innings from Stevens,” he writes, “however this performance, given the match situation; Kent’s form this season; his own form (with the bat); and, yes, his age, really does exhaust all of the superlatives. It also helps that Glamorgan’s fielders keep dropping him over the boundary.”

10.10am EDT 10:10

The Stevens-Cummins partnership has now contributed 150 runs to Kent’s total of 283-8. Cummins remains on one.

10.06am EDT 10:06

Another one bites the dust: stumps have been called at Bristol, where Somerset are 45-1, only 20.2 overs have been bowled over the first two days, the forecast for tomorrow is bad and for Sunday it’s worse.

10.00am EDT 10:00

Stevens has faced 123 deliveries, which I will split up into units of 41. He scored 30 off his first 41 deliveries, 38 off his next 41 deliveries, and 91 off the 41 after that.

9.50am EDT 09:50

That’s 150 for Stevo! He’s been dropped twice since he reached his century, apparently (there’s one fixed camera providing the feed, so there could be a herd of camels rampaging across the outfield for all I know). He and Cummins have put on 125 for the ninth wicket, and Cummins is still on one.

9.35am EDT 09:35

Get yourself on the Kent livestream. The last two overs: 4 4 . 6 1 . . 6 . 6 6 1, and Stevens is already on 126.

9.30am EDT 09:30

And that’s his century! A century off 92 deliveries, of which the second 50 came off just 31! That’s his second hundred of the season, having scored one in the previous three years, and is celebrated with appropriate relish.

Updated at 9.53am EDT

9.24am EDT 09:24

Somehow I managed to convince my feed of the Kent v Glamorgan to run way behind actual events, and so as I was about to tell you about Darren Stevens’ half-century, I discover that he is in fact on 91. In the last two overs he has scored three sixes and a four.

9.03am EDT 09:03

At Trent Bridge the covers have been taken off … and then put back on again.

8.21am EDT 08:21

I know what you’re asking: how much play has there been today anyway? So here’s your all-important lunchtime actionometer:

0 overs: Derbyshire v Durham0 overs: Lancashire v Northamptonshire0 overs: Somerset v Gloucestershire0 overs: Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire10.1 overs: Essex v Warwickshire12.5 overs: Hampshire v Leicestershire18 overs: Surrey v Middlesex30 overs: Kent v Glamorgan

8.09am EDT 08:09

Play abandoned at Derby

Stumps! They’ve given up at Derby, where there will be no play on Friday and they will (try to) resume on Friday with Derbyshire 48-0 against Durham.

7.43am EDT 07:43

It might not have been raining when the players went off here at the Oval, but it certainly is now. There’ll be no action here for a little while. Time to get the sandwiches out, methinks.

7.25am EDT 07:25

There is only one match now being played and it’s at Canterbury, where Kent are 98-7. Everywhere else is wet or windy or dark, or wet and windy and dark.

7.18am EDT 07:18

Something stops play: The players leave the field at the Oval. It doesn’t look much darker than it has been all morning, and I don’t see any umbrellas – though in this wind they wouldn’t help much – so it might be the wind wot’s done it.

7.10am EDT 07:10

Another! Blake Cullen angles one in to Rikki Clarke, and the batsman edges through to the keeper. Surrey are 185-8 now.

7.07am EDT 07:07

Tom Helm bowls Hashim Amla with a beauty, clipping the top of off stump. That’s Middlesex’s first wicket of the day, and leave Surrey on 185-7.

7.06am EDT 07:06

And another one! Kyle Abbott gets his third wicket in his fourth over, and it’s Lewis Hill who tickles an edge through to the keeper! Leicestershire are 17-5!

6.57am EDT 06:57

Now Colin Ackermann’s gone, bowled by Kyle Abbott, and Leicestershire are 10-4, with the sixth over not yet over! Ackermann just seemed to play a delivery entirely different to the one that was actually heading his way, and though his legs were completely obscuring the camera’s view of the stumps whatever happened to them was serious enough that one of them had to be swapped out.

Updated at 6.57am EDT

6.49am EDT 06:49

Leicestershire’s reply to Hampshire’s 233 has not got off to the best of starts: Hassan Azad was out for a duck in the second over and Sam Evans followed for five in the third. And now Marcus Harris has been bowled by Abbas! It’s 8-3!

6.44am EDT 06:44

Meanwhile at Canterbury, Michael Neser traps Jack Leaning lbw in his ninth over, bowls Jordan Cox in his 10th and gets Daniel Bell-Drummond lbw in his 11th and Kent will be hoping they never say Neser again.

6.32am EDT 06:32

Innings break! Bresnan gets out as I press send on that post, caught by Alastair Cook in the slips, off Sam Cook. “They say too many Cooks, but it was just the right number for Essex there,” says the commentator.

6.31am EDT 06:31

Hat-trick ball! But Oliver Hannon-Dalby defends! Warwickshire are 166-9 at Chelmsford, with Peter Siddle snaffling Danny Briggs and Liam Norwell in successive deliveries, and Tim Bresnan at the other end unbeaten on 50. I’m particularly enjoying Warwickshire’s batting averages, with Bresnan absolutely miles clear at the top, though actually he’s had similar averages in summers past.

6.19am EDT 06:19

Innings break! Crikey, Leicestershire aren’t hanging around this morning. From 223-7 overnight and 232-7 not long after, Hampshire have been skittled for 233.

6.01am EDT 06:01

BONG! The clock chimes eleven (well, it did a couple of minutes ago) and play has begun (in a few places)!

5.55am EDT 05:55

I might get lucky here: the bell has just rung, and play is going to start on schedule. Meanwhile:

5.29am EDT 05:29

Hello world!

I am once again at the Oval, where news today is that it is too windy for the extendable floodlights to be extended, so we’re on natural light only. I’ve also been warned that play might be suspended if wind speeds threaten to exceed those at which hauling around the massive covers becomes unsafe. So it might not be raining, and it might both not be raining and also really quite bright, but play would still be suspended. In short, hold on to your hats. I imagine that similar problems are being wrestled with by groundsmen across the country this morning. I can’t help imagining out-of-control hover covers running out of control under unexpectedly massive wind power, but maybe that’s just my inner optimist.

Here’s my view this morning:

The Oval before day two of Surrey v Middlesex in the County Championship Photograph: Simon Burnton/The Guardian

Welcome all. As ever, please do let me know if anything remarkable happens in a match you’re monitoring, or if an entertaining thought blows across your mind. Here’s the state of play in this week’s matches:

Group One

Derby: Derbyshire are 48-0 against Durham.Chelmsford: Warwickshire are 159-7 against Essex.Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire are 51-3 against Worcestershire.

Group Two

Bristol: Somerset are 45-1 against Gloucestershire.Southampton: Hampshire are 223-7 against Leicestershire at the end of day two.The Oval: Surrey are 146-6 against Middlesex.

Group Three

Canterbury: Kent are 70-2 against Glamorgan.Northampton: Lancashire are 59-0 against Northamptonshire.

Updated at 5.33am EDT

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