Handscomb breaks drought amid County gloom

Peter Handscomb has snapped his horror run in the County Championship with a drought-breaking 70 for Middlesex as more wet weather spoilt what promised to be a thrilling finish in the clash with Surrey at The Oval.

Poor weather dominated fixtures across England over the weekend, with seven of the eight matches ended in draws in what has been a soggy start to the northern summer.

Handscomb had tallied scores of 0, 17, 0, 10, 4, 0, 24 and 5 to start his stint with Middlesex as the club's captain before finally hitting his stride with 70 from 94 balls.

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After Surrey declared at 2-259 in the morning session on the final day, Middlesex had a target of 290 in 71 overs.

Handscomb and Nick Gubbins (124) led Middlesex's charge with a 172-run partnership for the third wicket.

The Victorian brought up his fifty off 67 balls and Middlesex needed 123 from the final 20 overs. But with rain and bad light intervening, Handscomb was caught trying to clear the ropes and the match ended in a draw.

Surrey are set to be boosted for their next match, against Gloucestershire from Thursday, with the arrival of NSW Blues seamer Sean Abbott.

Abbott was signed on to replace West Indies seamer Kemar Roach, who returns to the Caribbean this week ahead of their home season against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan.

The NSW Blues and Sydney Sixers allrounder could play up to three County Championship matches as well as feature in the T20 Blast campaign.

Marnus Labuschagne faced just eight balls without scoring in Glamorgan's second innings but remained not out as more rain forced play to be abandoned in a drawn match with Kent.

After Kent had scored 307 in their first innings the sides tried to manufacture a result with Glamorgan declaring at 3-64 and Kent doing likewise at 1-60, but further rain saw just seven overs of play possible.

After his 4-67 in Kent's first innings, Glamorgan seamer Michael Neser added 1-28 in the second innings as Kent swung the bat.

Labuschagne has failed to replicate his stunning form with the county that saw him elevated to Australia's Ashes squad in 2019, with his run of scores now reading 11, 12, 10, 0, 11 and 0*.

"Marnus is a very resilient player, you don't get to number three in the world easily," Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales.

"He's had a couple of decent balls and a dubious lbw decision in this game. Those things happen and I'm sure Marnus will score plenty of runs for us, not just this season but in seasons to come."

Cameron Bancroft scored 39 from 137 balls in his first match for Durham in a rain-affected draw with Derbyshire. He fell leg before to Derby seamer Matthew Critchley while Ben Aitchison took 6-28 in 16 overs.

Peter Siddle couldn't add to his first-innings 6-38 as the clash between his Essex side and Warwickshire was also heavily affected by rain.

Daniel Worrall's Gloucestershire were also restricted to one innings, with the South Australia seamer claiming 3-52 before Somerset declared on 8-300. With Gloucs at 6-27 in reply, Worrall's side would not have been unhappy with the washout.

There was also frustration for Leicestershire No.3 Marcus Harris, who had made just 2 before he was bowled by Mohammad Abbas in his side's first innings, and finished unbeaten on seven from 24 balls in the second as Leicestershire were bowled out for just 84 in their first innings and were invited to chase 150 off 22 overs for an unlikely win but opted to play it safe and batted out 17 overs to secure the draw.

The only result out of the eight County Championship games in this round came as Nottinghamshire took an astonishing 14 wickets on the final day to beat Worcestershire by an innings and 170 runs.

With Worcs resuming on 6-53 with Notts' seamer Luke Fletcher already having a five-wicket haul, he added another two to finish with 7-37 as the visiting side were skittled for just 80 at Trent Bridge.

Following on 320 behind they made a better first of it to be 1-63 before Fletcher struck twice in the same over to complete his maiden 10-wicket haul.

Notts needed six wickets in the final session with South Africa quick Dane Paterson ripping out four batters to bowl Worcs out for 150 and complete the win just before rain arrived.