Renshaw, Lyon lead county sides to victory

Matt Renshaw put the finishing touches on Somerset's second County Championship win of the season, scoring his third half-century in his penultimate match for the county.

Recently overlooked as David Warner's replacement at the top of the Australian Test order, Renshaw is letting his bat to do the talking for him as he took his average in the England's domestic red-ball competition this season above 50.

Somerset were chasing 189 to win after Kent, following on 376 runs behind, were dismissed earlier in the day for 564.

That innings was built on a stunning 267-ball 238 from Zak Crawley, the England opener putting behind him a terrible start to the season that had brought 67 runs at an average below ten.

With 54 overs remaining Renshaw did not need to repeat those fireworks. Instead he compiled his third half-century in nine innings back in the country of his birth. With Andy Umeed making 73 not out, Somerset eased to victory by eight wickets.

"I was just saying to the lads that's probably the hardest 24 points we're going to win through this campaign," Somerset coach Jason Kerr said. "We had to work incredibly hard for it."

Instead of turning to Renshaw earlier this year, Australian selectors preferred to parachute in Steve Smith, one of the world's great batters but also a middle-order specialist.

Describing Smith as the "best player in the world" Renshaw said he was happy to keep learning from being in and around the squad.

The 28-year-old has one more game in his current overseas stint – against Durham from Friday – to continue to a mount a case for a Test recall.

Elsewhere Nathan Lyon finally celebrated victory with Lancashire, who beat Durham by 60 runs in a tense finish at Blackpool.

Chasing an improbable 475 to win Durham were 3-313 when Lyon finally engineered a breakthrough, having David Bedingham (103) caught behind as he pushed forward.

That brought in England captain Ben Stokes, who earlier in the match had proved his fitness by bowling 38 overs across two innings, taking seven wickets in the process.

He took 22 deliveries to get off the mark with a reverse-sweep for four off Lyon, then hit a four and a six off successive balls from Luke Wells' next over.

But the leg-spinner bowled Stokes, attempting another reverse sweep, for 18 and Durham gradually subsided despite 171 not out from Ollie Robinson (the wicketkeeper-batsman, not the England Test bowler).

Lyon finished with 2-95 giving him 6-154 in the match.

It was Lancashire's first win of the season, but they remain bottom of the ten-team table.

In the second division, two of Renshaw's rivals for a place in the Australia Test team made runs in the match at Leicester.

Peter Handscomb scored 81 as Leicestershire, who were following on 335 behind after Glamorgan made a mammoth 6-706, including 160 from Cameron Bancroft, reached 7-377 to secure a draw. Marcus Harris, however, followed his first innings five with 17.

2024 Division One County Championship standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Surrey SRY	9	6	1	2	0	0	20	25	157
2 Somerset SOM	9	3	1	5	0	0	21	25	134
3 Essex ESS	9	4	2	3	0	0	17	23	128
4 Hampshire HAM	9	3	1	4	1	2	15	19	120
5 Durham DUR	9	2	2	4	1	1	14	17	102
6 Nottinghamshire NOT	9	1	2	6	0	1	14	25	102
7 Lancashire LAN	9	2	3	4	0	0	15	22	101
8 Warwickshire WAR	9	0	3	6	0	0	24	24	96
9 Worcestershire WOR	9	1	3	5	0	0	13	22	91
10 Kent KEN	9	1	5	3	0	0	9	17	66

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points

2024 Division Two County Championship standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Sussex SSX	9	5	1	3	0	3	24	25	150
2 Middlesex MSX	9	3	1	5	0	0	18	21	127
3 Yorkshire YRK	9	2	2	5	0	0	24	27	123
4 Leicestershire LEI	9	1	1	7	0	0	22	21	115
5 Glamorgan GLA	9	1	1	6	0	0	16	20	108
6 Gloucestershire GLO	9	1	2	4	1	0	20	19	103
7 Northamptonshire NOR	9	0	2	7	0	0	19	22	97
8 Derbyshire DBY	9	0	3	5	1	1	14	17	78

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points

Australians in the 2024 County Championship

Durham: Ben Dwarshuis, Ashton Turner (both T20s only)

Essex: Daniel Sams (T20s only)

Glamorgan: Marnus Labuschagne

Gloucestershire: Cameron Bancroft, Beau Webster

Hampshire: Michael Neser, Ben McDermott (T20s only)

Kent: Wes Agar, Charlie Stobo, Xavier Bartlett (T20s only)

Lancashire: Nathan Lyon, Chris Green (T20s only)

Leicestershire: Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris

Northamptonshire: Chris Tremain (first four matches only)

Somerset: Matthew Renshaw

Surrey: Sean Abbott, Spencer Johnson (T20s only)

Sussex: Nathan McAndrew, Daniel Hughes