Harris fires as other Aussies stumble in county action

A century to Marcus Harris was the only Australian high point in the latest round of the UK's County Championship as Travis Head's debut for Sussex began with two low scores and a heavy defeat.

Head could only manage scores of 9 and 8 in his first game for his new side as Northamptonshire stormed to victory on Sunday by an innings and 120 runs.

All the County Championship scores

Head was dismissed in both innings by 40-year-old seamer Gareth Berg, but the South Australian did get some semblance of revenge when he dismissed Berg for 38 with his off-spin in Northants' only innings of the match.

At Lord's, Peter Handscomb also failed to fire with the bat as his Middlesex side was beaten by seven wickets by Gloucestershire.

Handscomb, who is captaining Middlesex this season after his debut with the London county was postponed last year due to the pandemic, was dismissed for scores of 10 and four.

It continued his disappointing start to the campaign having posted scores of 0, 17 and 0 in his opening two games.

South Australian Dan Worrall managed just one wicket for the match, but it mattered little as his Gloucestershire side won their fourth game from five this season.

There was good news on the batting front, however, for Handscomb's Victorian teammate Harris, who scored a hundred for Leicestershire against Surrey at Grace Road.

Having shown some good signs in scoring a half-century last week, Harris impressed again at No.3 for the Foxes, scoring 101 on the opening day of a rain-affected drawn match.

Persistent rain across England over the weekend meant Marnus Labuschagne didn't have a chance to get one back on Jimmy Anderson at Old Trafford after the England seamer had dismissed him for 12 on the opening day.

Only two innings of the match between Lancashire and Glamorgan were possible in Manchester, with Labuschagne's Glamorgan and Queensland teammate, Michael Neser, taking 2-50 in his first game of the season having scored 17 with the bat.

At Trent Bridge, veteran Peter Siddle finished with figures of 1-72 as his Essex side were thrashed by an innings and 30 runs by Nottinghamshire.

Queensland paceman Billy Stanlake is set to make his debut for Derbyshire against Essex next week, while Cameron Bancroft (Durham) and Sean Abbott (Surrey) will also begin red-ball stints later in the year.

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