Warwickshire one win from title after late charge to top
Warwickshire will win the County Championship if they beat Leicestershire at home in the final round. They go into that last match 11 points clear at the top of Division One The Guardian.
It is a sharp turnaround. Warwickshire won only two of their first eight games this season. They have since won four of five to take control of the title race.
They moved top with a second successive win inside two days. Against Essex at Chelmsford, 19 wickets fell on the first day, with Ethan Bamber taking six. Sam Hain then made 88 not out to secure a 57-run first-innings lead, helped by Oliver Hannon-Dalby batting for nearly an hour alongside him.
Essex did not recover. Paul Walter made 42 as the only home batter to pass 30 in the innings cleaned up by Manav Suthar. Warwickshire knocked off the target to win by eight wickets, scoring 191 and 138 for two against Essex’s 134 and 189.
Their rivals fell away at the same time. Somerset lost to Yorkshire at Headingley after being set 287 to win. Former Somerset spinner Dom Bess and George Hill blocked for 56 overs for Yorkshire, then Somerset lost seven wickets for 26 runs on the fourth morning.
Ben Cliff finished with match figures of 11 for 105 for Yorkshire, with Ben Coad taking 5 for 57. The win cleared Yorkshire of relegation worries. It left Somerset’s title hopes out of their own hands.
Reigning champions Nottinghamshire also slipped. They were heavily beaten by Sussex at the County Ground, a result that stung all the more because Sussex have now won more matches this season than Nottinghamshire.
That leaves Leicestershire as the final obstacle. They were docked 27 points by pitch inspectors after damage to the square at Grace Road by a Bollywood film set in mid-August. They responded by beating Hampshire, chasing 334 in the fourth innings — the last innings of the match, when the pitch is usually at its most worn.
Captain Ian Holland took nine wickets in that win. Ben Cox finished the chase with 75 not out. Defeat sent Hampshire down to Division Two for the first time since 2014, after a season in which they used 21 players, even with Kyle Abbott ending as the leading wicket-taker in Division One.
What makes this stand out is how open the race stayed until late. In late August Nottinghamshire led with Somerset and Warwickshire close behind, and all three still had realistic hopes entering the final straight BBC Sport.
For fans, this means a straight equation in Birmingham. The final round starts on 24 September, with Warwickshire against Leicestershire scheduled at Edgbaston. The club has made day one free to all fans for what it calls a title-chasing clash Edgbaston. Win it, and the late surge becomes a championship.
