Five things we learnt from Round Three of the LV= Insurance County Championship 2023

Division One:
Kent 342/7 drew with Essex 451/5d
Middlesex 274 & 249/6 beat Nottinghamshire 364 & 158/6d by four wickets
Hampshire 482/8d beat Northamptonshire 149 & 63 by an innings and 270 runs
Somerset 441 & 256/6 drew with Lancashire 554

Division Two:
Glamorgan 305 & 104/6 drew with Durham 471/9d
Sussex 361 & 137 drew with Yorkshire 298 & 138/3
Worcestershire 157 & 51/4 drew with Gloucestershire 231 & 226/4

The Price is right at Gloucestershire

It's a feat achieved only 16 times previous: Gloucestershire's Tom Price joined the club of players to score a century and take a hat-trick in the same first-class match. Price takes the record as the first player to score all of his runs on the same day as all three of his hat-trick wickets. It was instrumental in an astonishing recovery, too - when he came to the crease, batting at number nine, Gloucestershire were 45/7. His 109 from just 98 balls took his team to a total of 231, before the hat-trick reduced Worcestershire to 59/4.

Gloucestershire were the last County Championship team to manage the achievement, back in 2009, with James Franklin taking a hat-trick across Derbyshire's first and second innings before hitting 109 - as if by coincidence - in the unsuccessful run chase. Among the more famous instances was Hampshire's Kevan James, who took four wickets in four balls - that of Vikram Rathour, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sanjay Manjrekar - before hitting 103 against Indians in 1996. 

More recently, Joe Denly managed it in the Vitality Blast at Surrey in 2018. 

Players to achieve a century and a hat-trick in the same match*:

*via The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians

Ambitious declarations don't pay off

Two final-day declarations didn't work for the team in front, for differing reasons. At New Road, Gloucestershire set Worcestershire a target of 301 to win, and made real inroads. The hosts were reduced to 57/4 at lunch, but it may well have been effectively just five wickets in hand, as Brett D'Oliveira had retired hurt after being struck on the hand during a fierce opening spell from Marchant de Lange. But it was at the interval that rain set in and the players were unable to return.

At Lord's, they had to wait until 15:30 BST for a start on day four, and when it came, it came with news of Nottinghamshire setting Middlesex 249 to win in 40 overs. Given the hosts needed double that amount of time to score just 274 in the first innings, it looked a tall order. But Mark Stoneman set the tone with a 32-ball 43 before Pieter Malan and Max Holden struck rapid half-centuries. Nottinghamshire struck back - Stuart Broad took three wickets - and it was a nail-biting finish as Ryan Higgins and Sam Robson saw Middlesex home by four wickets, with six balls to spare. But it may well have been the final ball as the umpires kept a very keen eye on the rapidly-fading light.

Nottinghamshire may have lost the match, but huge credit to them for the declaration, which created a fascinating spectacle when the alternative would have been a session of inconsequential cricket. Teams may win and lose in this fashion this season, led by the mentality of the England Men's Test team, but spectators will most certainly get value for money with carrots dangled like this. 

Orr's unfortunate habit

Ali Orr has impressed many since coming into the opener's slot at Sussex, four centuries and an average of just over 42 in his 21 matches. But a rather frustrating habit is developing for the 22-year-old, who has now been run out in three of his last five innings, and all in the same manner: while backing up.

Beginning with 2022's final match against Glamorgan, and continuing in this season's opening fixtures against Durham and Yorkshire, Orr has been just like any batter, keen to back up once the ball has been released. It's one of the first things you're taught at youth level. But on three occasions, Tom Haines, his opening partner, has drilled the ball back down the ground and Orr has been left stranded out of his crease as the bowler deflects it onto the stumps.

Sussex's batting coach Grant Flower pulled few punches: "It’s definitely not bad luck. It’s sloppy backing up. He should be able to get back in his crease and there’s no excuse. The guy’s a good player, everyone’s still learning all the time, he’s still young but it’s costing him first-class dismissals and it’s costing us as a team."

It's difficult to imagine any opposition setting a plan to get Orr out in this way - allowing batters to drive the ball straight seems a dangerous tactic - but it's one that bowlers will be very alert to. Orr will want to solve this problem so he can remind everyone just how talented he is when at the striker's end.

Hampshire's bowlers will take some stopping

It is half-a-century since Hampshire last lifted the County Championship trophy. That they came close in 2022, only for Surrey to claim the title in the penultimate week, serves as a potential springboard to their quest in 2023. What the raw facts present is that late-September batting was the difference between ecstasy and agony: 57 all out against Kent in that penultimate week, and a five-run defeat chasing 139 at Warwickshire in the finale. Win those and the trophy was Southampton-bound.

Hampshire claimed the second-most bowling bonus points in Division One last season, and once again they look set to dominate with the ball. They inflicted upon Northamptonshire their biggest first-class victory in history, by an innings and 270 runs, with the hosts dismissed second time around for just 63, the lowest total scored against Hampshire since Gloucestershire's 48 in 1989.

Many would argue that they have the best fast bowling attack in the country, with Kyle Abbott (116), Mohammad Abbas (112), and Keith Barker (95) having shared 323 wickets since the start of 2021. That ranks them at fourth, sixth and 12th respectively on the list of leading bowlers in that time. No batter will look forward to facing that trio and if they can continue their blistering form, Hampshire will once again have a great chance of glory.

Three fine openers

Zak Crawley has scored two Test centuries since his previous Kent ton, with 42 innings and 11 half-centuries coming since his score against Hampshire in September 2020. But on a flat pitch at The Spitfire Ground against Essex, Crawley found his big-scoring touch again, racking up his second-highest first-class tally.

Crawley made light work of an attack featuring Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer, two of the four leading wicket-takers since Harmer's arrival in 2017, to power his way to a 96-ball hundred. It's the third fastest in which he has reached the milestone, just behind that Hampshire ton and his knock in Pakistan this winter. His innings featured 27 fours and a six, down the pitch and launched back over Harmer's head. It's exactly the sort of approach and result that Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes will enjoy seeing ahead of this summer's Ashes series. 

But Crawley wasn't the only England opener to thrive in the season's third round. His incumbent Test partner, Ben Duckett, profited at Lord's, scoring his maiden first-class century at the Home of Cricket, ending on 177. It's Duckett's 24th overall and his first since that opening Test at Rawalpindi in December. The fact that it came against a bowling attack who had conceded a highest total of 266 at this early stage made it all the more impressive. Across two rain-affected days in the capital, he tempered his innings beautifully, particularly when five of his Nottinghamshire teammates were out in single figures. 

At The Cooper Associates County Ground, Keaton Jennings continued to make his case. His 189 wasn't enough to force a result for Lancashire, with Somerset putting in an impressive third-innings rearguard. But Jennings is now the leading scorer since the beginning of last season (1611 runs), and no player has more than his six centuries in that time. 27 fours and a pair of sixes came in his knock, and it was only ended as he departed the field with an apparent hamstring injury. Lancashire will be hoping it's only a minor problem, as his top-of-the-order runs are like gold-dust.