County Round-Up: Moeen Ali enjoys memorable moment against Glamorgan

Batsman of the Day

Former England Under-19s captain Moeen Ali looked like a cricketer with a considerable future when he scored almost 1,300 runs as Worcester-shire won promotion from the Second Division in 2010 but his two seasons in the First Division were somewhat less productive, although last summer’s weather did not help. He is in the runs again now, though, and enjoyed a memorable moment against Glamorgan at New Road yesterday when he became the fourth batsman this season to score 250 or more in a single innings, in doing so overtaking Joe Root as the season’s highest run-scorer in first-class cricket with exactly 900. Andrew Gale, Chesney Hughes and Samit Patel are the others to top 250.

Bowler of the Day

Lancashire seamer Kyle Hogg followed his career-best 7 for 27 on Thursday with two more wickets as the clatter of timber at Old Trafford continued. Second Division leaders Northamptonshire, bowled out for 62 on day one only a week after Lancashire had dismissed Essex for 20 at Chelmsford, slipped to 26 for 3 at lunch on day two after Lancashire had been dismissed for 159, pouring fuel on a row over the pitch, which a furious David Smith, the Northants chief executive, claimed made batting “a complete lottery”. Smith added: “It was akin to an outground and a poor one at that.”. However, Jack Birkenshaw, one of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s pitch liaison officers, said the surface was blameless, after which the Northants argument was undermined somewhat when Andrew Hall and David Murphy posted half-centuries. Their partnership of 89 could not deny Lancashire a two-day victory, though.

Ashes Watch

Forget Ricky Ponting. Should Australia’s batting not match coach Mickey Arthur’s assessment of his bowling attack (“the best in world cricket”), they can always turn to Nic Maddinson, the 22-year-old left-hander, who followed his unbeaten 113 for Australia A against Ireland with a career-best 181 against Gloucestershire yesterday that came off just 143 balls and included nine sixes and 22 fours. Maddinson, a member of the Sydney Sixers team that won the inaugural T20 Big Bash League and the 2012 Champions League, scored 532 runs at an average of 35.46 for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield last winter.