The Cricketer wraps up the best of the action during day four of round nine of the Vitality County Championship in 2024
Cardiff (day four of four): Northamptonshire 279 & 472-8, Glamorgan 490 & 207-8 - match drawn
Northamptonshire came close to pulling off a remarkable comeback win over Glamorgan in the Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan thanks to a career best 168 from Lewis McManus and wickets for Alex Russell and Liam Patterson-White.
Northamptonshire declared on 472 for 8 to leave Glamorgan a target of 262 in 39 overs. The home side made a good go of chasing down the stiff target with Marnus Labuschagne scoring his second fifty of the match but late wickets left Northamptonshire a chance of pulling off victory.
Having been 211 runs behind on first innings, Northamptonshire had nine catchers around the bat in the closing overs as they pushed for the win.
Glamorgan finished on 207 for 8 with Northamptonshire two wickets short of victory.
Related: Louis Kimber: "I was just trying to hit the ball as far as I could" in stunning Hove knock
Lewis McManus made a hundred for Northamptonshire (David Rogers/Getty Images)
Lord's (day four of four): Middlesex 433 & 302, Derbyshire 339 & 202 - Middlesex win by 194 runs
An inspired burst from Ethan Bamber tore the heart out of Derbyshire's rearguard as Middlesex secured a 194-run win on the final day of their Vitality County Championship Division Two clash at Lord's.
The Seaxes' seamer took 3 for 6 in 10 balls on route to final figures of 3 for 48 as the visitors slid from 58 for 1 to 70 for 5 in pursuit of what would have been a record fourth innings chase for the county.
Brave resistance from Zak Chappell with 50 and Alex Thomson 41 prolonged the game deep into the final session, but Henry Brookes with 3 for 29 returned to clean up the tail and seal a third win of the season for the hosts which keeps them in second place behind leaders Sussex.
For Mickey Arthur's side, the morning's carnage marked a second collapse in 24 hours, having lost six wickets for 22 runs in their first innings on the third morning. Defeat means it's now 25 games without a red-ball win.
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Hove (day four of four): Sussex 442 & 296-6d, Leicestershire 275 & 445 - Sussex win by 18 runs
Leicestershire's Louis Kimber rewrote the record books with an astonishing 243 but it came in a losing cause against Sussex at Hove.
The 27-year-old produced one of the best innings in County Championship history, scoring the fastest double hundred from balls faced (100), hitting the most sixes and the most runs in an over when he plundered 43 off England seamer Ollie Robinson.
Kimber was last out when he dragged a leg-cutter from Nathan McAndrew onto his stumps with only last man Josh Hull for company as Sussex squeezed home by 18 runs to strengthen their position at the top of the second division.
Kimber faced just 127 balls and 206 of his runs came in boundaries with 20 fours and 21 sixes, breaking Ben Stokes' Championship record of 17 sixes set in 2022.
Every Sussex player warmly congratulated him and his teammates and the backroom teams from both sides formed a guard of honour as he walked off to a standing ovation. It was the third time in three years that a Leicestershire batter had scored a double hundred in this fixture.
What made it even more remarkable was Kimber's record until today. He made his only previous century against Sussex in 2022 and averages a modest 24.46 but he cut, pulled and drove the Sussex attack to distraction in an uninhibited exhibition of power and timing in the fourth-highest score by a No.8 in first-class cricket.
He offered a difficult chance on 17 to Tom Alsop at slip which burst through his hands and Jack Carson nearly hung on to a ball struck with ferocious power over deep midwicket which took Kimber to 150, but otherwise there was very little Sussex's bowlers could do to stop the onslaught.
It broke the previous record for runs scored in a Championship over of 38 by Lancashire’s Andrew Flintoff off Surrey's Alex Tudor in 1998 and Surrey's Dan Lawrence off Worcestershire's Shoaib Bashir just two days ago.
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