County Cricket

Gloucestershire are expecting a record crowd at the County Ground in Bristol for Friday's NatWest T20 Blast derby clash with Somerset.

Essex beat Kent by five wickets to move to the top of the Royal London One-Day Cup South Group table while rain caused two matches in the North Group and the day's only scheduled NatWest T20 fixture to be abandoned.

Worcestershire stand-in captain Jack Leach is urging the club's fans to turn New Road yellow on 1st July in support of batsman Tom Fell and first-team scorer Dawn Pugh who have both been battling cancer.

All-rounder Paul Walter has signed a two-year contract with Essex, his first professional deal with the club, the county have confirmed.

Birmingham Bears have signed Australian wicket-keeper Matthew Wade for the final six matches of the NatWest T20 Blast group stage as a replacement for New Zealand's Luke Ronchi.

There were Royal London One-Day Cup wins for Gloucestershire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Yorkshire as teams managed to complete their matches despite the bad weather hitting most of England and Wales.

With the action-packed week two of Royal London One-Day Cup ready to get underway, let us take a look at the key statistics in play.

The first week of the NatWest Twenty20 Blast is upon us and there is plenty of cricketing action in store for the fans. Here are a few key statistics that lie ahead of the first week.

Many reasons were put forward to explain Australia’s Ashes defeat: poor selection, but one of the more interesting theories was that not enough of the best Australian cricketers are playing in English county cricket.

From the start of next season, the England and Wales Cricket Board have made it compulsory for men and women playing professional cricket to wear helmets when batting or fielding close to the wicket.

Tom Abell first came to our attention thanks to Cricket World profiled club Taunton - one year later, he has been won the 2015 LV= Breakthrough Player award following a stellar season with Somerset.

Surrey second-team coach Ali Brown says the club's youngsters are performing "exceptionally well" and their progress is putting the club in a strong position for the future.

Northamptonshire are one of three teams trying to join Birmingham and Worcestershire in the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals but captain Alex Wakely says their focus is not just concentrated on the shortest format of the game.

The final round of eight NatWest T20 Blast group matches tomorrow (24th July) will determine who makes the quarter-finals - we pick out the key stats for you ahead of the acion.

Ahead of another busy weekend of NatWest T20 Blast action, we preview the 14 matches coming up by picking out some of the key statistics relevant to each game in Stat Attack.

We have all become used to watching high-scoring Twenty20 games with sixes and fours hit with increasing regularity. But has the game gone too far in the batsmens' favour?

We preview this week's NatWest T20 Blast action by picking out the stats that matter ahead of 11 matches that could go a long way towards deciding who reaches the quarter-finals.

Rob Johnston asks whether the two-division County Championship is producing enough Test quality cricketers and what the growing gap between the first and second divisions means for England.

Last week, I went to watch Kent play Surrey at Beckenham and it got me thinking about the plight of festival cricket at outgrounds, writes Rob Johnston.

Overseas players turning out in county cricket is nothing new, but as Rob Johnston writes, the difference between then and now is striking.