Who’s Up and Who’s Down in this week’s Country Championship?

22ndMay

	↑	Matthew Prior has taken his chance at Lords with 126*. He also kept wicket very well on a notoriously hard ground to keep wicket on.
	↑	Essex, chasing down 278 with 4 and a half overs to go, and 9 wickets in hand, thanks to a superb opening pairing of Mark Pettini (103* from 103 balls) and Varun Chopra (102 from 127 balls).
	↓	Owais Shah has failed to take the initiative in his second ever test match for England. This is a real shame as his average in the county game for Middlesex has been top notch (95 after 6 innings).
	↓	Tom New has got himself another duck this season while opening the batting for Leicestershire. That’s his 3rd duck in his last 5 innings for the foxes. Still, he’s only 22 so has bags of time to perfect the art of batting.
	↓	Gloucestershire were bowled out for a measly 85 after winning the toss and deciding to bat first! Woops!