The 15th and final round of the County Championship, in late September, was the only one without a single draw in its nine matches. (The teams play 14 matches each, but in late April/early May take it in turns to sit out one round to give the players a break.) #CountyChampionship

Kyle Verreynne is the first man to win the County Championship and the World Test Championship in the same season ... and he hit the winning run in both.

LM Reece and WL Madsen set a FC partnership record for Derbyshire v Kent by adding 231* for the 3rd wicket, beating the 202 set by CJ Adams and DM Jones at Canterbury in 1997. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/derkenfc

This marks the end of a generation for England: barring something extraordinary, we've seen the last time a player born in the 1980s has played a Test for them. There are quite a few such players still active for other countries - Zimbabwe alone have five. www.espncricinfo.com/story/rob-ke...

It is with profound sadness that The Yorkshire County Cricket Club announces the passing of Harold Dennis “Dickie” Bird MBE OBE, one of cricket’s most beloved figures, who died peacefully at home at the age of 92. Read more: yorkshireccc.com/news/harold-...

Brett L d'Oliveira and GH Roderick set a FC partnership record for Worcestershire v Durham by adding 170 for the 5th wicket, beating the 140 set by JJ Dell and MH Wessels at Worcester in 2019. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/durworfc

TB Abell and KL Aldridge set a FC partnership record for Somerset v Hampshire by adding 221 for the 6th wicket, beating the 188 set by JEK Rew and KL Aldridge at Taunton in 2023. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/hamsomfc

Join the ACS. I can recommend that.

On Saturday 4 October 10am to 1pm BST we have an online event for ACS members. It will feature @rafnicholson.bsky.social, @radders1962.bsky.social, @dgriffinpix.bsky.social, @popecricket.bsky.social, Andrew Hignell and others. Will be fascinating stuff. Join the ACS at acscricket.com to take part!

15 September marks 50 years since Chris Balderstone scored 51 no for Leicestershire v Derbyshire, played for Doncaster v Brentford in the evening, and then completed his 100 next day and took 3 wickets as Leics won the championship. A proper shift @acscricket.bsky.social @anniechave.bsky.social

England's highest totals across formats in recent years have aggregated 1,625 (823+498+304), although no-one featured in all three. Sri Lanka totalled 1,655 with the same player top scoring in all: Sanath Jayasuriya made 340 out of 952 in a Test, 157 out of 443 in an ODI and 88 out of 260 in a T20I.

OK this latest press release from the ICC has seriously pissed me off. The VERY FIRST World Cup in 1973 was entirely umpired by women. Maybe pause a minute from puffing yourselves up to read a history book? (I can recommend a good one... 😂) www.icc-cricket.com/media-releas...

BA Raine and MJ Potts set a FC partnership record for Durham v Essex by adding 77* for the 8th wicket, beating the 47 set by BFW de Leede and MJ Potts at Chelmsford in 2024. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/duresxfc

My old friend Steven Lynch has pointed out Latvia has a new cricket ground, the Infinity Oval at Olaine, which staged its first matches last month (Latvia Cricket)

Mitch Stanley has taken 11-180 in his second first-class match. Both have been for @lancscricket.bsky.social v @kentcricket.co.uk, but he only managed one wicket at Blackpool in June. live.nvplay.com/ecb/?tab=m_s... #KENvLAN #CountyChampionship

AZ Lees and BS McKinney set a FC partnership record for Durham v Essex by adding 134 for the 2nd wicket, beating the 105 set by S Hutton and DM Jones at Hartlepool in 1992. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/duresxfc

AM Tribe and CB Cooke set a FC partnership record for Glamorgan v Northants by adding 162 for the 6th wicket, beating the 150 set by MJL Turnbull and T Every at Swansea in 1933. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/glanorfc

Haven't checked completely, but this looks like it might still be the record regardless of the number of wickets. There is at least one higher total in which only one bowler took any wickets - WI's 7903/d vs Pakistan - but in that case it was two to Fazal Mahmood and one run out.

Jacob Bethell will likely score more, but there is one player who could end his career with his only professional century in an ODI: Najibullah Zadran, with 104* vs Ireland in 2019. He's come agonisingly close in both FC (HS 99) and T20 (97*), but at 32, time is running out for him to make another.

The highest and seventh highest margins of defeat in ODIs have been recorded by SA in the last two weeks - yet they still won both series.

Three of South Africa's bowlers conceded more runs by themselves than their team scored between them. While notable, this is not a record: Sri Lanka have twice seen four of their bowlers concede more than their all out total (vs SA, Paarl 2012 and vs India, Mumbai 2023).

South Africa have conceded the third highest ODI total against them, then been bowled out for their own second lowest in the same match.

Jos Buttler's natural game: andrewsamson.substack.com/p/their-natu...

Sri Lanka's 80 is the lowest total for which Zimbabwe have dismissed another Full Member side in a T20I - beating the 99 for which they bowled out Pakistan at Harare in 2021.

Jade Dernbach was only the first dual international to play for Italy if you start counting from the expansion of T20I status in 2019 - Michael di Venuto played 9 ODIs for Australia, and 7 WT20 qualifying matches for Italy in 2012 before they gained T20I status.

Worst economy rate on ODI debut (min 50 runs conceded): 13.00 (4-0-52-1) LC Romero, USA vs NZ, Oval 2004 12.16 (6-0-73-0) J Blades, WI vs Ban, Basseterre 2024 10.85 (7-0-76-0) S Baker, Eng vs SA, Leeds 2025 10.55 (9-0-95-0) PC Connell, Ire vs NZ, Aberdeen 2008

Only one batter has hit a hat trick ball for the winning runs: Sompal Kami off JN Loftie-Eaton, Nepal vs Namibia, Kirtipur 2023 Two others have hit the winning runs on the ball following two consecutive wickets, but not a hat trick ball because one of them was a run out. Brevis missed by one ball.

Chasing team in an ODI levelling the scores but then losing another two wickets before scoring the winning run(s): NZ 196/8 vs Aus 196/7 -> 197/9 Christchurch, 1993 Ind 283/8 vs Zim 283/7 -> 284/9 Jodhpur, 2000 Eng 131 vs SA 131/1 -> 137/3 Leeds, 2025

Daryl Tuffey took seven attempts to bowl the first legitimate delivery of an ODI against Australia in 2005, although he "only" conceded 14 from them as three of the no balls weren't scored off: NB+4, NB, NB, NB, Wd, Wd, 4. Another wide followed, so at that point the innings run rate was 90.00rpo.

The most runs conceded off one legitimate ball in first-class cricket is 67 in contrived circumstances. See here: www.espncricinfo.com/story/the-77...

Oshane Thomas conceded 22 runs off one legitimate ball in a CPL match on Tuesday: NB, Wd, NB+6, NB+6, 6. This is the most I know of in an authentic case in professional cricket. Roger Telemachus conceded 21 off one ball in the ODI at Johannesburg in 2006: NB+4, NB+1, NB+4, NB+6, 2.

Certainly a more unusual photo ... the beautifully designed and constructed toilets at the Nursery End at Lord's were built in the late 1890s and demolished to make way for the new Edrich Stand in 2019. They were considered to be classic examples of Victorian enamelware

RIP Ken Shuttleworth, who played 5 Tests for England and enjoyed a 16-year FC career with Lancashire and Leicestershire. There hasn't been much wider coverage of his death, but @lancscricket.bsky.social have a tribute: cricket.lancashirecricket.co.uk/news/2025-ne...

5for (or better) in an ODI while conceding a number of runs equal to their age: 5/33 aged 33 - AY Karim, GA Hick, VC Drakes 7/32 aged 32 - Ali Khan 5/32 aged 32 - RJ Hadlee 5/31 aged 31 - M Hendrick, J Garner 5/30 aged 30 - LS Pascoe, DJ Willey

Three centuries in an ODI innings: SA v WI 2015 HM Amla, RR Rossouw, AB de Villiers SA v I 2016 Q de Kock, F du Plessis, AB de Villiers E v N 2022 PD Salt, DJ Malan, JC Buttler SA v SL 2023 Q de Kock, HE van der Dussen, AK Markram A v SA 2025 TM Head, MR Marsh, CD Green

Saturday stat: there have been two Test players with the surname Root, but all 13,543 runs by players of that name have come from the same one. The other was Fred Root (no known relation), who holds his own unique distinction as the only player to appear in as many as 3 Tests without ever batting.

Tip of the day: do not rely on AI for your cricket statistics. A lot of people have been asking this question to ChatGPT, Grok etc. and they've been given a variety of wrong answers including Glenn McGrath, Chaminda Vaas and Jimmy Anderson. The correct answer is Daniel Vettori.

RIP Australian cricketer & coach Bobby Simpson. He played in 62 Test matches for Australia scoring 4,869 runs at 46.81 win 10 tons. He also took 71 wickets at 42.26. His highest score was 311 v England at Manchester in 1964. He led his country 1963-68 & then again 1977-78. #cricketcounts

A very happy birthday to Jack Russell. Widely considered one of the best keepers of recent decades, he would have played many more than 54 Tests if England hadn't so often decided that they needed an extra batter or bowler, given the gloves to Alec Stewart and done without a specialist keeper.

We are sorry to announce the death of Eric Midwinter, the distinguished historian and author who served as @acscricket.bsky.social president from 1997-2004. We will post an obituary shortly, but here is an appreciation from when Eric won the Brooke-Lambert Trophy in 2019. acscricket.com?page_id=2226

HM Nicholls and R Ravindra set a Test partnership record for any wicket in the NZ v Zim series by adding 256* for the 4th wicket, beating 253 set by LRPL Taylor and BJ Watling for the 6th wicket at Bulawayo in 2016. See this and other series records on @acscricket.bsky.social at tinyurl.com/nzzimtes

We are sorry to announce the death of Eric Midwinter, the distinguished historian and author who served as @acscricket.bsky.social president from 1997-2004. We will post an obituary shortly, but here is an appreciation from when Eric won the Brooke-Lambert Trophy in 2019. acscricket.com?page_id=2226

This appears to be the first time that three players on one side have made an individual score which was higher than either of the opposition's all out totals; there are several previous cases of two doing so.

Nick Welch remained not out after batting through the whole of Zimbabwe's second innings except the first three balls. Records in this area are uncertain, but this appears to be the closest anyone has come to carrying their bat in a Test without actually doing so.

This is only the 17th instance of a team winning a Test while losing three or fewer wickets (including five cases of two). The previous biggest victory by any team doing so was an innings and 264 - Pakistan 546/3d vs Bangladesh 134 & 148, Multan 2001.

Ouch. That's the third biggest innings win in Test history, and it only missed being second by one run. Inns & 579 - Eng 903/7d vs Aus 201 & 123, Oval 1938 Inns & 360 - Aus 652/7d vs SA 159 & 133, Johannesburg 2002 Inns & 359 - NZ 601/3d vs Zim 125 & 117, Bulawayo 2025

Highest first innings lead by a team declaring 3 down: 492 - Ind 610/3d vs Ban 118, Dhaka 2007 485 - SL 713/3d vs Zim 228, Bulawayo 2004 476 - NZ 601/3d vs Zim 125, Bulawayo 2025 Highest for any number of wickets is 702 - Eng 903/7d vs Aus 201, Oval 1938.

A snippet from the Oval Test which we missed at the time: Joe Root and Harry Brook's partnership of 195 is the second highest in the fourth innings to end in defeat. The only higher one was at the same ground seven years ago, when KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant added 204 but India lost by 118 runs.