The greatest red-ball cricket database I’ve ever wanted finally exists. Every player. Every red-ball competition worldwide. Proper depth not just basic averages. Explore (free tier): redballcricketstats.com/ #cricket

🏏 The biggest innings win in County Championship history is still absolutely ridiculous. Surrey v Hampshire The Oval, 6 to 8 May 1909 Surrey 742 all out Hampshire 129 all out Hampshire 145 all out Surrey won by an innings and 468 runs. That is not a defeat. That is a scorecard being taken apart. Surrey batted once and made 742 in 138.3 overs. Jack Hobbs made 205. Ernie Hayes made 276. Hampshire made 274 across two completed innings. So Hayes, on his own, outscored Hampshire’s entire match by 2 runs. Even better, Hobbs and Hayes came together after Tom Hayward went at 59. By the time the second wicket fell, Surrey were 430. That partnership alone was 371. Hampshire’s whole match: 274. A partnership beating both opposition innings combined by 97 runs is cartoon cricket. And this was not against some anonymous attack on a forgotten card. Hampshire had names: CB Fry, Phil Mead, Charlie Llewellyn, Jack Newman. Fry was the only real resistance, top-scoring in both innings with 42 and 60. Mead made 2 and 29. Surrey’s bowlers then turned the mountain into a massacre. Walter Lees: 5/47 and 4/26 Jack Hitch: 2/30 and 3/30 Alan Marshal: 3/40 and 2/63 Hampshire were bowled out twice in 96.1 overs. The funniest part? Surrey did not even win the Championship. They finished fifth. Kent won the 1909 title. Surrey won 16 matches, same as Kent, but lost 7. In that old points system, losses hurt badly. So the biggest innings win in County Championship history came from a team that finished mid-table in title terms. A 742-run batting avalanche. Hayes outscoring the opposition by himself. Hobbs making a double hundred. Hampshire following on and getting flattened again. And somehow, at the end of the season, Surrey were only fifth. County cricket has always been weird. Stats by RedBallCricketStats #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #RedBallCricketStats #CountyCricket #Surrey #Hampshire #Kent

Stokes is one of England’s most successful Test captains - and I think people forget how painful England were to watch before he took over. He alongside with McCullum changed the whole feel of the side. Yes it can be frustrating but i would 100% watch this team over Silverwood's team every day of the week. It would be a real shame if this is how it ends. #stokes #englandcricket #atkinson

Ben Stokes should still be captain of England

🏏 100 in both innings and a 5 wicket haul in the same County Championship match. This is not an all-round double. This is cricket’s final boss level. It has happened just five times: Bosanquet, 1905 Hirst, 1906 Newman, 1927 Stephenson, 1988 Van Jaarsveld, 2008 The mad bit is that three of them also took 10 wickets. Bosanquet made 203 runs and took 11 wickets for Middlesex. George Hirst made 228 runs and took 11 wickets for Yorkshire. Franklyn Stephenson made 228 runs and took 11 wickets for Nottinghamshire. And somehow Stephenson still lost. Imagine scoring hundreds in both innings, taking 11 wickets, and walking off beaten. Martin van Jaarsveld is the only player this century to do it: 229 runs, 5/33, and a Kent win over Surrey in 2008. Hundreds in both innings is rare enough. Add a five-for and it becomes absurd. Stats by RedBallCricketStats #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #RedBallCricketStats #CountyCricket #Middlesex #Sussex #Yorkshire #Somerset #Hampshire #Surrey #Nottinghamshire #Kent

🏏 100 match runs and 10 wickets in the same County Championship match this century. This is the real all-rounder double. Since 2000, it has happened just 10 times. Nine of them came in wins. Rehan Ahmed produced the biggest wicket haul on the list in 2025: 141 match runs and 13 wickets for Leicestershire against Derbyshire, including 115 with the bat and 7/93 with the ball. Tom Hartley did it on the exact same week. 130 runs and 11 wickets for Lancashire against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham. Two 100 and 10W matches starting on 22 July 2025. Ridiculous. Liam Dawson has somehow done it twice in two seasons for Hampshire. 141 and 12 wickets v Middlesex in 2023. 104 and 10 wickets v Lancashire in 2024. That is not a one-off freak match. That is an elite red-ball all-rounder repeatedly taking games over. Jack Shantry’s 2014 game is still one of the great county scorecards: 122 match runs, 10 wickets, a best score of 101, and Worcestershire beat Surrey. Incredibally he only ever took 1 Championship 10 wicket haul, it just so happened to be in the same game he scored one of two Championship hundreds. Will Gidman’s 2013 version was brutal too: 143 runs, 10 wickets, and match bowling figures costing just 43 runs for Gloucestershire against Leicestershire. Robert Croft is the lonely exception. 110 runs and 10 wickets for Glamorgan in 2005, but Hampshire still won. That might be the harshest entry of the lot. A century’s worth of runs. Ten wickets. Only 10 times this century. Because doing one job well is hard enough. These players tried to win the match twice. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #RedBallCricketStats #CountyCricket #Leicestershire #Derbyshire #Lancashire #Gloucestershire #Hampshire #Middlesex #Worcestershire #Surrey #Glamorgan #Durham #Yorkshire

🏏 100 match runs and 5 wickets in the same County Championship match this century. Proper all-rounder stuff. There have been 19 instances since 2000, and 14 of them came in wins. The recent surge is mad too. Rehan Ahmed in 2025: 141 match runs, 13 wickets, 115 with the bat and 7/93 for Leicestershire against Derbyshire. Tom Hartley did it on the same day in 2025: 130 runs and 11 wickets for Lancashire at Cheltenham. Liam Dawson has done it twice in two seasons for Hampshire. 141 and 6/40 v Middlesex in 2023. 104 and 5/47 v Lancashire in 2024. Then there is Moeen Ali’s ridiculous 2018 game for Worcestershire against Yorkshire: 219 and 6/49. A double hundred and a six-for in the same match. Darren Stevens is on there too, obviously. 107 match runs and 9 wickets for Kent in 2017, because every weird County Championship list eventually becomes a Darren Stevens list. This is why the format is brilliant. Some players win matches with the bat. Some win them with the ball. These lot tried to do both at once. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #RedBallCricketStats #CountyCricket #Leicestershire #Derbyshire #Lancashire #Gloucestershire #Hampshire #Middlesex #Worcestershire #Yorkshire #Kent

🏏 County Championship lone-warrior hundreds (2000-2026) Centuries where nobody else in the entire match passed 50: 1️⃣ Joe Root: 222* Yorkshire v Hampshire, 2012 Next highest: 37 by Steve Patterson 2️⃣ Darren Stevens: 190 Kent v Glamorgan, 2021 Next highest: 43 by Ollie Robinson 3️⃣ Aftab Habib: 164 Leicestershire v Derbyshire, 2000 Next highest: 43 by Iain Sutcliffe This is one of the purest batting lists in cricket. Not hundreds in flat draws. Not hundreds where someone else quietly made 70. These are matches where one batter reached three figures and nobody else in the entire game even made 50. Root’s 222* is the most ridiculous one. A double hundred in a match where the next best score was 37. That is not carrying the innings. That is carrying the sport. Darren Stevens’ 190 is vintage Stevens. Kent’s next best was 43, and Glamorgan had no answer either. One man turning a match into his own personal highlights reel. Ian Ward’s 158* is maybe the strangest scorecard of the lot. The next highest score in the whole match was just 33. That is a massive gap between one batter and everyone else. The 2018 entries are fascinating too. Cameron Steel made 160 for Durham with Collingwood next on 47, then Adam Lyth made 134* for Yorkshire with Tattersall next on 43. And the smaller hundreds still hit hard. Rob Key’s 110* when Denly’s 49 was next best. Mark Chilton’s 113* when Hegg’s 48 was next. Peter Bowler’s 117* when Graham Rose’s 37 was next. These are not just centuries. They are lonely centuries. The kind where the scoreboard basically says: one batter understood the pitch, everyone else was guessing. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #RedBallCricketStats #CountyCricket #Yorkshire #Hampshire #Kent #Glamorgan #Leicestershire #Derbyshire #Durham #Sussex #Surrey #Warwickshire #Lancashire #Worcestershire #Somerset #Northamptonshire

County Championship version It's happened 72 times where 20 wickets have fell for 417 balls or less The latest occasion was: Northants v Sussex 1st July 2024 at The County Ground when Sussex won by 63 runs Sussex batted first getting rolled in 47 overs for 143 before Oli Robinson took 4 wickets and cleaned Northants up for 97 of just 20.1 overs #countychampionship #robinson #englandcricket

According to PitchViz (based on the ball-tracking data) this is the most inconsistent surface for a Test in England since records began. Which is not ideal

🏏 Highest County Championship score by batting position: 1️⃣ No.1: Archie MacLaren, 424 2️⃣ No.2: Craig Spearman, 341 3️⃣ No.3: Brian Lara, 501* 4️⃣ No.4: Sam Northeast, 410* 5️⃣ No.5: Tom Banton, 371 6️⃣ No.6: Dane Vilas, 266 7️⃣ No.7: Ian Greig, 291 8️⃣ No.8: Louis Kimber, 243 9️⃣ No.9: Ted Alletson, 189 🔟 No.10: John Chapman, 165 1️⃣1️⃣ No.11: TPB Smith, 163 This is one of the best County Championship lists because it starts with all-time great batting feats, then gets properly weird lower down. Brian Lara’s 501* at No.3 is still the highest first-class score ever. Sam Northeast’s 410* at No.4 brought the 400 back into the modern Championship. Tom Banton’s 371 at No.5 was a huge statement innings, taking someone many viewed mainly as a white-ball player and putting him into County Championship history. But the real fun starts at No.7 and below. Ian Greig made 291 from No.7 for Surrey against Lancashire in 1990. From seven. That is almost a triple hundred from a position usually associated with counter-attacks, recovery jobs and batting with the tail. Louis Kimber’s 243 from No.8 in 2024 might be the wildest innings on the list. 127 balls, 20 fours and 21 sixes for Leicestershire against Sussex. A No.8 scoring 243 at that pace is just absurd. Ted Alletson’s 189 from No.9 in 1911 is one of county cricket’s great old stories. A lower-order batter producing a monster score at Hove more than a century ago, and it still survives on this list. In 106 Championship matches he made 1 century. John Chapman made 165 from No.10 for Derbyshire in 1910. Then TPB Smith made 163 from No.11 for Essex in 1947. A No.11 scoring 163 in a County Championship match is ridiculous. Most teams would take 163 from their opener. Essex got it from last man in. That is why county cricket is brilliant. From Lara’s 501* to Kimber’s chaos at No.8 and TPB Smith’s 163 from No.11, the Championship has always had room for the unbelievable. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #CountyChampionship #RedBallCricket #CountyCricket #Warwickshire #Durham #Glamorgan #Leicestershire #Somerset #Worcestershire #Surrey #Lancashire #Sussex #Nottinghamshire #Derbyshire #Essex

🏏 Highest individual scores in County Championship history: 1️⃣ Brian Lara 501* 2️⃣ Archie MacLaren 424 3️⃣ Sam Northeast 410* Brian Lara’s 501* for Warwickshire v Durham in 1994 still feels impossible. 427 balls. 62 fours. 10 sixes. The highest first-class score ever. And yes - Durham had chances. Lara was famously dropped before he had reached 20, then went on to make another 480 runs. That is the most painful “what if?” in county cricket history. Graeme Hick’s 405* for Worcestershire v Somerset in 1988 deserves more attention too. He was only 21, batted at Taunton, and made the highest individual score in England for 93 years. This was Hick before the England debate swallowed the story - just a young batter absolutely destroying county attacks. That innings helped build the legend: Hick the county giant, Hick the run machine, Hick the player who made domestic cricket look too small for him. Then there’s Kevin Pietersen’s 355* for Surrey v Leicestershire in 2015. That was not just a big score. It was almost a final first-class statement. Pietersen was trying to force his way back into England contention, was 326* overnight, and the next day Andrew Strauss confirmed he would not be recalled. KP carried on to 355* anyway. A huge innings, but also a strange one: part masterpiece, part goodbye note. Sam Northeast’s 410* in 2022 brought the 400 back into the modern Championship. Tom Banton’s 371 in 2025 showed how quickly a white-ball reputation can be rewritten with one monster red-ball innings. But Lara’s 501* still sits alone. The drop. The speed. The scale. The absurdity. County cricket has never seen anything like it. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/

First day of the first test of the summer ☀️ one of the best days of the year #englandcricket #engvnz

ICYMI 👀 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🔙 England return to Test action for the first time since their Ashes humiliation with some new faces and a point to prove. ⤵️ Here’s a look at what to expect from the three-Test series starting at Lord’s on Thursday against New Zealand. thecricketpaper.com/new-engl…

Here’s the pair of them.

We’ve never replaced Phil Mead!

🏏 Most centuries in County Championship history: 1️⃣ CP Mead 132 2️⃣ Jack Hobbs 130 3️⃣ Patsy Hendren 113 This is basically a roll call of English batting royalty. CP Mead sits top with 132 County Championship hundreds and 46,268 runs. A Hampshire giant. Not always spoken about like Hobbs, Hammond or Sutcliffe, but statistically one of the greatest county batters ever. Jack Hobbs is just behind with 130 hundreds and 38,737 runs. The Master. Still arguably the most famous first-class run machine of them all. Patsy Hendren scored 113 Championship tons and averaged 50.50, while Frank Woolley made 112 hundreds and over 43,000 runs - and somehow also took 800 wickets. Different era, different workload, absurd cricketer. Then there’s Wally Hammond: 106 Championship hundreds at 56.68. Probably the most complete batting genius on the list. The modern names stand out too. Mark Ramprakash made 103 County Championship centuries at 58.18. That conversion rate is ridiculous (119 50s, 103 100s) Graeme Hick finished with 97 Championship tons and a highest score of 405. One of the great “what if?” England careers, but an absolute monster in county cricket. Boycott and Gooch also sit inside the top 10 - two England greats who combined elite Test careers with decade after decade of county dominance. Mad stat: Only six players have ever made 100 County Championship centuries. And Mark Ramprakash is the only post-war player in that club. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #countychampionship #ramprakash #hobbs #cricket #redballcricket

🔥 Best team bowling averages in the County Championship per year since 2000: 1️⃣ Kent 2018 - 20.13 2️⃣ Surrey 2000 - 20.49 3️⃣ Somerset 2019 - 20.51 Kent 2018 sits top - and it is easy to see why. Matt Henry was outrageous: 75 wickets in just 11 Championship matches at 15.48. That is overseas signing cheat-code territory. Kent took 248 wickets at 20.13, went up from Division Two, and built their promotion push around a proper attack: Henry, Darren Stevens, Harry Podmore, Matt Milnes and Grant Stewart all doing damage. Surrey 2000 were a different kind of monster. They averaged 20.49 with the ball, took 255 wickets, won the County Championship, and had a title-winning attack built around Martin Bicknell, Alex Tudor, Saqlain Mushtaq and the Hollioakes. That side did not just score runs - they strangled teams. Then Somerset 2019… 252 wickets at 20.51. Jack Leach, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Josh Davey and Jack Brooks made them horrible to bat against all season. They pushed Essex all the way in Division One and finished with one of the best bowling seasons of the modern era. The mad thing? Kent 2018, Surrey 2000 and Somerset 2019 are separated by only 0.38 runs per wicket. That is the difference between elite and elite. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #countychampionship #surrey #somerset #kent

🏏 Highest team batting averages in the County Championship per year since 2000: 1️⃣ Durham 2023 - 47.21 2️⃣ Surrey 2006 - 46.32 3️⃣ Somerset 2007 - 46.27 Durham 2023 was an absolute batting machine. They won Division Two with 6 wins, 7 draws and just 1 defeat - but the mad stat is this: 54 batting points. That was 23 more than Yorkshire (2nd most amount of points) managed that season. Alex Lees, fresh from being dropped by England, piled up 1,347 runs at 70.89. David Bedingham passed 1,000 as well. Then Ollie Robinson, Graham Clark, Brydon Carse, Bas de Leede and Paul Coughlin all averaged 50 . That wasn’t just one bloke having a freak year. That was an entire batting unit bullying Division Two. Surrey 2006 was powered by peak Mark Ramprakash - 2,211 Championship runs at 105.28, including 8 hundreds. Ridiculous numbers. Somerset 2007 were chaos in the best way: champions of Division Two, 10 wins, 65 batting points, and Marcus Trescothick leading the run charts for them with 1,315. But Durham 2023 might be the most complete batting season of the lot. Averages like that win promotions. Stats by redballcricketstats.com/ #countychampionship #surrey @durham #somerset