There is everything to play for this season in Division 2 because there will be three teams promoted from Division two to one. All of the games were interesting even the one between Northampton and Middlesex because of the innings by Dawid Malan.

Sussex vs. Leicestershire

The hero of this game was Thomas Taylor. The extent of his dominance is such that the points he earned based on my analysis is more than the top two players from Sussex players who are Philip Salt and Danny Briggs. After Taylor, the next two bowlers are Colin Ackermann and Ollie Robinson. The best batsmen were Mark Cosgrave, Lewis Hill and Philip Salt. These are the top five players of the game.

Points Earned

Leicestershire: 1,372

Sussex: 1,046

Northamptonshire vs. Middlesex

Nathan Buck did in the first innings of this match what Thomas Taylor did for Leicestershire. The only difference was that no one from Northamptonshire was able to produce a second inning bowling performance. At the end of the day, you need to get 20 wickets to win a Test.

Dawid Malan stepped up to the plate and played a major role in the second innings. I love the way Malan plays. I was disappointed that he did not succeed in the International Test arena. His 160 has started people talking about him getting back into the team for The Ashes, My main problem is Malan scored those runs at number 4. Sadly that is one position that is already filled.

This game was well balanced between batsmen and bowlers. The top five players are below.

Points Earned

Northamptonshire : 1,278

Middlesex: 1,355

Middlesex has scored more points based on my system but in the official tables, they scored fewer points than Northamptonshire because they did not get any of the bonus points. I actually like the bonus system of County Cricket. It incentivises teams to aim for a realistic target based on international levels while giving bowlers a huge impetus too.

Derbyshire vs. Durham

This was the game I was really looking forward to because of the decision by Durham to appoint Cameron Bancroft as captain of the side. He was unavailable for the preseason game and for the first match. I was curious to see how Durham will do without him. Durham ended up losing the game. I did not see the game so it was difficult to say whether Alex Lees made any wrong captaincy decisions but he played well and was the best Durham player. Below are the best players in the game.

Points Earned

Derbyshire: 1,039

Middlesex: 943

Player Rankings

Batsmen

Bowlers

Allrounders

Wicket Keeper

I will be developing this further and I look forward to your comments.