What a round of County cricket for the three big dawgs of the Kiwi County Tour. Jeetan Patel, Matt Henry and Ross Taylor all had massive contributions to victories for their respective teams, they were the only kiwi lads in action this weekend and all three were sublime. It's a great time to be alive on the KCT bus and there's always a lovely vibe on the bus when the headline KCT acts are leading by example.

Warwickshire vs Derbyshire

Jeetan Patel

Lord Jeetz has consistently been the best spinner in County cricket over the past decade and he led Warwickshire to an 8-wicket win, not only via his captaincy but also via his offies. 4w in the first innings helped Warwickshire dismiss Derbyshire for 318 and Warwickshire replied with 439 all out, with Jeetz contributing 7 runs.

Warwickshire had a nice lead and they then hammered home their advantage as Jeetz took 6w in the second innings, Derbyshire all out for 208. The target of 89 was chased down in 23 overs, with Warwickshire losing 2w as Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott the not-out batsmen for Warwickshire, sealed the victory. 

4w in 27 overs @ 3.48rpo and 6w in 30.2 overs @ 2.50rpo for Lord Jeetz all up. No other Warwickshire bowler bowled more than 20 overs in either innings, which puts the workload of Jeetz into some perspective and after a quiet start to the County season, Jeetz has built into his work nicely. Jeetz has taken more wickets in each innings/game he's bowled; 0w, 2w, 2w, 4w, 6w.

This also has Jeetz climbing up the wicket-taker rankings for Division Two as he is now tied for 7th with 14w @ 23.64avg/2.84rpo. Jeetz is now one of three bowlers to have taken 10w in a match this season and of course we all know that one of those other 10w beasts is Matt Henry, which then means that two of three Division Two bowlers who have a 10w game, are kiwis. 

Glamorgan vs Kent

Matt Henry

There was no 10w game for Henry this round, just a casual 8w with 4w in either innings to help Kent snatch a 6-wicket win over Glamorgan. Henry played a supporting role in the first dig as his 4w and 6w from his new-ball partner Darren Stevens rolled Glamorgan for just 94, to which Kent replied with 174 and Henry scored 11 runs.

Henry then took 4w in the second innings to lead Kent's attack and restrict Glamorgan to 274 all out. This set up a chase of 195 to win and Kent did that fairly easily, losing 4w in 49 overs, with Henry not required to bat.  13.4 overs in the first innings @ 2.26rpo and 20.3 overs @ 2.87rpo in the second innings for Henry, plus between Henry and Jeetz, they did not bowl a single wide or no-ball in their respective games.

Not do we have two 10w/game bowlers, Henry now sits alone at the top of the Div Two wicket-taker rankings and his 27w @ 8.62avg/2.66rpo is good enough to make him the best bowler across in Division One as well. The next best bowler in Div Two has 21 wickets (in 3 games) and in Div One, the next best has 25w (in 4 games) and on top of that, Henry is the bowler bowler with 10+ wickets this season who is averaging below 10.

Henry is in Div Two, so he's bowling to Div Two batsmen which could give any Div One bowler a slight advantage over Henry, but I ain't having none of that. In 6inns, Henry is yet to take less than 3w in an innings and has taken 7+ wickets in every game this season.

If you're unsure as to what 'being the best bowler across both divisions' means, take a look at this list of bowlers who are playing County cricket right now and who have 10+ wickets; Jake Ball (Eng), Fidel Edwards (former WI), Peter Siddle (Aus), Kyle Abbott (frmr SA), Graham Onions (frmr Eng), Stuart Broad (Eng), Tim Bresnan (frmr Eng), Ryan Sidebottom (frmr Eng).

Nottinghamshire vs Hampshire

Ross Taylor

In keeping with this outstanding kiwi performer vibe, there is only one bloke we can finish with and that's Ross Taylor. Taylor helped Notts to a 203-run win over Hampshire with 47 runs in the first innings and 83 in the second innings, neither of which were the top-score of either innings but bumped Notts' totals up nicely and continued Taylor's delightful patch of run-scoring.

Notts were all out for 302 first up, with Taylor run out by Hashim Amla and Amla ended up with the advantage over Taylor as Amla put up scores of 69 and 112. Hampshire managed 223 all out in their first innings reply and Notts went on to 389/9dec to set Hampshire a target of 469 for victory, yet they could only manage 265 all out.

Taylor's 83 came as he blasted the Hampshire bowers around the parked, with a strike-rate of 120.28 (83 of 69 balls) and Taylor now sits 5th in Division One runs and has the highest strike-rate of the top-10 run-scorers in Div One. His 83.38sr overall, is considerably better than the four batsmen who have more runs than Taylor; all their strike-rates are below 60 and King Rossco is over 80.

Like Jeetz, Taylor had a slow start to the season but has now put up a 50+ score in three straight games and has hit double-figures in five straight innings; 9, 0, 57, 30, 50, 47, 83.

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Peace and love 27.