County Championship Round 3: How Australian Players Performed Across Divisions

The round 3 in the County Championship saw a mixed bag of performances for the Australian representatives in both Divisions, although with some truly outstanding individual performances some are still trying to find their feet. Beau Webster's sensational all-round display and James Anderson's still immense quality with the ball are the outstanding takeaways from the round.

How Australian Players Performed in County Round 3

Beau Webster - Warwickshire

The all-rounder starred for his new county in their first victory of the season. After a meager 14 runs in the first innings his 91 runs off 123 balls was absolutely critical, coming to the crease with the innings crumbling at 3-14 to lead a fightback. His invaluable century nudged Warwickshire's first innings advantage past the 162 run mark, before he backed it up with 2-4 with the ball to round off a commanding 41 run victory over Essex. Best performance in a Warwickshire shirt to date for Webster.

Jake Lehmann - Hampshire

Continued his good form with the bat, racking up 76 runs and an invaluable 50 in the match against Somerset. Lehmann posted his fourth successive half century in the format and has now amassed 337 runs this season at a brilliant average of 56.16. He couldn't lead Hampshire to victory though in a tense and close encounter.

Lehmann remains high on the run scorer charts in the competition. Reflecting on his continued good form: "I'd like to convert one of them," Lehmann said after his 76 on day one. "You've just got to play the scenario in front of you and at the moment that scenario is probably not presenting for me. I've been in a good headspace for the past two years in this format and hopefully I can continue that."

Nathan McSweeney - Northamptonshire

McSweeney continued his fine form with another century, scoring 107 in Division Two for Northamptonshire against Middlesex. Coming in at number four he established a vital partnership with James Sales of 164 that allowed Northants to rebound from 3-42 to 262, although this ultimately only earned them a draw as Middlesex rallied with the bat through Sam Robson, the first team's first century.This is McSweeney's second consecutive ton and he now has 246 runs for the season at a superb 63.23 average.

Marcus Harris - Lancashire

Harris failed with the bat in both innings for Lancashire, only making 11 and 0, in a rare off week for the experienced opener after a phenomenal start to the season. Lancashire were still too strong though, with James Anderson claiming seven wickets and Keaton Jennings finishing 78* as Lancashire edged it by four wickets at home to Gloucestershire.

Harry Conway - Northamptonshire

Conway was excellent with the ball again against Middlesex taking 3-74 in the first innings, removing two middle-order batters and reducing the opposition to 3-20, although he was unable to take a wicket second innings. He bowled a tight line on a very slow wicket, conceding just 17 runs in fifteen overs, and has taken 16 wickets at 26.38 to be second highest on the Division Two wicket chart.

Cameron Bancroft - Gloucestershire

Cameron Bancroft's run of form continued as Gloucestershire lost their third consecutive game, in a game in which he was responsible for 6 and 4 and was the man run out in the first innings of the game.

Bancroft stated after the game, "For a lot of that last innings, we thought we were a real chance to win the game," Bancroft said post-match. "There's lots of positives but there were some key moments that hurt us badly and if those had changed, we would have just had a few more runs to play with at the end."

Gabe Bell - Gloucestershire

Gabe Bell took his best figures of the season over both innings with 3 wickets. Bell displayed a good element of control with this aspect of his bowling, which particularly proved to be true in the second innings of the match where he bowled 18 overs and kept the run-rate to a low percentage. He failed to take the match out of Lancashire's reach with Jennings sealing a 3-run victory over them.

All in all, it was a successful round for Australian players with individual efforts in the face of mixed results for the players. It was a highlight reel for both Webster and McSweeney whilst both other Australian players look forward to more in the coming games.