Cricket: the main stories of 10.09.2026

Durham are back among the best of them for the first time since 2016, and they did not need the last round to do it: a 93-run win over Middlesex at Chester-le-Street settled promotion to Division One with a game to spare. The practical consequence is that Ben Stokes, when England release him, has top-flight red-ball cricket at his home ground rather than a second-division fixture list. Middlesex, beaten inside four days, stay where they are. The promotion also reshapes next season's Division Two, which loses the one side that had carried the division all summer.

At Edgbaston the third Test reached day three with England's selection under scrutiny: they went in without a specialist spinner, and Dan Lawrence's part-time overs were all they had while Pakistan dug in against an all-pace attack. That follows the decision to leave out Brydon Carse for this match and continues a tour that Pakistan began with a conduct inquiry and an interim coach. Elsewhere in the Championship, Nottinghamshire went into the final day facing Hampshire knowing their rivals had already won, while Somerset went top after routing Leicestershire — their second rout in a week, following the win over Glamorgan.

• The ECB paid Hampshire £1m after the county challenged the award of a 2023 Ashes Test to Headingley; the settlement is the reason there is no Ashes Test in the north in 2027.
• The inaugural Knight-Stokes Cup put state-school teams on the Lord's turf, the first fixture of its kind at the ground.
• Middlesex's defeat leaves them without a win in the run-in; Durham's margin came on the fourth morning.