Could an Aussie achieve county cricket's hardest feat? The race to 1,000 runs before the end of May

Despite Lancashire currently sitting at the bottom of the Division Two table after five rounds of competition, Harris has piled on the runs. He is by far the leading run scorer in the division, with three centuries and three half-centuries from 10 innings, averaging 82.22 with 749 runs.

That puts him just 251 runs adrift of the 1,000-run mark - considered to be the standard for a batter having a good season in the competition. For context, the 2024 season saw seven batters in Division Two reach four figures, with leading run-scorer Colin Ingram reaching 1,351. While crossing 1,000 runs in a season is common, reaching that mark by May – even with the season now starting in early April – is a vanishingly rare achievement. Players have normally unfavourable batting conditions and weather to navigate in England as spring transitions to summer, as well as a brisk schedule.

Only eight batters in the history of the competition have reached the feat, and the most recent was Graeme Hick in 1988. There have been a couple of near misses, Nick Compton was one agonising day away in 2012, but it's now nearing 40 years since anyone has crossed 1,000 by the end of May deadline.

can Marcus Harris reach 1,000 runs by May?

There is a realistic possibility of Harris breaking that streak, but other factors may have to go his way. Lancashire potentially have four more batting innings before the Championship takes a break for the T20 Blast. Those two fixtures, however, are against the teams who currently sit in positions one and two in the table, hosting Derbyshire next week before traveling to Leicestershire for the following round. Across those two games, Harris must score 251 runs – so roughly 63 runs per innings assuming Lancashire bat twice in both games.

On Harris's side is that the weather across the UK is set fair for the next two weeks, so rain interruptions should be few and far between. Not on his side is that Lancashire's batting unit has been unpredictable so far in this season, and he has often struggled to find consistent support. However, his last four innings have yielded 355 runs – well above what he needs to take his tally above four figures by the end of the month.

If he does manage it, he won't be the first Australian to do so. Don Bradman is the only player to have scored 1,000 runs before the end of May in the Championship twice. He took 11 innings to reach the mark in 1930, and just seven in 1938. If Harris does achieve the feat though, it will be the earliest point at which a player has crossed the 1,000 run mark, with Lancashire's last possible day of play before the end of May being on May 26. The earliest anyone has previously crossed into four figures was Bradman in 1938, who did so on May 27.

Full list: Batters who scored 1,000 runs in the County Championship by the end of May

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