No new games today, but plenty of play in the seven on going Championship matches. One result as well, which came right at the end of the day, here's what happened.
County Championship
Day 3
Sussex v Worcestershire - Sussex win by an innings and 117 runs
Wor - 162 & 141
Sus - 420-8d
Plenty of runs down the order, including 56* from Anyon took Sussex past 400 and left Worcestershire in serious trouble. Richardson picked up 5 for 90, but the visitors were unable to bowl out their opponents.
Worcestershire were soon in more trouble as they lost Hughes for 9 and Solanki for 2. Ali (21) and Mitchell (48) restored some parity but Panesar was mixing things up and reduced the visitors to 129-6, still 129 behind. More late wickets and the retirement of Cameron meant that the extra half hour was taken by Sussex. Not long later Khan picked up the final wicket to hand the hosts the victory and condemn Worcestershire to another relegation battle.
Points: Sussex 23, Worcestershire 2
Lancashire v Somerset
Lan - 185 & 242
Som - 149 & 22-1
With the game in the ballance overnight after both teams had completed their first innings, a real fight was to be expected. Somerset came out all guns blazing this morning and soon had the upper hand. Lancashire collapsed to 7-3, and then, after a brief respite, lost more wickets to end up on 51-6, just 86 ahead.
The host will have been looking to get a lead of at least 200 and that looked a long way off, but Prince and Hogg set about reparing the damage. They'd added 98 when Hogg was caught for 38, but Chappel came in and added another 32 for the 8th wicket to take the lead past that magical 200.
Prince was in a class of his own and, in a match where the previous highest score was 51, also by Prince, he dominated the bowling going to a fine century and was the last man out for 129.
Lancashire had set Somerset 279, which on a tough wicket was a big ask, and made even harder when Suppiah went lbw for 4. You can be sure though that Somerset will fight and I still expect a close end to this enthralling contest tomorrow.
Middlesex v Warwickshire
Mid - 402 & 104-3
War - 324
Early wickets, including the key one of Westwood, who was caught for 111, set Warwickshire back. All of the middle order got starts but failed to go on as the innings had a stop-start feel to it. The visitors fought past 300 but had to conceed a 78 run defecit, as Murtagh finished with 4 for 77.
Middlesex played out the evening session sensibly and lost 3 wickets in an even contest. The home side have the upper hand but the game could still swing tomorrow if Warwickshire bowl well. Dexter is 45 not out overnight, while the lead is now 182.
Glamorgan v Gloucestershire
Gla - 208 & 167-5
Glo - 165
Gloucestershire tried hard to emulate their rivals by hitting some runs down the order this morning and did go from 91-7 overnight to 165, but in a low scoring game Glamorgan's lead of 43 was already a big one. The hosts did lose a couple of early wickets but 56 from Walters lifted them and more runs from the middle oder took their lead past 200 before the close.
Essex v Leicestershire
Ess - 434-3
Lei - 336-9
Leicestershire were in all sorts of trouble overnight on 32-2 and had only added 31 before losing key man Sarwan for 21. Thornely and Boyce had to dig in and, on a decent pitch, were able to carefully negotiate the rest of the morning session and most of the afternoon. They had put on 178 when Boyce was trapped in front for 77. Thornely followed almost immediately for 115 as Masters picked up the Essex's, and his own, fifth wicket.
More wickets fell steadily as the hosts turned the tide once more but Leicestershire inched their way past the follow-on target and then past 300. Thakor (53*) made most of the runs as the lower order only made single figure scores, and the defecit was reduced to under 100.
Nothamptonshire v Yorkshire
Yor - 249 & 5-0
Nor - 352
More rain ruined a large part of day 3 in Northampton, but the hosts made the best of the play after a couple of early wickets.
Yorkshire were looking to keep Northamptonshire to a similar score and were on target to do so when Peters was caught by Root off the bowling of Rashid for 107, with the score on 231. Murphy and Willey though put on 73 to take the home side past 300. Rashid eventually removed Willey for 76, to finish with 5 for 105.
There was time for 4 more overs and Yorkshire safely negotiated them to end the day 5 for 0.
Day 2
Derbyshire v Kent
Ken - 265 & 93-3
Der - 132
Kent demolished Derbyshire today to give the division leaders something to think about. Earlier Coles made 57 as he helped the visitors post 265, which at the time may have seemed below par but soon became excellent.
Madsen was caught off the bowling of Shreck as Kent made an good start, although the hosts fought back to go to 37-1 before the real collapse came. Shreck, who was having one of his 'on' days removed numbers 2 and 3 before Coles followed up his batting by having Redfern caught for a golden duck. Two more wickets fell with the score on 51 (which made it 5 wickets for 14 runs). A small revival helped Derbyshire limp towards 100 although they lost a couple more wickets on the way. Having scraped to 128-8 Shreck then picked up the last two wickets to finish with 5 for 41, his best figures for a while, showing he's still a dangerous bowler.
Derbyshire may have conceeded a 133 run defecit but they were determined to fight and soon got amongst the wickets themselves. Two wickets for Palladino and one for Turner reduced Kent to 43-3 second time round. Key though, has gone to 63 not out and I expect Kent to bat on and set Derbyshire a big total as they look to take an important victory to stay in contention for promotion.
I'm afraid tomorrow's installment will be delayed until Sunday as I will be in London, catching up with a bit of the Olympics; it's all go this summer!
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