Rana injury overshadows title knockout

A serious injury to Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who crashed into the advertising hoardings, overshadowed the day at Chester-le-Street. Rana was taken to hospital after a 50-minute delay while he was treated on the outfield and an ambulance summoned. It was later announced he had suffered a dislocated right shoulder and he will be kept in hospital overnight. On the field, Durham, who must win to keep their title hopes alive, squeezed a 26-run first innings lead over Sussex thanks largely to Mark Stoneman's maiden Championship hundred. But from 233 for 2 they lost six wickets for 50 runs to Saqlain Mushtaq (4 for 59) and Mushtaq Ahmed (3 for 125). The in-form Ottis Gibson took his season tally to 75 with three wickets to reduce Sussex to 27 for 3, and although Murray Goodwin and Chris Adams appeared to have seen them through to the close without further alarms, Goodwin fell to Mark Davis in the final over.

A hundred from VVS Laxman put Lancashire in a strong position against Warwickshire at Old Trafford as his team-mates struggled against Heath Streak and Neil Carter (5 for 62). Oliver Newby helped Laxman through to his hundred during a ninth-wicket stand of 60, steering Lancashire to a first-innings lead of 205. Ian Westwood and Michael Powell gave Warwickshire a sound start with a stand of 60 before Powell edged to slip, and Keedy struck for a second time shortly before the close when he removed Westwood for 50. Rather bizarrely in this sodden summer, sun at the Stretford End stopped play with 13 overs of the day remaining and Warwickshire still 80 in arrears.

Relegation-threatened Kent had another good day against Hampshire at The Rose Bowl, moving to 395 and then reducing the home side to 186 for 7. Martin van Jaarsveld fell without adding to his important 112, but the lower order rallied, with fifties for Geraint Jones and James Tredwell. Hampshire got off to a good start, with 79 on the board for the openers before Tredwell claimed four amid a collapse where they lost seven wickets for 60.

A century from Stephen Peters, and a pair of 70s from Rob White and David Sales carried Northamptonshire into the ascendancy on the second day against Glamorgan at at Wantage Road. After resuming on 61 for 0, Northants made steady progress all day long as Glamorgan relied almost exclusively on their spin twins, Dean Cosker and Robert Croft, who bowled 100 overs between them and took seven of the eight wickets to fall. By the close, they were being defied by their Northants counterpart, Monty Panesar, who was unbeaten on 22 from 91 balls.

Ed Smith racked up his fourth century of the season and reached 1000 runs with his final scoring shot of the day, as Middlesex inched into the ascendancy in a low-scoring affair against Leicestershire at Southgate. Leicester thought they had the upper hand when they resumed on 124 for 1 in reply to Middlesex's 176, but Murali Karthik triggered a dramatic collapse with figures of 6 for 85, with eight middle-order wickets tumbling for 17 runs. The last pair of Ryan Cummins and Jigar Naik scraped together a 14-run lead, but by the close Smith had marshalled Middlesex to 206 for 4, and a handy lead of 192.