County Cricket Live 2012

Yorkshire have beaten Gloucestershire by two wickets with 16 balls to spare, claiming 19 priceless points in their push for promotion. Anthony McGrath finishes 76 not out. Report to follow.

Yorkshire now require 31 runs from six overs to win, with three wickets in hand, and if Anthony McGrath stays in they might do it. He’s continued to take the fight to Gloucestershire, the leg side being particularly productive. Supporters of Yorkshire’s rivals at the top of Division 2 should be reassured that Gloucestershire are by no means making it easy in terms of effort.

Nottinghamshire are at least making a fight of this. After James Taylor trod on his stumps going back to a ball from Chris Wright and Adam Voges flashed at a wide ball that kept low from Tom Milnes to be caught brilliantly by William Porterfield at gully, Chris Read and Alex Hales have added 119 for the fifth wicket with the Warwickshire bowlers as yet unable to separate them. Full report to follow.

Chris Adams, Surrey’s team director, has been to the press box to talk about the run-out incident. He revealed that Barrow had been warned, earlier in the over, by Kartik for backing up too far – although a warning is no longer a requirement of the law.

When the umpires walked out to take yet another look at conditions, it was nothing but a formality. While they and the players took their early tea, more steady rain set in. So finally the diehards in the Trafalgar Square Enclosure, who have sat with incredible stoicism for hours watching the rain fall, are packing up their sandwich boxes and heading off to their guest houses and homes, with the dregs of a wet afternoon to fill and hopes, no doubt of,something better tomorrow.

Well, not quite ‘it’ as it happens. With the rain absolutely hammering down, Pietersen and two Surrey colleagues wandered onto the sodden outfield in training gear to embark on a series of shuttle runs.

Day one of this clash of two of the title contenders has been a good contest, although with the best part of 300 runs on the board Warwickshire will feel more pleased that Nottinghamshire will with five wickets. Luke Fletcher and Paul Franks did well for Chris Read's side but the bad news for them is that Andre Adams, their leading wicket-taker, left the field after bowling 18 overs without a wicket, having struggled again with the calf injury that kept him out of their last game, against Durham. Warwicks 298-5 at stumps.

It looks like Warwickshire will still have to worry about staving off defeat at Edgbaston, despite a long interruption for rain. With tea taken during the stoppage, the scheduled restart at 4.25pm still leaves 36 overs to be bowled. One more wicket in addition to the five the title contenders have lost could make things very twitchy.

The consolation for Jim Troughton and his crew is that the rain may deny Sussex a win at Taunton, in which event the gap between themselves and the south coast side will be nine points if they lose and Sussex draw, 12 points if they both draw or lose.

Warwickshire have made some inroads after breaking a fine partnership between Chris Rogers and Dawid Malan but Middlesex had a lead of 253 when the score was 299-5 and another 50 runs will make it a difficult chase, which will be good for the title race, if not for Warwickshire.

After Ian Blackwell toiled for 20 overs without success it is Boyd Rankin who has done the damage in his spell since tea, accounting for Rogers, who cut him to slip, Neil Dexter, who was brilliantly caught by William Porterfield at gully, and Adam Rossington, who top-edged a pull.

Rogers made 109 in a stand of 203 with Malan, who went on to complete his second century of the season and remains unbeaten on 109. His wicket is key for Warwickshire, who could be knocked off the top by Sussex.

There is a proper game of cricket on here today, a marked contrast with yesterday’s shenanigans when 19 wickets fell for an average of 18 runs each. Phillip Hughes threatened for a while to take the initiative away from Durham, but while his enthusiasm for the off side brought him most of his 18 boundaries, it also, to nobody’s great surprise, led to his downfall minutes after he reached his second century for Worcestershire this summer. Since then Scott Borthwick’s leg spin and Mark Stoneman’s hands have combined to see off Matthew Pardoe and Moeen Ali, the latter caught brilliantly at short leg. As I write Vikram Solanki top edges Callum Thorp to the wicketkeeper, and next ball Thorp gets Joe Leach as well. Worcestershire are 213-6, leading by 99 runs.

Saj Mahmood, on loan to Somerset for the remainder of the season, is bowling at present, thus far with no joy. Hard to know what the restless Brian Rose, the director of cricket, will do next about bolstering their fast bowling resources, but they are not likely to try to attract, once more, the man of the moment, Vernon Philander. The viewpoint is that, although he made a fine initial impression in his brief spell at Taunton, there was a distinct whiff of net practice ahead of the South Africans’ tour.

Surrey finish up on a disappointing 219-9. As so often in the CB40 this season, their top order batting let them down before, typically, Matt Spriegel brought them to something approaching respectability: his 51 came off 75 balls and contained only one four, but Surrey would have really floundered without it. Zafar Ansari’s perky 30 was also impressive and Stuart Meaker’s late-innings legside shovels could yet prove crucial. But Glamorgan are certainly favourites, even with a notoriously collapse-prone batting line-up.

Incidentally, the crowd is very good here - not far off the number at Lord's yesterday. Well done to Surrey for giving 7,000 tickets away to the local community to create a great atmosphere for this match. It's something counties should do more of.

In the end, it was Durham who took the spoils. They declined to use the new ball but winkled Nottinghamshire's last four out in any event, Scott Borthwick removing Paul Franks and Graeme White before Mark Wood, the all-rounder in his second Championship match, completed the job by bowling Luke Fletcher and trapping Andy Carter leg before after Ben Phillips had holed out to midwicket.

He finished with 5-78, Durham move on to 107 points after three wins in a row, which puts them 20 points clear of the bottom two. Nottinghamshire have 144 points, and while they have still to play Warwickshire, the leaders, at home and away, they are 18 points behind, while the Edgbaston team have four matches left to their three. Full report to follow...

Three overs to bowl here with strong evening sunshine making nonsense of the glaring floodlight pylons. The light, meanwhile, may be dimming on Nottinghamshire's hopes of wresting back the Championship pennant they won two years ago.

A partnership of 59 runs so far between Paul Collingwood and Mark Wood has probably put Nottinghamshire out of the match, giving Durham a lead of 335 at 295-6, which will give Graham Onions plenty of licence to let rip again tomorrow, when he will attempt to supplement his 9-67 by bowling Durham to victory.