Championship first division review

Surrey failed by a single wicket to overcome Hampshire at Southampton - and should soon complete the task when play resumes tomorrow. Earlier Mark Butcher had hit fourteen boundaries in his 116 not out from 221 balls, an innings which defied Shane Warne (5-90) and must have given the England selectors further food for thought. Adam Hollioake took advantage of the interval to declare at 228-6.

Chasing the seemingly impossible target of 393 runs to win Hampshire struggled against the spin of Ian Salisbury and Saqlain Mushtaq. Instead of resistance from opener Giles White 73) the home county were in danger of defeat at 110-5. However Adrian Aymes (43 n.o.) found sufficient support from the lower-order to take the game into the extra half-hour and then into the final day. Even so Hampshire have little hope of making the 128 runs still needed.

Lancashire have their victory over Yorkshire at Manchester under their belt already. Yorkshire lost two more wickets before adding to their 130-7 total, and then set their opponents to score only 47 runs to wn. Yorkshire-born left-arm spinner Gary Keedy (4-27) did the damage. Neil Fairbrother completed the 9-wicket victory with a six. Lancashire, who thus completed their first hat-trick of Roses championship victories in 107 years and took them to two points behind the Division One leaders.

Kent, who had followed on 214 runs behind, had little difficulty in batting out a draw against Somerset at Maidstone. Though Rob Key (54) was out on the stroke of lunch, after rain had delayed the start of play, David Fulton (115) set the pattern which Rahul Dravid (95) and Alan Wells (60) completed in reaching 338-3. It was Fulton's first championship hundred for twelve months, and he was on a run of low scores.