County Roundup

DURHAM V LANCASHIRE: After the exciting performance of England hopeful Steve Harmison yesterday, today served as a reminder of two bowlers previously touted as England prospects. Seam ruled again as Glen Chapple picked up a career-best six wickets for 42 runs for Lancashire and Simon Brown responded with four quick wickets for Durham. Both bowlers swung the ball and kept the ball up to the batsmen on a pitch which looked excellent and in perfect conditions.

Having reached 108-2, with a steady partnership between Katich (45) and Collingwood (37), Durham's batsmen will be disappointed to have been dismissed for 164. Wickets continued to fall in the Lancashire innings with only Fairbrother (39*) and Hegg (26) offering real resistance. By close of play, Lancashire had nudged the score onto 128-7, a lead of 227 for what could prove to be an exciting day's play tomorrow.

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LEICESTERSHIRE V SOMERSET: A magnificent partnership of 241* between Aftab Habib and Jonathan Dakin rescued Leicestershire from a disastrous start to the day. The top four batsmen all surrendered their wickets cheaply, with Rose claiming three, before Habib and Dakin were brought together at the crease with the score standing at 34-4. When bad light brought play to a close early, the two had rattled off 33 boundaries between them - Habib on 120* and Dakin 110*.

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SURREY V KENT: After a washout yesterday, an unremarkable day's play saw several Surrey batsmen building solid foundations but then failing to progress. Mark Butcher (47) and Ian Ward (38) put on 78 for the first wicket before Graham Thorpe again failed to put pressure on the selectors with a disappointing 11. Masters was the pick of the Kent bowlers with three wickets at the cost of 54 runs, while Rahul Dravid bamboozled Stewart to notch up his first wicket for Kent, in a brief but devastating two-over spell. At close, Adam Hollioake had scored a steady 45* with the Surrey total standing at 278/6.

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YORKSHIRE V HAMPSHIRE: The Hampshire batting line-up again proved to be brittle as the Yorkshire seamers ripped through the innings with ease. The Hampshire team - presumably weakened by the injury to Tuesday's second top-scorer Alan Mullally - offered very little to write about during their collapse of 101 all out. Robin Smith led the scores with a paltry 15 while Shane Warne's form with the bat remained non-existent, falling to his third ball for nought. Yorkshire's innings moved steadily on to 144-4 by close, with Lehman on 37*, a giving the Tykes a potentially decisive lead of 43 runs.

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NORTHAMPTONSHIRE v NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: David Sales carried on where he left off the previous day, and in partnership with Hayden, soon passed the 200 mark and headed onwards. Hayden completed his own century, and took the partnership just short of 200 when he gave a return catch to Stemp, whose four wickets were just reward for his patient and accurate bowling. Given how little the bowlers had troubled Sales throughout it was no surprise that he finally fell to a run out, having contributed a massive 276 (out of 556). Sales has shown yet again that he can build a big innings, and his name will surely be considered by the England selectors on Friday. Nottinghamshire faced a massive 585 when they batted, and initially found batting easy as Bicknell and Afzaal put on 69 for the first wicket. Both openers fell on the same score however, before rain halted proceedings for the day.

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GLAMORGAN v GLOUCESTERSHIRE: At Cardiff, Shaw and Watkin continued their last wicket partnership and put on 84 before Watkin was finally caught off Lewis for an excellent 51 (a maiden half-century in first-class cricket). Shaw's unbeaten 88 was a personal best, and in the context of a difficult wicket and a poor performance by the recognised batsmen, invaluable. Lewis took 6/76, but Gloucestershire will be most disappointed at conceding a total of 250, given their excellent start. Watkin returned to a more familiar role with the ball, breaking the opening partnership by removing Cunliffe, then having Windows caught. Croft took the wickets of Hancock and Alleyne, but Barnett (41*) and Harvey (54*) formed a solid unbroken partnership, taking Gloucestershire to 161/4 at the close.

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WORCESTERSHIRE v MIDDLESEX: Worcester resumed with 8 wickets down, and still behind Middlesex, but McGrath managed to survive 39 balls, and more importantly allowed Elliot Wilson to complete a remarkable hundred (his second in first-class cricket), carrying his bat for 104 of Worcester's total of 182. Only one other bat managed double figures. After yesterday's 18 wickets the ECB's pitch inspector was on hand but found no fault. Ramprakash again found runs hard to come by opening the batting, and fell to Lampitt for 14, and Shah made a duck, but Langer and Strauss batted well. Strauss made 33 before McGrath induced a catch. Langer went on to 73 before being caught off lllingworth, and as wickets continued to fall, Wilson's innings started to gain even further in significance. Illingworth and McGrath took three wickets, Sheriyar two, as Middlesex could only muster 181, and Wilson found himself batting again before the close. He has been on the field throughout the match, and with Hick took Worcestershire to 43/1 at the close. Needing 117 with 9 wickets remaining, they will have high hopes of victory tomorrow.

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SUSSEX v WARWICKSHIRE: Warwickshire resumed at 70/2, but Knight missed out on a chance to further press his claims with the selectors when Kirtley had him caught for 38. Penney contributed only 7, and Smith a duck, but then Hemp and Dougie Brown steadied the ship with a 101 run partnership. Hemp made 90, but Brown went on to his century and with Giles (70*) put on 180 runs by the close. Brown's 157* is his best in first-class cricket, beating his 142 last year.

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY v DERBYSHIRE: The Light Blues could only manage 84 after electing to bat at Fenners. The Derby bowling (even without Dominic Cork) was too much for them as Dean took 4/18, and 20 year old medium pacer Tom Lungley 3/10. Stubbings (71*) and Dowman (52*) took Derby to a 55 run lead without losing a wicket by stumps.

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