County Roundup - England prospects press claims

Thursday's play saw several young England prospects take the opportunity of nudging the selectors in advance of Friday evening's selection meeting.

At Riverside, Lancashire struggled to 263 all out against the lively Durham pace attack. Saurav Ganguly was the lynchpin of the innings, facing 164 balls for his 73. Useful lower-order contributions came from Chris Schofield (50) and Peter Martin (40). England pace prospect Steve Harmison was the pick of the Durham attack with 4-40, which included the prize scalps of Flintoff and Crawley, both batsmen losing their middle stumps. In reply, Durham were soon in trouble, losing both openers before the close.

Somerset's Marcus Trescothick did his own England chances no harm at all at Leicester, where he contributed a painstaking 105, in an innings lasting seven minutes short of six hours. The rest of the Somerset batting had little to offer, with only Ian Blackwell (58) providing any consistent support as the visitors limped to 262 all out. Wickets were shared evenly, with the best bowling coming from James Ormond and veteran Phil DeFreitas.

The first day of Surrey's match against Kent was abandoned due to rain.

The innings of the day was from Northamptonshire's David Sales, who coming in at 23/2 after Lucas had both openers caught leg before, made batting look ridiculously easy. With the recent injury to Vaughan, and with several England regulars in poor form with the bat, this indeed was a timely reminder to the selectors. Coming from a man who scored a double century on debut, and a triple century last year, this was further proof of his ability to build a big innings, albeit against an undemanding Notts bowling attack. Penberthy (62) helped him steady the innings, and then Graham Swann only contributed 25 of a 102 stand with Sales. He ended the day a solitary run short of his double century. Hayden is there with him, with 44*, Nottinghamshire will be looking forward to the arrival of Shoaib Akhtar to add some bite to an ineffective attack.

Mark Ramprakash must have wondered at the wisdom of following the England selectors' advice to try opening the batting when he found himself facing Glenn McGrath in conditions that contributed little to help the batsman. Like most batsmen this summer he found McGrath difficult to score off, and eventually played on for 6. McGrath's opening partner Sheriyar bowler Langer 4th ball (again played on), and when Shah fell to McGrath, Langer's decision to bat first looked a poor one. Andrew Strauss, however, continued to show good form, and his 47 was the highest in the innings. Lampitt had him cuaght behind with the score on 78, and took three more middle order wickets before Sheriyar mopped up the tail (3 wickets in 5 balls), Tuffnell contributing a trademark golden duck, to leave Sheriyar (4/55) on a hat-trick. Lampitt had the best figures of 4/44.

Batting seemed no easier for Worcestershire, as Fraser was as miserly as ever, bowling 8 maidens in his first 12 overs, and conceding just 15 runs in 15 overs whilst taking two wickets on the day. Hick fell to Johnson with the score on 9, but Elliot, Wilson and Solanki consolidated, adding 62 for the 3rd wicket. Solanki was caught behind, the first of Bloomfield's four wickets, and no-one was able to stay with Wilson as wickets continued to tumble. At the close Worcestershire trail by 14, with two wickets remaining, and Wilson with a chance to carry his bat, unbeaten on 75*.

Jonathon Lewis and Ian Harvey had Glamorgan reeling at 13/4, after Maynard had elected to bat first, despite the suspect nature of Cardiff wickets this year. Numbers 2 to 6 in the order contributed 9 runs, and it was left to Matthew Elliott (49) and keeper Adrian Shaw to avert complete collapse. Elliott was unluckily run out 1 short of a half century but Shaw soldiered on, still there at the close with 64* out of Glamorgan's 169/9. Lewis finished the day with the fine figures of 5-61.