Mushtaq's five routs Durham

Mushtaq Ahmed routed Durham with five wickets on Sussex's first day at Chester-le-Street, before the Sussex batsmen motored to 119 for 2 before stumps, to give them a lead of nine runs. Durham's batsmen made heavy work of it all day, with Rana Naved-ul-Hasan removing Jonathan Lewis and Gordon Muchall. Jimmy Maher, who top-scored with 23, didn't last much longer - and thereafter, it was the Mushtaq show. Dale Benkenstein (18) and Phil Mustard (15) edged Durham beyond 100 but both fell to Mushtaq as Durham were swept away inside 53 overs. In reply, Sussex raced past Durham - and it was a less than spectacular comeback for Steve Harmison who conceded 24 runs in his six overs. Though Sussex lost Richard Montgomerie (28) and Carl Hopkinson (20), Murray Goodwin crunched four fours and a six and remained unbeaten on 38.

Essex pegged Gloucestershire back with regular wickets in the afternoon session, before Ian Harvey clobbered 72 on the first day at Chelmsford. With the welcome return of Alex Tudor to open the bowling with Tony Palladino, Andre Adams was brought into the attack and, in his first over, had Craig Spearman caught behind for 19. Matt Windows soon fell too, caught by Varun Chopra - the ex-England Under-19 captain - making his debut. However, Gloucestershire rallied with fifties from Phil Weston and Chris Taylor as the visitors crawled along steadily if not spectacularly, working the ball around and nudging singles. Taylor's demise came on 66 when, attempting to work Tim Phillips to the on-side, he played all around it. This brought Harvey to the wicket and, at last, some momentum was injected into the innings; typically aggressive, he remained unbeaten on 72 at stumps.

On a stop-start day at Worcester in which only 44 overs were possible, Glamorgan moved on to 133 for 3 against Worcestershire with Mark Cosgrove notching an aggressive 61. He found good support from Dan Cherry (33) with whom he put on 102 for the first wicket. But Worcestershire struck back with Kabir Ali bowling Cherry, and India's Zaheer Khan removing both Cosgrove and Matthew Powell (4) before rain again stopped play.