Yorkshire hopeful despite absence of key players

Chris Silverwood bowled well for Yorkshire who are without their star bowlers Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard and Craig White (all playing for England) to take two wickets for nine runs in a five over spell against Leicestershire on the first day of the County Championship match at Leicester. He dismissed Darren Maddy (66) and Aftab Habib (59) who both put on a partnership of 108 in 33 overs. Leicestershire at one stage were 28 for two. Vince Wells and Darren Stevens added 70 which took Leicesteshire to 286 for 8 when bad light stopped play.

In another match, Surrey marched ahead towards the title when Derbyshire were all out for 118 with Gary claiming five wickets with his medium pacers. Surrey in reply, scored 161 for two with Mark Butcher getting 78 and Ian Ward 57 before getting out to Paul Aldred and Matt Cassar respectively.

Durham made 324 for 6 in 110 overs against Somerset at Taunton thanks to Nick Speak's 78 and Paul Collingwood's 74. Jamie Grove was the best bowler taking 3 for 53.

Against Essex at Colchester, Mark Alleyne and Tim Hancock top scored for Gloucestershire with 43 apiece. For Essex, Peter Such claimed four wickets while Ronnie Irani and Shley Cowan took two each.

Kevan James and Matthew Maynard scored 77 each in a stand of 103 for the third wicket for Glamorgan against Nottinghamshire at Cardiff. Glamorgan scored 288 while for Nottinghamshire, Richard Stemp took four for 67 and Andrew Harris had four wickets for 101. In reply, Nottinghamshire scored 10 for no loss at close.

Hosts Sussex dismissed Northamptonshire for 110 with James Kirtley taking six wickets. Chris Adams scored an unbeaten 77 to take Sussex to 146 for 8 in reply at Eastbourne.