Division One

Northants (180 & 151-6) v Somerset (351)

Matt Henry’s shrewd seam bowling, coupled with Craig Overton’s brutal pace and bounce, proved a potent combination as 16 wickets fell on the second day, with the duo picking up six apiece overall.

Northamptonshire were dismissed for 180 in their first innings and inserted again despite Ricardo Vasconcelos hitting a season’s best 78, with Henry taking 3-36 and Overton 4-50.

The home side stumbled to 151-6 second time around before bad light brought play to a halt, still needing 20 more to prevent what would be their fifth innings defeat this season.

Henry was a handful straight away when Northamptonshire began their response to the visitors’ first-innings total of 351, making the ball move both ways and persuading Emilio Gay to nibble the fifth delivery of the morning into James Rew’s gloves.

Despite registering successive boundaries off Henry, Justin Broad soon followed – forced to play at one that left him and edging to first slip to leave the home side in difficulty at 17-2.

There was also a near escape for Vasconcelos, his thick edge off Overton whistling through the slips for Northamptonshire’s first scoring shot in 31 balls but, despite plenty of playing and missing at Henry, he weathered the storm.

The left-hander looked far more comfortable against Somerset’s change bowlers, drilling a series of crisp boundaries through the off side – and the 10th of those, sweetly struck off Overton, brought up his half-century from 76 balls.

By then he had lost Sam Whiteman, playing on to Lewis Gregory and Henry returned for a pre-lunch spell to keep Somerset in the ascendancy by prising out Luke Procter, taken low at first slip.

Vasconcelos continued in similar vein after the interval, looking on course for a first century of the season until he was undone by a ball from Gregory that veered away to hit off stump – triggering a further surge of wickets.

Overton was the chief architect of Northamptonshire’s collapse during a fearsome second spell, having Rob Keogh caught in the slips and ripping out the off stump of Lewis McManus before Ben Sanderson feathered one behind.

Running out of partners, Saif Zaib did his best to propel the home side past the follow-on target with a lively knock of 38, including two colossal sixes off Kasey Aldridge, but fell short when he skied Overton and was taken by Shoaib Bashir, running back on the leg side.

Somerset had no hesitation in putting the hosts back in and Vasconcelos was soon on his way for the second time in the session, caught behind off Henry – who also trapped Gay lbw shuffling across.

With Broad also departing leg before to Gregory, Northamptonshire sank to 29-3, but Procter and Zaib – back at the crease barely half an hour after his dismissal – displayed some grit to slow the Somerset charge.

However, neither Zaib nor Rob Keogh, another leg before victim for Henry, managed to build on promising starts and it was left to the skipper to tough it out with an undefeated 37 while Taylor went for his shots.

The all-rounder clubbed Overton for successive boundaries to reach a brisk 24 not out from 17 balls before darkening skies prompted the umpires to halt proceedings with 8.4 overs still remaining.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.

Essex (458-8 dec) v Kent (207 & 4-1)

Matt Critchley’s second century of the season put Essex in the driving seat for a fourth successive County Championship victory on a strange day of substitutes and concussion repercussions at Chelmsford.

The 26-year-old faced just 168 balls in rattling up 117 runs as Essex put Kent to the sword while building a first-innings lead of 251.

Critchley entered at 158-3 and departed 64 overs later on 408-7 when he picked out long-leg to give part-time spinner Jack Leaning a rare wicket.

In between Critchley shared a century stand with Simon Harmer – who hit a swashbuckling season’s best 83 not out from 92 balls – and other partnerships worth 71 and 49 with Paul Walter and Adam Rossington respectively. In the process the former Derbyshire all-rounder took his season’s tally in the Championship past 700 runs.

Sir Alastair Cook had laid the foundations with a 176-ball 87, but some lusty late six-hitting by Critchley, Harmer and Doug Bracewell gilded the lily as Essex declared on 458-8.

Hamid Qadri bore the brunt with figures of three for 120, while the Indian international Arshdeep Singh returned best Championship analysis of 3-58.

And to cap Essex’s day, Twanda Muyeye departed to the last ball of the five overs left for Kent to see out when he went lbw pushing forward to Sam Cook for nought. Kent finished on 4-1.

But the real drama of the day came before play with the news that Nick Browne had retired hurt after feeling groggy overnight and failing an off-field concussion test.

The left-handed opener was hit on the head by a short ball from Arshdeep Singh in the evening session but batted on for a further two and a half overs before being visibly ill after the penultimate delivery of the day. He then passed an on-field check and saw out the over.

Robin Das, who had originally stood in as the nominated substitute while Dan Lawrence made his way back from Old Trafford where he was stood down by England, then became Browne’s replacement.

Das lasted five balls before he became another entry in the scorebook that needed an asterisk: the concussion substitute was caught by the substitute wicketkeeper Harry Finch, standing in for Jordan Cox who further depleted Kent’s resources with a thigh injury.

Having put on 117 for the first wicket, thanks to the efforts of three men – but mainly Cook – Essex lost another almost immediately when Tom Westley was trapped lbw to give Arshdeep a second wicket.

Cook had looked in sparkling form the night before, stroking a dozen boundaries in his 64. But he batted for a further hour-and-a-half in the morning session, adding just 23 runs from 70 balls before looking a little disconsolate at being judged lbw to former Essex seamer Matt Quinn.

Lawrence, having made the journey down from Manchester, played an entertaining cameo of 25 that included an effortless six over midwicket before he attempted to sweep Hamid Qadri in a similar direction only to become a third lbw victim.

Critchley hammered Qadri over long-leg for the six that took Essex beyond Kent’s first-innings 207 with only four wickets down, though it had taken them 17 overs longer. However, Walter’s 90-ball 45 was ended by the third delivery with the new-ball as he played down the wrong line to Arshdeep.

Rossington twice straight-drove Joey Evison for fours in a bright partnership with Critchley before he was deceived by Qadri’s flight and turned to see his stumps disturbed.

Once Harmer had got off the mark to his 28th ball, he cut loose and needed just another 51 balls for his half-century, reached with a huge six off Qadri. But it was Critchley who caught the eye with some breathtaking, but orthodox hitting, and reach three-figures from 161 balls by pulling Quinn through midwicket for his 14th boundary that included two maximums.

Harmer, with five maximum, traded maximums with Doug Bracewell off the beleaguered Kent spinners before the New Zealander was stumped to prompt the declaration.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.

Division Two

Derbyshire (443) v Durham (364-4)

Alex Lees won the race to become the first player to score 1,000 championship runs this season as Durham hit back on the second day of the County Championship Division Two game with Derbyshire.

The England batter scored the 84 needed to reach the milestone and went on to make 171 from 210 balls and share a record-breaking stand with David Bedingham, who was out for 138.

The pair added 305 from 333 balls for the third wicket, a new Durham record, and at stumps on day two the visitors were 364-4, 79 behind Derbyshire’s first-innings 443.

Derbyshire wicketkeeper Brooke Guest was last out for 197 to Scott Borthwick, who took 4-25, and although Sam Conners reduced the Division Two leaders to 8-2, the rest of the day belonged to Lees and Bedingham.

Durham had earlier been on the receiving end on a flat pitch as Guest and the tail took advantage of some poor bowling.

Derbyshire added 126 runs in 25 overs with Guest and Conners doing most of the damage by plundering 71 from 48 balls.

Guest reached his 150 by turning Ben Raine behind square for his 23rd four before the Durham seamer got one to straighten and knock out Alex Thomson’s off stump.

Zak Chappell gloved a Brydon Carse lifter to short leg but Durham lost control once Guest and Conners engaged the turbo.

Conners pulled Carse for six and after Derbyshire picked up five penalty runs when the ball struck the helmet behind wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson, he drove Matthew Parkinson over the long-off boundary.

Durham were looking increasingly ragged until Conners charged Borthwick and was stumped for 33 off only 25 balls.

Guest had a double century in his sights but when he took on Borthwick, he failed to clear Raine at long on.

It had been an outstanding innings and one that looked even better when Conners struck twice in the fourth over after lunch.

Michael Jones was bowled as he shaped to play through midwicket and Borthwick was caught on the crease but Lees and Bedingham responded with a thrilling counter-attack.

Bedingham lit the fuse by pulling Chappell for six before Lees straight drove Thomson for consecutive sixes.

Lees drove Anuj Dal back over his head for another six and his only anxious moment came on 79 when he almost edged Chappell behind.

But he drove the next ball for four and then turned Chappell for a single to reach that 1,000-run milestone which was quickly followed by his fourth century in five innings when he clipped Dal to the fine-leg boundary.

Lees had faced only 127 balls but Bedingham reached his hundred off only 113 when he edged Luis Reece to third man for his 15th four.

The runs kept coming and the pair passed Durham’s previous highest third-wicket stand of 243 which they had set at Leicester at the end of June.

Lees went to his 150 with successive fours off Nic Potts but the stand was finally broken when Bedingham clipped Dal to substitute fielder Mitch Wagstaff at short midwicket.

Durham sent in Migael Pretorious to take advantage of a tiring attack but Conners returned to remove Lees who was caught behind driving at a wide ball two overs before the close.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.

Leicestershire (110 & 114-7, target 238) v Worcestershire (178 & 169)

Worcestershire need three more wickets to improve their Division Two promotion chances and dent Leicestershire’s after day two of their County Championship game at Oakham School proved no less eventful than the first.

It closed with Leicestershire, 88-8 in their first innings overnight, 114-7 in their second when bad light brought play to an early close, with Worcestershire bowled out for 169 in between.

After 18 wickets on day one, 19 followed on day two, among them a couple for Josh Tongue, released from England duty at Old Trafford to re-join his county team-mates.

Dillon Pennington finished with 4-36 as Leicestershire were dismissed for 110 in 39.1 overs first time around before Jake Libby defied the seam-friendly surface with 67 off 87 balls as Worcestershire posted 169 in 40.4 overs to leave Leicestershire chasing 238 to win.

Chris Wright took 4-44 in Worcestershire’s first innings to raise his tally to 36 in his final season with Leicestershire. Pennington has 3-25 in Leicestershire’s second innings, in which Rehan Ahmed has added another defiant 33 to go with his 44 in the first innings.

At the start, Leicestershire added 22 in the time it took Worcestershire to take their remaining first-innings wickets, although it should have been fewer. Ahmed was dropped in the slips on 27 off the second ball of the morning.

Ahmed’s positivity was the model adopted by Libby, albeit with a little more refinement. There were quite a few runs off the edge raced to fifty from 51 balls but it helped that when he did take a chance he committed fully to the shot; on this pitch, playing tentatively was to invite trouble.

There were casualties at the other end, though. Gareth Roderick was caught at third slip off Chris Wright, who found that the pitch, though drier than it had been at the start of day one, still had something in it for him as he uprooted Azhar Ali’s middle stump. Jack Haynes, attempting to pull, gloved a catch behind.

At 81-3 at lunch, Worcestershire had a lead of 149, which was probably where they wanted to be, but Leicestershire fought back well in the afternoon and as three wickets fell in the space of 11 balls the position was shifting.

Adam Hose, dropped on nought just before lunch, was taken with a juggle in his follow-through by Wright, who bowled Waite with another that nipped back. In between, Wiaan Mulder at last induced a fatal error from Libby, who pushed at one that left him late, giving Peter Handscomb a simple catch. Six down and 183 ahead looked less comfortable.

Leicestershire kept up the pressure in the field, substitute fielder Roman Walker running out Joe Leach with a fine throw-in from deep square leg and Rishi Patel holding an excellent diving catch as Josh Baker slashed to backward point.

A catch by Mulder at first slip off Tom Scriven saw off Brett D’Oliveira, although the South African spilled one in the same over to let Pennington off the hook. In the context of a low-scoring match, it was potentially an expensive error, with Worcestershire able to eke out another 24 runs before Scriven found the edge of Pennington’s bat again to wrap up the innings.

The target for Leicestershire was 238, some 60 more runs than had been scored in any of the three previous innings. Yet the pitch, by now subjected to the heavy roller twice in the day, was easing. The key for Leicestershire looked to be having the patience to negotiate the 44 overs to the close with minimal losses.

The 12 before tea did not augur well, with two gone for 24 after Louis Kimber was caught behind off the fifth ball and Patel, one of Leicestershire’s key hopes, edged to second slip in the sixth over. More setbacks followed.

Ackermann departed to a catch at third slip by Baker low to his left that left him unsure – not unreasonably – whether it had been taken cleanly. Lewis Hill, on 10, was dropped on the long leg boundary off Waite, but then Tongue struck twice in three balls to leave Leicestershire in unquestionable peril at 53-5, bringing one back to bowl Handscomb and having his fellow overseas player Mulder caught behind down the leg side.

With questionable light now making batting still more difficult, Pennington – like Tongue bound for Nottinghamshire at the end of the season – returned to take two in an over himself as Hill was given out caught down the leg side and Tom Scriven edged behind as Roderick held two more chances before the umpires called time with nine overs of the day’s schedule left.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.

Gloucestershire v Glamorgan (152-2)

Glamorgan captain David Lloyd hit an attacking 81 as his side reached 152-2 on a rain-ruined first day against Gloucestershire.

Just 40 overs were bowled on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival.

Lloyd and Zain Ul Hassan (30) started with a stand of 111, Glamorgan’s best start of the Championship season.

Zafar Gohar and Tom Price claimed a wicket apiece for the hosts but rain limited play to to just 20 minutes in the afternoon and evening sessions.

Lloyd made good use of winning the toss as he quickly went on the attack, while Ul Hassan weathered a tight opening spell from Price.

Lloyd survived a nasty blow on the helmet from Paul van Meekeren on 33, and should have been caught off Dominic Goodman on 44 when a diving Price could not hold onto a chance at point.

The Glamorgan skipper raced to a half-century off 57 balls and with Ul Hassan starting to open up, the pair posted Glamorgan’s first hundred opening stand of the campaign on the stroke of lunch.

Ul Hassan fell just after for 30 as he tried to pull a sharply-spinning delivery from Zafar Gohar from outside off-stump and was judged lbw in a marginal call as to whether the impact was in line.

But with Glamorgan on 120-1, most of the afternoon session was wiped out by rain and Lloyd went quickly on the resumption, leg-before to Price after hitting 13 boundaries.

Gloucestershire thought they had a third wicket when Sam Northeast, on three, edged Van Meekeren to gully where Price claimed the low catch, only for the umpires to decide they could not be sure the ball carried.

South Africa batter Colin Ingram, playing only his third Championship game of the season, hit some sweet straight drives to get Glamorgan past 150 before the weather closed in again to spoil the festival occasion.

Report by BBC Sport Wales’ Nick Webb.