Kent 10 for 0 trail Derbyshire 118 (Steven 5-24, Bollinger 5-29) by 108 runs
Darren Stevens and Doug Bollinger combined today to put Kent in apparent control of a curious match that started a day-and-a-half late but then provided intriguing and engrossing cricket, and held out the prospect of a positive result which at lunchtime seemed very unlikely.
Their combined figures were 10 for 53 from 32.3 overs, and they were all over Derbyshire from the first ball. Only Alex Hughes was able to offer extended resistance for the home side as they were dismissed for 118, and they will need someone to emulate the Kent seamers' efforts on Tuesday if they are to stay in contention.
Last September, Stevens swept the board at the Kent awards: best bowler, best batsman, best fielder, best player. These were on the back of 1304 first-class runs, 32 first-class wickets, and 25 catches in all competitions. He's become Kent's "Mr Reliable", and he led the way when play finally got underway at a soggy County Ground at 2.35pm.
There's nothing apparently threatening about Stevens' approach to the crease. In fact he decelerates almost to the point of standstill before entering his delivery stride. But he is unrelentingly accurate and rarely gives the batsman scope for extravagance.
He came on to bowl the tenth over of the innings from the Racecourse End and had a wicket with his first ball, Paul Borrington edging high to second slip where Adam Riley clung on above his head. He took the most prized Derbyshire wicket, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, lbw to the last ball before tea - one that kept a little low - then Scott Elstone in a similar manner.
Later in the day he took a slip catch to dispose of Gareth Cross, then castled Mark Footitt to polish off the innings shortly after he had Tim Groenewald caught brilliantly, diving to his right at short midwicket, by the least athletic-looking Kent player, Rob Key.
Bollinger is Kent's Australian overseas player, a beast of a fast bowler. He runs off 18 paces, bristling with intent, and brings his left arm over fluidly and strong. Apart from Hughes, who finished unbeaten on 36, nobody in the Derbyshire side appeared comfortable against him.
Well over 24 hours after Key won the toss and did the inevitable by putting Derbyshire in, Bollinger bowled the first ball of the match and the batsmen were soon struggling. Bollinger bowled with hostility, making liberal use of a rapid short ball, and took the first wicket with the 13th ball of the innings, trapping Stephen Moore on the back foot.
Not long later he had Derbyshire's captain, Wayne Madsen, prodding to Brendan Nash at point. Then later he brought an end to Cross' first innings since being signed up. Elstone had the misfortune to face his very first ball in first-class cricket from Bollinger and was fortunate that his nick fell just short of wicketkeeper Sam Billings. His eventual 23 was the second-highest score of the innings.
Cross and Hughes added 46 for the sixth wicket but the last four fell for 15 runs, and once Key and Sam Northeast had negotiated the remaining three overs unscathed it was good-looking day for Kent.
Hampshire 330 for 8 (Carberry 66, Dawson 64, Vince 61) lead Glamorgan 224 (Wallace 67*, Ervine 3-36, Coles 3-39, Abbott 3-66) by 106 runs
James Vince has attracted attention for his natural stroke-making ability but he kept his instincts in check with a circumspect innings to steer Hampshire into a three-figure lead over Glamorgan. But Vince was the third player to go no further than the 60s as the visitors kept the game from racing away by fighting back with the second new ball.
Vince is a joy to watch, with his languid, fluid style producing effortless drives and flicks but there was little opportunity for such strokes on a day of showers that interrupted play regularly until after tea. It was during the final session that Glamorgan gained their rewards for not allowing Hampshire to find the progress of the first evening, taking 5 for 53 after a new ball was requested at the earliest opportunity.
Vince passed 500 County Championship runs for the season during his 61 - only Daryl Mitchell, with 532, has more in the country and he has faced almost double the number of balls - but this innings came at a strike rate 20 lower than his overall so far this season. It was difficult for the batsmen to settle, with four rain breaks before tea, and the new side to Vince's game was required to continue Hampshire's progress.
Vince has worked hard to tighten his technique with Hampshire first-team coach, Tony Middleton, who has overseen the majority of Vince's career after recognising the need to become more consistent in four-day cricket. He has moved across his stumps slightly and resisted temptations outside off stump - in general selling his wicket dearer. His work was rewarded with over 1000 Championship runs last summer and selection on the England Lions tour to Sri Lanka.
The new season has seen his best form to date in four-day cricket, with a match-winning 144 against Gloucestershire at Bristol and 159 at the Ageas against Surrey. Runs at the right time, with England places available.
Here he demonstrated the vital characteristics for international cricket, temperament and discipline, while still finding time to please the eye; a straight-driven four of Graham Wagg just before lunch the pick of his eight boundaries.
He also demonstrated smart batting against left-arm spinner Dean Cosker. Vince took him over mid-on, prompting the fielder to go back and Cosker to shift his line a touch wider, allowing Vince more space for his flowing blade, which sent a second boundary wide of mid-off.
But the first delivery of the second new ball saw Vince caught on the crease and lbw to Wagg for 61. It prompted a Hampshire slide, with Wagg also getting Joe Gatting to naively drive outside off stump and edge to Mark Wallace.
Vince and Liam Dawson had taken Hampshire to 196 for 2 and a position to build a match-winning first-innings lead - batting once would be preferable with the potential for more time to be lost. But a game Glamorgan attack, notably shorn of Michael Hogan who is in Australian with his wife and new-born child, persisted well and forced Dawson into an error, slashing off the back foot to a ball not short enough for the stroke and edging behind.
It was a first Glamorgan wicket for Tom Helm, a loanee from Middlesex who only turned 20 five days ago and was asked to open the bowling.
Dawson went for 64 and followed Michael Carberry with a weak dismissal. Carberry's fluency of the first evening, where he helped Hampshire tick along at three-and-a-half an over, was completely absent on the second morning and he added just four runs to his overnight total. Jim Allenby is a dangerous bowler to drive off anything but a very full length; Carberry leaned out to play through the covers and sliced a catch to backward point.
Allenby later had Matt Coles dismissed first ball in exactly the same fashion and, in between, forced Sean Ervine to play on for another middling score that demonstrated how Hampshire had coughed up the chance to take a stranglehold on the match.
Middlesex 275 for 3 (Malan 92, Morgan 72*, Robson 51) lead Lancashire 266 (Smith 59, Buttler 59, Dexter 6-63) by nine runs
It has been a strange old early season for Middlesex's batsmen. Funny things can happen in April and May, but there leaps from the sublime to ridiculous are a notch above.
From the highs of 472 for 3 and 439 to the lows of 105 and being 66 for 8, it has been a case of all or almost nothing. So in many ways, reaching 275 for 3 on the second day against Lancashire was a little bit vanilla; solid, efficient, workmanlike. In all seriousness, though, it was just what they needed and a good day's work to secure a strong position in the match when rain cut off the last 10 overs.
Three half-centuries moulded Middlesex's strong reply with Eoin Morgan reaching the close unbeaten on 76 and eyeing his first Championship hundred since 2009 (he has only had three first-class hundreds since then, two of them in his Test career).
With the T20 and ODIs against Sri Lanka beginning shortly, where Morgan will feature, it may be too late for a run to the Test team at the start of the season, largely due to Gary Ballance's fine form, but very little about new England is yet set in stone.
There is also a sense that the selectors will not need to be overly persuaded to bring Morgan back into the Test side. After his nudge and a wink to skip the IPL he is earmarked as not only that 'something a little different' in the middle order but also one of few viable candidates to lead the side if the team's fortunes do not improve under Alastair Cook.
With a view to the longer format, this innings was watchful and, largely, restrained although there were two shots which summed him up as a red-ball cricketer: a thick edge through gully as he drove away from his body and a reverse sweep against Simon Kerrigan. There will always be an element of edge-of-the-seat about him, which should be applauded not nullified.
The one black mark on Morgan's innings was the involvement in the run out of Dawid Malan, eight short of what would have been his first Championship hundred since August 2012 against Warwickshire. He was caught out by Morgan's push and run into the leg side. It was always a tight call from Morgan, but Malan hesitated for a fraction of a second as well.
Malan was dropped on 34 at first slip by Paul Horton - he was diving to his right which suggested it should have been Jos Buttler's catch - but otherwise had few alarms against an honest, but limited Lancashire attack.
Perhaps Malan's dismissal was a hint of karma after he had earlier been involved in ending Robson's innings. Robson was sold down the river and beaten by a direct hit from cover, having played an innings low on standout shots but high on the watchfulness and judgement that has put him on the brink of a Test debut.
Two run-outs from three wickets to fall was careless on a day where the sun shone for the most part which so often makes batting easier here. The only Lancashire bowler to strike was Kyle Hogg when he had Chris Rogers caught down the leg side with his second ball of the Championship season. It was a neat, low catch by Buttler and though the umpires briefly conferred over whether it carried Rogers was content to walk off.
It was a curious day for Kerrigan, who was used a disappointingly stereotypical way by Glen Chapple: one over before lunch, one over before the second new ball and just five in between. There were some mitigating circumstances for Chapple - often two left handers at the crease and a short Tavern boundary - but the seamers did not gain vast amounts of help.
Young English spinners will only develop if they are allowed to bowl, and in challenging circumstances. Morgan was clearly keen to attack Kerrigan, as the reverse-swept four showed, but it is only what he will encounter if he returns to the top level.
Northamptonshire 241 for 8 (Peters 88, Siddle 4-75) v Nottinghamshire
If Northamptonshire are to survive in Division One of the County Championship this season they will need to seize every good position they get. Their collapse of 8 for 116 at Trent Bridge as the contest finally got underway after lunch on the second day was a wasted opportunity.
107 for 0 having been asked to bat first was evidence that Northants possess batsmen capable of making useful runs but their middle order contained four single-figures scores as Nottinghamshire ended the day in better shape.
Peter Siddle was the pick of the attack with four wickets, including both openers. Captain Stephen Peters and James Middlebrook put on 107 inside 27 overs but their partnership was broken when Siddle had the latter caught behind and from there the visitors slipped alarmingly.
Within 10 minutes Siddle had a second victim when he removed David Sales as Northamptonshire, who have signed New Zealand bowler Ian Butler until the end of July and compatriot Neil Wagner for the final five championship matches of the season, reached tea at 130 for 2.
It was Nottinghamshire's Kiwi Andre Adams, making his first appearance of the season, who made a telling contribution as he flattened Matt Spriegel's middle stump and then held on as Peters clipped Siddle to midwicket to fall for 88.
Siddle claimed a fourth victim when Ben Duckett gave wicketkeeper Chris Read his third catch of the innings while two quick wickets from Ajmal Shazad saw him finish with 3 for 44 as Northamptonshire closed ruing their missed opportunity.
Surrey 132 (Roy 44, Fuller 6-47) and 41-0 (Smith 34*) need another 226 runs to beat Gloucestershire 168 (Tavare 59, Dunn 5-48) and 230 (Dent 54, Tremlett 6-59)
At half past two, it was hard not to question whether Chris Tremlett, six months after playing in an Ashes Test at the Gabba, still merited a place in Surrey's county championship side. He looked markedly down on pace; to one chuntering Surrey member he was now an "average medium-pacer".
Tremlett had claimed two wickets for at 99.5 apiece so far this season. Given the strides made by Tom Curran and Matt Dunn so far this season, his place seemed to owe only to the decision to rest Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker.
Things looked little better for Tremlett's county. While Surrey's flag did not threaten to topple over, as it had on the first day, their batting was rather less resilient: offered the chance to attain first innings parity by inviting sunshine, they instead lost their last four wickets for only 14.
After the first day, Alec Stewart had said that the tumble of wickets on the opening day did not reflect any fault with the pitch. While it was a relaid strip with more bounce than Surrey have been accustomed to, it was not a wicket to justify the opening 20 wickets falling for only 300 runs.
Gloucestershire soon went about proving Stewart right. As they reached 106 for 1 in their second innings, leading by 142, Surrey were bracing themselves for a third defeat of the season, to go with two draws and no victories. So much for a new era under Graeme Smith.
Then it happened. Suddenly Tremlett resembled once more the bowler who had decimated Australia Down Under in 2010-11. With one delivery that trapped Will Tavare on the back leg, Tremlett looked to have rediscovered his vim. Three balls later, Alex Gidman received a brutal lifter that was poached by Smith's reassuring hands at second slip.
By now it was easy to sympathise with the England selectors. Wishful thinking may have informed the selection of Tremlett at Brisbane, but the allure of a 6ft 7in quick bowler is undeniable. Especially when he has luck on his side: Chris Dent's excellent 54, marked by backfoot punching through the covers, was ended by a superb diving catch from Dominic Sibley at short midwicket. Tremlett had now transformed the match with three wickets in seven balls.
By the time his afternoon spell was done, he had trapped Benny Howell lbw and uprooted Cameron Herring's offstump. His spell - 7-1-15-5 - had transformed the game.
Speaking after the close, Tremlett admitted that he had "been struggling with his rhythm" and that "every season it does take me a while to get going". He also reckoned that he had been "bowling too short at times". His assertion that this time "I hit my lengths a lot better, the ball was coming out a little quicker," was something Gloucestershire's batsmen would doubtless have agreed with.
Surrey must still manage him carefully - he needed injections in his back last week - but, with such a strong battery of bowlers, they need not over-exert him.
Yet Tremlett's deeds did not break Gloucestershire as, at 133-6, they threatened to. Sterling - and oddly symmetrical - work from Graeme McCarter and Ian Saxelby ensured Dent's endeavours did not go to waste: both made 20 off 21 balls in 22 minutes.
There was daring, as McCarter deposited Tremlett over midwicket for six (even if he perished attempting a repeat). There was bravery, as Saxelby made 20 despite barely being able to move his feet; and a touch of comedy at the sight of three batsmen (Michael Klinger acted as Saxelby's runner) running threes, much to Surrey's evident chagrin. Hamish Marshall was the rock while the Gloucestershire tail let loose.
The upshot was that Surrey required 269 to win - more than twice the feeble 132 they mustered in the first innings. James Fuller took the pivotal wicket of Jason Roy with the day's third ball, lbw attempting to flick through midwicket, and finished with 6 for 47 while Graeme McCarter's away swing wrapped up the innings, advancing his case for a World Cup spot with Ireland. Well as Gloucestershire bowled, Surrey's shoddy shot selection facilitated their demise.
So there was plenty to ponder as they began their second innings. Attention turned to Graeme Smith, who had endured a miserable run: 195 runs at 15 apiece in his last 13 first-class innings, ever since encountering Mitchell Johnson in South Africa.
Here, he seemed inspired by the memory of his fourth innings heroics for South Africa in the past - including an unbeaten 154 at Edgbaston in 2008 that was rated the fourth best Test innings of all time by the book Masterly Batting. The 35 balls he faced this evening were vintage Smith, complete with crunching straight drives and pull shots bristling with intent. By the close he was unbeaten on 34, and not even an apocalyptic storm could dent Surrey's cheer.
Sussex 505 for 9 (Wright 189, Brown 163, Rushworth 4-124, Wood 3-117) v Durham
Durham's thin squad, which was already up against it in attempting to defend their Championship title, has been dealt a further blow by the news that Graham Onions will need to see a specialist about his back problem. Onions only bowled eight overs on the first day and did not take the field on Monday, with Jon Lewis, Durham's coach, unwilling to speculate as to how long he could potentially be ruled out.
Durham were already without Jamie Harrison for this match due to injury, while his replacement, Usman Arshad, is also carrying a back problem that has limited him to 14 overs out of the 113.4 bowled against Sussex so far.
Travelling down by coach from the northeast has done nothing to ease such commonplace bowler discomforts and Durham will have to undertake a similarly taxing journey in the next round of the Championship, for their match against Somerset at Taunton.
"The mood's probably lifted by this drizzle," said Lewis, with a touch of gallows humour, after rain washed out most of the second day in Hove. The situation has heaped further weight on the shoulders of Chris Rushworth and Mark Wood, who is himself returning from an injury sustained with England Lions before the start of the season. Between them, they have already bowled more than 60 overs in this match.
Durham have received better news on Ben Stokes, though the allrounder who played such an important role in their Championship win is likely to be smuggled away by England at the earliest opportunity. Lewis said Stokes had "good scan results today" on the broken wrist he sustained in the Caribbean and will now resume training with bat and ball.
"The problem is, you lose Onions and that's bad, then Rushworth gets up to 34-35 overs in under four sessions and Woods up at 30-plus, in only his second game back - he bowled 30 in the first game back - you try to ease him back in after the injury he's had," Lewis said. "So then you run the risk of doing something wrong to Rushworth or Wood, which would set us back again. It's a juggling act, we want to win and they're important cricketers."
Without a win in their opening three games, Durham's title defence was already hobbling a little and clutching its back - now that is exactly what Onions, the attack leader, is doing too. He has taken exactly 200 first-class wickets for Durham since the start of the 2011 season but, having missed all of 2010 with a back injury that required surgery, a serious problem would raise fears about the 31-year-old's career prospects. Thoughts of an England recall are rapidly receding.
Durham's difficulties so far this season are perhaps best summed up by the fact that only two bowling points eluded them throughout the whole of last year; after struggling against Yorkshire last week, they have now dropped three in two matches.
Their current standing near the foot of the division suggests the prospect of a relegation battle rather than another title challenge - though Paul Collingwood continued to visibly rally his troops, gambolling energetically from slip to give Mark Stoneman at high five at point when stopping a shot during the morning session, in which only 17.4 overs were possible.
Sussex's handsome advantage was built on the back of a record stand between Luke Wright and Ben Brown, although another poor forecast for Tuesday may prevent them capitalising fully. The sixth-wicket pair only added nine more runs to the overnight score before being separated but both achieved career bests, Brown's 163 eclipsing the mark for Sussex's No. 7 that had stood since Jim Parks made 159 not out against Kent in 1950.
Rain interrupted play after one over from Wood, causing a 45-minute delay, and on the resumption Durham claimed their first wickets since shortly after lunch on the first day. Wright had just surpassed his previous best first-class score, made against Middlesex last summer, when he drove airily at Rushworth to be caught behind for 189 and end his partnership with Brown at 335.
Rushworth made it two in three balls when he also had Ashar Zaidi held at the wicket and Brown did not last much longer, Wood snaking one past the bat to hit off stump. The ninth wicket fell three balls too late to give Durham a third bowling point but the persistent showers on the south coast provided a depleted attack some welcome respite.
Warwickshire 136-6 (Bell 58*) trail Yorkshire 444 (Plunkett 86, Williamson 75, Root 69, Bresnan 61, Woakes 3-43, Barker 3-69) by 308 runs
As Tim Bresnan waits anxiously for England's selectors to announce their first Sri Lanka line-ups, there will be some interest, too, in Liam Plunkett. Yorkshire's former Durham fast bowler has not played for his country since 2011 and the two-year spell in which he was a regular in the side ended seven years ago, in July 2007.
A recall at the age of 29 would not be in keeping with England's policy of looking to the future rather than the past but his performances in the last year and a half have been enough to get people talking. His dedication to his gym work has enhanced his fitness, enabling him to bowl fast for longer, and the way he has been managed, by a captain and coaches who believe in him, has rekindled the enthusiasm that his last years with Durham seemed to sap.
He has always been blessed with pace but the anecdotal evidence is that he may be quicker now even than in his vigorous youth. He has also retained his ability to supplement his value as a bowler by regularly scoring not insignificant runs with the bat, as he did here, leading a telling contribution from Yorkshire's lower order that left Warwickshire's decision to bowl first ultimately look the wrong one.
He took on Warwickshire's attack in the morning and they did not come out of it well, conceding 90 runs in 19 overs in a morning session twice interrupted by rain without taking a wicket. After Bresnan's 61, Steve Patterson added 43 to the runs plundered by the Yorkshire bowlers, sharing a stand with Plunkett that generated 104 runs for the ninth wicket and secured not only a third batting point for Yorkshire but the luxury of a fourth, which was not a bad recovery from 181 for 6.
It looked better still as Warwickshire struggled to the close six wickets down and still 167 short of avoiding the follow-on. Only Ian Bell, still there on 58, looked capable of sticking around on a pitch that still had plenty in it for the bowler.
Jeetan Patel snared Patterson, caught at backward short leg, but Plunkett had more to give. He had hooked Richard Jones for six to complete a 51-ball half-century and now went after Patel, with a couple of meaty blows down the ground as well as a reverse sweep for four.
He gave Woakes a taste of it too with a big blow over mid-wicket, and although the young England all-rounder had the last word as the old one holed out to deep point, by then he had made 86 off just 75 deliveries.
It is his highest score for Yorkshire but his 19th first-class score of 50 or more, of which he has turned two into hundreds, the latest of which came for England Lions in Sri Lanka in February during a tour in which he made a good impression all round.
But it is his bowling that has excited his supporters and it was his hostility that did much to have Warwickshire in trouble with the bat as they began their reply.
Even a batsman as accomplished as Bell had to fight hard for survival as Plunkett, on as first change, peppered him with short balls, fending away from his body with two men positioned for catches on the leg side. It was a crucial contest given Warwickshire's heavy reliance so far on the England batsman.
Bell survived that early joust but Warwickshire, who had lost an out-of-form Varun Chopra to the ninth ball of the innings, late into his shot and spectacularly bowled by Jack Brooks, who can also work up some speed, still ran into trouble.
Laurie Evans, another who needs a score, was missed in the last over of Brooks's first spell when he edged between wicketkeeper and first slip but when Steve Pattersoon took over at the Rugby Stand End, his fifth ball had Evans caught at first slip. Plunkett took a breather after six overs but Brooks continued the trial by speed and Warwickshire lost their fourth wicket when Ateeq Javid was leg before, his reactions beaten for pace.
Bell is less easily prised out. Tim Ambrose stuck with him for a while, before Bresnan had him caught at first slip, which left Chris Woakes, yet another short of form with the bat, needing to make this his moment to find some. He struck his second, third and fourth balls for four off Brooks but thereafter scratched out only three more singles before he went down the wicket to Kane Williamson's off-spin and was bowled.
