Key events
Elsewhere, Notts are gunning for full batting points –and it looks very much as if they’re going to get them. With nine overs left to scramble them, they need just 27.
Rory Burns has slowed down a little, but he and Sibley press on without too much trouble at The Oval. Surrey 62-0.
Liam Dawson has been winkled out at Southampton, for 110, a third for Taylor, but Gubbins presses on 161 not out. Hants 394-5.
Overton pins Williams, and the crowd sighs. A little press box discussion – purely going on vibes – are there any more valuable Championship bowlers than Craig Overton and Dan Worrall?
Craig Overton thunders in from the James Anderson end and 20 year old Harry Singh carefully presses back. No pressure son. Lancashire 16-1.
Dont shout at me but I do feel some sympathy for the ECB fixture people – this is some of the nicest weather we’ve had all season, in mid September. I actually quite like early autumn Championship cricket – the day-nighters are a crazy idea though, there were people in the crowd in Cardiff wearing hat, gloves and scarf.
Jason Kerr was to be avoided last nightt:
“I’m certainly not happy at this stage. Twenty-one wickets in the day suggests there’s something happening with the surface but to be 58 for one gave us an opportunity to take the game forward and we’ve missed that opportunity.
“I thought Lancashire bowled well on that surface but you need to find a way to absorb pressure and then put it back on the opposition and we didn’t do that. You could argue there were a couple of soft dismissals in there as well and when have an opportunity, you need to be far more ruthless.
“We weren’t sure how the surface was going to play. It looked better than it played but I thought Lewis was exceptional. He led from the front and bowled the lengths you need to on that surface. We had an opportunity to bat past them and we haven’t taken it.
“Taking Keaton Jennings’ wicket in the second innings was huge. He normally scores heavily against Somerset and I think the surface will get better tomorrow as it dries out. “
Scores on the doors
Division One
The Rose Bowl Hampshire 373-4 (Gubbins 153 no; LA Dawson 102 no; JM Vince 57) v Worcestershire
Canterbury Nottinghamshire 393-6 (BT Slater 160; JA Haynes 62; Haseeb Hameed 56) v Kent
Old Trafford Lancashire 140 (KK Jennings 56) and 16-1; Somerset 146
The Oval Durham 262 (CN Ackermann 78 no); Surrey 52-0
Edgbaston Warwickshire 78 v Essex 189-9
Division Two
Derby Derbyshire 173 (HRC Came 66); Middlesex 125-1 (MD Stoneman 79 no)
Cardiff Yorkshire 361 (GCH Hill 90; JH Wharton 63; DM Bess 50); Glamorgan 12-0
Bristol Gloucestershire 109; Sussex 149-4
Northampton Leicestershire 203 (S Budinger 56); Northamptonshire 134-3
Tuesday’s round-up
Twenty-one wickets fell on the first day at Old Trafford in a match crucial to fortunes at the top and bottom of the Division One table. Somerset, starting the penultimate round just eight points short of leaders Surrey, were cock-a-hoop at dismissing Lancashire for 140 by mid-afternoon. There were four wickets each for a steaming Craig Overton and Lewis Gregory on a hybrid pitch that tipped the bowlers a wink. A weary Keaton Jennings was the only man to get above 16, moving past 1,000 runs for the season during his patient 56.
Somerset didn’t look so happy just 40 overs later, bundled out with a lead of just six. George Balderson was the baby-faced destroyer with four wickets, alongside Tom Bailey, whose magical slower ball left Overton cartoonishly bemused. There was just time for Jennings to fall for the second time in the day, as the shadows stretched like backgammon points across the field. It was a high-pressure test for teenagers Rocky Flintoff and Archie Vaughan, who both batted with admirable composure.
At The Oval, a carefree Rory Burns ensured that Surrey rattled along to 52 without loss by stumps after winkling Durham out for 262. Colin Ackermann was criminally stranded on 78 while Emilio Gay’s debut for the visitors started with a 12-ball duck. Liam Dawson and Nick Gubbins both sashayed to centuries for Hampshire against Worcestershire. Essex trio Shane Snater (who took five for 13), Jamie Porter and Sam Cook whistled Warwickshire out for 78 at Edgbaston, while Nottinghamshire took a giant stride towards safety by swatting Kent all around Canterbury, led by Ben Slater’s 160.
In Division Two, leaders Sussex rolled over Gloucestershire for 109 while Toby Roland-Jones helped Middlesex keep the pressure on Yorkshire in the promotion chase with five for 34, before Mark Stoneman led the Derbyshire bowlers a merry dance. In Cardiff, George Hill’s 90 took Yorkshire to a useful 361 all out against Glamorgan.
Preamble
Good morning! It’s another blue, beautiful, bonny day and at Old Trafford both sides are looking busy on the outfield. Huge day today – will Somerset come to regret what Jason Kerr last night called “missed opportunities”
