James Anderson failed to appear for Lancashire as they rued poor catching in their LV= Insurance County Championship Division One clash with Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford.
The record-breaking England seamer left the field just before Thursday’s close of play with what was described as a “minor issue”.
The remaining Red Rose players combined to drop seven catches as teenager James Rew took centre stage, hitting 105 in Somerset’s total of 361 all out. Lancashire were 72 for two in reply at the close.
Tom Alsop’s unbeaten century helped Sussex into a strong position against Leicestershire despite Steve Smith falling cheaply.
Australia star Smith, who made a low-key 30 on his Sussex debut at Worcester last week, was back in the pavilion having scored just three off 14 balls as the match finally got under way.
However, despite his failure, Sussex still enjoyed a good second day as they made 319 for four after being sent into bat, with Alsop (118 not out), Cheteshwar Pujara (77) and James Coles (59no) leading the way.
Yorkshire edged their way into a controlling position against Durham, leading the hosts by 118 heading into day three.
George Hill claimed four wickets to help bowl Durham out for 227, with Yorkshire reaching 91 for three in their second innings and England pair Dawid Malan (33 not out) and Jonny Bairstow (16no) at the crease.
Rory Burns led from the front with a fluent and aggressive 88 as Surrey chased a significant first-innings lead against Middlesex, trailing by only 19 runs on 190 for three at stumps.
But the most eye-catching innings of a second day cut short by bad weather was Jamie Smith’s 55 not out, with the 22-year old showing off some memorable and high-class strokes.
Nottinghamshire seamer Brett Hutton took his third five-wicket haul of the season to compound former county Northamptonshire’s ongoing batting woes.
Hutton found plenty of movement under floodlights, cloudy skies and light rain and precipitated a Northamptonshire collapse from 113 for two to 158 all out.
A fluent fourth-wicket stand of 68 between Joe Clarke (41 not out) and Matthew Montgomery (34) helped Nottinghamshire close one run behind on 157 for four.
A buccaneering 10th-wicket stand of 70 restored Warwickshire’s control after Essex fought back hard at Edgbaston.
Essex closed day two on 86 for four, still trailing by 30, after Warwickshire’s last pair Hassan Ali (53 not out) and Olly Hannon-Dalby (18) clouted 70 from 69 balls to lift their side to 242.
A well-made 86 from Michael Neser and four wickets from Timm van der Gugten put Glamorgan within touching distance of their first win of the season against Worcestershire in Cardiff.
With Worcestershire ending the day on 195 for seven, 46 runs in front with just three wickets left, Glamorgan will be hoping to wrap up victory on Saturday.
Gloucestershire seamer Matt Taylor impressed on his first appearance of the season against Derbyshire, taking two for 18 from 10 overs as the hosts struggled on another day badly hit by the weather.
No play was possible until 2pm because of a wet outfield and – after Gloucestershire won the toss – Derbyshire reached 130 for five before bad light ended play early.
There was frustration for fans and players alike at Canterbury as a mere 6.1 overs were possible between Kent and Hampshire, with the visitors moving to 103 without loss, a lead of eight.
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
Last Hurrah: Dwayne Bravo to call time on CPL career after this year's edition
Former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo says this year’s edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be his last hurrah as he announced his retirement from the tournament on Saturday.
Bravo, who represents the Trinbago Knight Riders, made the revelation on his Instagram account hours ahead of the franchise’s opening contest against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, scheduled for 7:00pm.
“It's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to playing my final professional tournament in front of my Caribbean people," Bravo said in his post.
“TKR is the place where everything started for me and will end with my team,” he added.
The 40-year-old’s post all but indicates the end of a decorated professional career, as he retired from international cricket in 2021 after the T20 World Cup and also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) a year later after being part of four title-winning Chennai Super Kings campaigns.
Bravo, known for his flair and skillful batting and bowling, is currently the CPL’s highest wicket-taker with 128 scalps in 103 games at an average of 22.40 and economy rate of 8.69.
In fact, Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in all T20s, with 630 scalps in 578 matches. He has also scored 6,970 runs with the bat.
No doubt the electrifying Trinidad and Tobago stalwart will go down as one of T20's early legends, having played seven World Cups in the format, winning two titles, as well as over 15 franchise league titles. He is the first bowler to get to 500 T20 wickets.
CWI targets domestic T20 competition in 2025 to identify Caribbean representative(s) for 2028 Olympic Games
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow says plans are already afoot to host a domestic T20 competition next year to determine the Caribbean representative(s) for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Shallow, once again welcoming cricket’s return to the Olympic Games, pointed out that his administration is already in dialogue with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hierarchy to stage the domestic competition in 2025.
Cricket, which last featured at an Olympic Games in 1900, was always set for a long-awaited return to the global multi-sport showpiece, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year confirmed it and four other sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash—for the LA Games.
“To add cricket to the agenda in the next Olympics is certainly going to be something tremendous, as we did in the Commonwealth Games a couple years ago when we had one of our teams representing the females. We at the time chose our original women’s tournament, and the winner at the time was Barbados, so they represented the region,” Shallow said.
“We anticipate something similar will be done unless they tell us all the teams can come and participate, which would be ideal, but it is unlikely for that to happen,” he added.
Shallow also explained that the CPL champions cannot represent the region at the Olympic Games given that the tournament is franchise-based and involves players from other parts of the world.
As such, he revealed that he has engaged CARICOM leaders regarding plans for a domestic T20 competition from which the winner or top finishers would secure the coveted Olympic Games spot(s).
“We have been in discussion with CPL for them to fund a domestic T20 tournament starting next year. I think Miles Bascombe and his team have already scheduled a window for that next year in 2025. Once we are able to have that tournament, then we can use that to determine which team or teams will participate in the Olympics on behalf of CWI,” Shallow shared.
“We can’t use the CPL as it is now because it’s franchises. But in the domestic tournament that we’re having, which will still have a commercial model to it but not to the extent of CPL, but that will more than likely be territories instead of franchises, so we will be able to identify teams,” he noted.
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