Liam Dawson staked his claim for an Ashes call with a century and six wickets as Hampshire took command against Middlesex in their LV= Insurance County Championship clash.
After amassing 141 with the bat, Dawson tore through Middlesex with his left-arm spin to claim six for 38 – and leave Middlesex 142 for eight at the close.
Earlier, Hampshire had been bowled out for 419 with Josh de Caires picking up career-best figures of seven for 144.
Leaders Surrey wrested control against Lancashire at the Kia Oval thanks to a last-wicket stand of 130 between Sean Abbott and Dan Worrall.
Abbott and Worrall both made entertaining half-centuries as Surrey scored 360 to establish a first-innings lead of 86.
The pair then struck in successive overs as Lancashire lost three wickets clearing their arrears. They reached stumps on 113 for four, a lead of 26.
Daniel Bell-Drummond hit a career-best 271 not out and Tawanda Muyeye also weighed in with a century as Kent moved into a strong position to pile more woe on Division One’s bottom club Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.
Bell-Drummond’s masterful knock eclipsed his previous best of 206 seven years ago, and also set a record for a Kent batter at Wantage Road, beating Frank Woolley’s 217 from 1926.
The pair added 318 for the second wicket as the visitors piled up 550 for five by stumps, a lead of 313.
Somerset stormed back into contention on the second day against Nottinghamshire at Taunton thanks to Matt Henry’s six-wicket haul and an eighth first-class century from George Bartlett.
Henry took four from 26 in a superb seven-over spell as the visitors collapsed from an overnight 145 for four to 186 all out.
Henry finished with six for 59 to leave Nottinghamshire with a first-innings lead of just 23, before Bartlett’s unbeaten 109 helped Somerset close on 268 for four, 245 in front.
Simon Harmer continued to do the damage as Essex moved closer to an emphatic win over Warwickshire at Chelmsford.
Harmer took five for 65 in the first innings as the visitors were dismissed for 158 and forced to follow on 299 runs in arrears.
Harmer added another wicket in the 24 overs of Warwickshire’s second innings, as an unbroken second-wicket stand of 66 edged the visitors to 71 for one at close.
A century by Colin Ackermann kept Leicestershire in with a chance against Division Two leaders Durham, who declared at 517 for six on day two.
Ollie Robinson’s career-best unbeaten 167 had put the visitors in command but Ackermann – who will join Durham at the end of the season – replied with an unbeaten 104 as his current side responded well to reach 335 for four at stumps.
Wayne Madsen and captain Leus du Plooy rewrote the record books as Derbyshire moved into a position of considerable strength on day two against Worcestershire at New Road.
The duo scored centuries and broke a 31-year-old landmark in establishing a new Derbyshire record of 267 from 70 overs for the fourth wicket against the home side.
Derbyshire will begin day three with a lead of 137 and five wickets in hand and Du Plooy unbeaten on 159.
Matthew Revis hit an unbeaten 104 off 163 balls as Yorkshire posted an emphatic 550 for nine declared against Gloucestershire at Headingley.
Revis was the third rising Yorkshire star to make three figures after openers Fin Bean and George Hill on day one, and set up an action-packed reply from the visitors who reached 232 for five off 57 overs, with Miles Hammond reaching an unbeaten 84.
Australian leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson took the final two wickets in two balls as Glamorgan dismissed Sussex for 203 on day two at Cardiff.
The Welsh county then built on their first-innings lead of 39 as openers Zain-ul-Hassan and Andrew Salter ended the day on 46 without loss – a lead of 85.
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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