Surrey face a battle to save their perfect start to their LV= Insurance County Championship title defence after seeing Kent build a substantial lead on day two at Canterbury.
The champions were all out for 145 in their first innings, with Matt Quinn taking three for 22 and Wes Agar three for 32, while India’s Arshdeep Singh took his first Championship wickets.
Tawanda Muyeye then hit 79 and Daniel Bell-Drummond made 59 as Kent moved to 197 for six in their second innings, a lead of 353, but a productive evening session gave the visitors hope going into day three as Dan Worrall claimed three for 53.
Warwickshire, who occupy second place in Division One, have a firm grip at the halfway stage against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge and are poised to benefit if Surrey slip up.
By the time an approaching electrical storm had seen the players taken off just before 5pm, Nottinghamshire were in deep trouble at 82 for five in their first innings, still 489 runs behind after Warwickshire declared at 571 for nine.
Pakistan international Hasan Ali had taken two wickets in addition to his quickfire 54 with the bat, with wicketkeeper Michael Burgess grabbing two catches to go with his unbeaten 77 earlier.
Lancashire lead by 113 runs after two days of their match against Hampshire at Southport.
The visitors were indebted to a career-best six-wicket haul by Felix Organ after Phil Salt had struck his first century for Lancashire, with Daryl Mitchell and George Bell contributing significantly to the hosts’ first-innings 374 to give the home side a huge 232-run lead.
A determined unbeaten second-wicket partnership between Fletcha Middleton (44 not out) and Nick Gubbins (45 not out) then helped take 95 runs off that advantage as Hampshire closed on 119 for one in their second innings.
Simon Harmer claimed his first five-wicket haul of the season as Essex put themselves into a strong position against Somerset.
Harmer had taken 18 wickets in his first six Championship appearances of the season but tore through the Somerset lower order after Jamie Porter had dealt with the top order and seen the visitors slump to 10 for three.
Somerset were bowled out for 167 and trailed after the first innings by 295 runs, but Essex did not enforce the follow-on and ended the day on 15 for one – a lead of 310.
In Division Two, centuries from David Bedingham and Ollie Robinson provided the foundations as leaders Durham staged a fightback against Glamorgan.
The visitors reduced Durham to 119 for four to pile on the pressure, but Robinson and Bedingham responded with a stand of 171 for the fifth wicket and they finished the day on 411 for five.
Worcestershire opener Jake Libby was left needing just two more runs to complete back-to-back double hundreds against Sussex after dominating on the second day at Hove.
It looked like being a day of unrelenting toil for Sussex when Libby and Adam Hose passed their first-innings score of 348 during a fourth-wicket stand of 192 either side of tea, but Sussex fought back admirably in the final hour to take six wickets.
Libby, though, proved immovable and will resume on Tuesday on 198 out of a total of 410 for nine, a lead of 62.
A brilliant exhibition of counter-attacking batting by Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali halted Yorkshire’s victory charge in its tracks and rescued Derbyshire at Chesterfield.
Derbyshire’s decision to move Ali down the order proved to be inspired as the Pakistani opener scored his first century for the county and shared an unbroken record-breaking fifth-wicket stand with Du Plooy of 231 from 311 balls.
They had come together with Derbyshire heading for defeat at 17 for four after Dawid Malan’s 106 guided Yorkshire to 353 and a lead of 242 with spinner Mark Watt taking a career-best five for 83.
But Du Plooy’s 96 and Ali’s 129 lifted the home side to 248 for four and a lead of six when bad light, followed by an electrical storm, ended play with 10 overs left in the day.
Yorkshire had looked set for an even bigger lead until the dismissal of Malan sparked a collapse that saw the last five wickets fall for 28 runs.
Ollie Price celebrated his 22nd birthday with a career-best first class score as Gloucestershire fought back strongly against Leicestershire in Bristol.
Struggling at 118 for five early in the morning session, the hosts battled hard to post a first-innings total of 368, Price contributing 85 off 172 balls, with 12 fours.
There was also a career-best 52 from Ajeet Dale, sharing a ninth-wicket stand of 111 with Danny Lamb, who marked his Championship debut for Gloucestershire with a battling 70, including three sixes.
By the close, Leicestershire had responded with 23 for no wicket from five overs.
Broad fears for inexperienced England bowling attack after Anderson retirement
Stuart Broad fears an inexperienced England bowling attack could be exposed to problems after James Anderson announced his Test retirement decision on Saturday.
England's all-time leading wicket-taker Anderson will end his remarkable red-ball career after the first Test against West Indies on July 10.
Anderson has taken 700 wickets in 187 Tests, the most by any pace bowler in history, but the 41-year-old will play for a final time after Brendon McCullum signalled a change of plans for the future.
Matthew Potts, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson are all potential replacements, though Broad remains concerned for Ben Stokes' bowling options going forward.
"England could easily go into a Test match this summer with a very, very inexperienced bowling group," Broad told Sky Sports Cricket podcast.
"If you don't play a [Chris] Woakes, Mark Wood has a rest and there's no Jimmy Anderson, you could have three seamers and a spinner out there potentially with 20 caps between them.
"That's quite scary as a Test captain I would have thought. We don't know how much [Ben] Stokesy's going to bowl – we hope he does.
"But that could leave you a bit exposed. There's only one way to find out with bowlers, and that's to give them a go."
Anderson's opening-bowler partner Broad retired after last year's Ashes, having finished his illustrious career with 604 Test wickets.
Having neither of the pair available to lead the line with the red ball in future may pose problems and Broad reiterated his concern over the gaping gap Anderson's retirement will leave.
"There's going to certainly be a huge hole left by Jimmy Anderson that someone is going to have to step into," he added.
"And not just by swinging the new ball. But by communicating, by keeping calm if the boundaries are leaking, by tactically being aware of what field works at certain grounds, pitches and times of Test matches.
"Ultimately, you don't learn that unless you're thrown in."
Broad, however, remains hopeful that Stokes and McCullum will find the right combinations to take England into a new era of Test cricket.
"I think exposure for some bowlers now is really important, because there's talent out there," Broad continued.
"There's bowlers out there that need a bit of exposure to see what it's about in Test match cricket.
"They may need time to adjust their training plan and how they operate before a tour in two years' time."
IPL: Gaikwad helps CSK strengthen playoff hopes with victory over Royals
The Chennai Super Kings boosted their Indian Premier League playoff chances as captain Ruturaj Gaikwad top-scored to clinch a five-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals.
Off the back of two defeats in their last three outings, the Super Kings needed a victory, and an impressive bowling display allowed them to easily chase down the Royals' total with 10 balls to spare on Sunday.
After the Royals won the toss and opted to bat first, openers Jos Buttler and Yashavi Jaiswal got Rajasthan off to a solid start before the latter was dismissed in the seventh over with 43 runs on the board.
Buttler lost his wicket less than two overs later, and though Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag somewhat steadied the ship, Chennai's bowlers continued to make runs difficult to come by.
Parag top-scored for Rajasthan as he finished unbeaten on 47, but the Royals could only muster 141-5 from their 20-over allocation.
Chennai overcame the loss of opener Rachin Ravindra in the fourth over to set themselves up for victory, despite all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja being dismissed for obstructing the field having added just five runs.
Captain Gaikwad guided his team over the line, finishing with 42 not out from 41 deliveries as Chennai wrapped up the win without needing MS Dhoni, who could have played his last IPL game at Chepauk.
The victory leaves Chennai third with one game remaining against Royal Challengers Bangalore, while Rajasthan miss the chance to go level on points with IPL leaders Kolkata Knight Riders, though their playoff place should still be safe with a four-point gap between them and the fifth-placed Delhi Capitals, who face RCB later on Sunday.
Data debrief: Chennai bowlers shine
The Super Kings had previously come out on the wrong end of the result in their last four meetings with the Royals, but a strong performance from their bowlers allowed them to end that losing streak.
Simarjeet Singh was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 3-26, while Tushar Deshpande (2-30) also impressed. While Jadeja did not get a wicket, his four overs only amounted to 24 Rajasthan runs.
Tape ball programme can help England find unorthodox talent – Richard Gould
The England and Wales Cricket Board hopes to unearth a new seam of talent beyond the game’s traditional league structure with a national tape ball scheme that allows players to thrive without “whites, willow and leather”.
The practice of using a soft ball wrapped in electrical tape to aid swing and variable bounce is a common one in Asia, where it has helped produce express pace bowlers like Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi and spinners such as Rashid Khan and Shakib-al-Hasan, but has been slow to enter the mainstream conversation in the United Kingdom.
The Chance to Shine charity has long pioneered tape ball cricket as part of its engagement hubs and now, with the ECB keen to live up to its lofty aspiration of becoming the most inclusive team sport in the country, it is at the heart of a new core cities programme designed to engage ‘diverse communities in urban areas’.
Speaking at a launch event where games were hosted in a warehouse space in Birmingham, ECB chief executive Richard Gould was optimistic about reaching out to those with an interest in cricket but limited access to the pavilions and prepared pitches in the club setup.
“We talk about clubs with picket fences around them. In the past that has been seen as the preserve of the ECB. We’ve missed a complete trick on that,” he said.
“When we talk about the recreational game we’re not just talking about Premier League clubs and village cricket clubs now. We’re talking about all forms of cricket that take place.
“You can play the game anywhere, any time, with anybody, in any environment you want. You don’t have to have whites, willow and leather to do it. You can just pick up a bat and a ball and have some fun.”
As well as fulfilling its remit of reaching out to all comers at a grassroots level, Gould also believes there are benefits to finding cricketers with different styles who have learned the game outside the traditional, private-school heavy pathways.
“Without doubt there are,” he said. “We have to get out and try to find the talent. More to the point, we have to try and find talent in areas that we haven’t normally looked for it.
“I do think county pathways will be looking to make sure they don’t miss out on this talent. It’s just about punching through all of our normal procedures and finding ways to both get people in the game and unearthing that talent which may be unorthodox and great.”
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