County Championship Review

Warwickshire vs Lancashire

Having bowled Warwickshire out in the penultimate over of the first day, Lancashire reached the touching distance of Warwickshire's first innings score as there could not be any other finely poised half point at the stumps of Day 2. Star of the day, Steven Croft anchored the innings, providing middle-order resistance with other batters struggling. However, he missed out on his much-deserved century as he fell short of 10 runs but played a crucial role in taking Lancashire to trail by just 12 runs with one wicket remaining. Warwickshire's bowler Liam Norwell returned with figures of (4/78) as he viciously walked down the batting line-up to halt the overnight score to 280/9. 

Somerset vs Surrey

Surrey skipper Rory Burns smashed the second ton of the LV= Insurance County Championship to put his team in the commanding position as the teams will head into Day 3 against Somerset. Bundling out Somerset at 180 in their first inning, Rory Burns fetched 113 off 217 to create a lead of 202 runs in the first inning itself. Roelof van der Merwe later dismissed Burns with his first ball of the day. Besides Burns, Will Jack's 88 and unbeaten 63 from Jordan Clark stood out as Surrey continued to add more to Somerset's misery. Hashim Amla could not resume his innings due to illness as the batter retired out, scoring 19 runs. Despite so much effort from Peter Siddle and Marchant de Lange, Surrey scored 382 at a loss of 7 wickets at the stumps of Day 2. 

Hampshire vs Yorkshire

Yorkshire posted a mammoth total of 428 in their first inning courtesy of 131 from George Hill and an unbeaten 51 from Dom Bess. Apart from these two, Harry Brook's 71 and Matthew Waite's 41 came as crucial contributions to the total as Brad Wheel took the final four wickets to end their inning. 

In reply to the total, Nick Gibbins smashed 58 runs and moved past 500 runs with his fourth half-century of the season. Further, an unbeaten stand of 114-runs, in partnership by Liam Dawson (61) and Ben Brown (52), helped Hampshire sail to 225/4 by stumps. Though Hampshire batters are scoring runs at a decent rate, Yorkshire still has a hefty lead of 203 runs. 

Kent vs Gloucestershire 

Batting first, Gloucestershire fetched 438 runs owing to Glenn Phillips 125 off 157, followed by Oliver Price's defiant half-century well supported by Zafar Gohar's 49 and Tom Price's 39 in the lower-middle order. Matt Milnes and Grant Stewart took seven wickets together but were expensive with their economy rate. 

In response to the huge total, Ben Compton (80) and Daniel Bell-Drummond (89) stitched a 155-run stand after an early strike from Gloucestershire's Zak Chappell to dismiss Ollie Robinson. Both the batters missed out on hundreds but led Kent's remarkable recovery through their contribution. Kent now trails by 206 runs at the stumps of day 2, scoring 232/3.