County Championship Round 5

Another round of County Championship matches begin today:

Division 1

Yorkshire v Somerset
Warwickshire v Middlesex (Starts Wednesday)
Surrey v Durham (Starts Friday)

Division 2

Lancashire v Essex
Gloucestershire v Hampshire (Starts Wednesday)
Worcestershire v Leicestershire (Starts Wednesday)

BBC Commentaries - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/13629853
DEC Live Blogs - http://deepextracover.com/livematchcentre/ (not running today because of only two matches)

Essex 77-5. Another top order collapse. Story of the last 4/5 years. In come Foster and Napier to add a 50 partnership and take it to 127-5.

Luke Procter with 4 wickets so far.

Essex now 165-7, Napier with yet another 50. That guy is literally carrying this team at the moment:

73 off 65 vs Northants
6-93 with the ball vs Northants
74 off 105 vs Hants
78 off 88 vs Hants
50 off 29 vs Hants (YB40)
11 of 6 vs Durham (YB40)
52+ off 125 vs Lancs today

Runs for Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid today. Yorkshire were 75-4, but have recovered to 282-4. Ballance is on 107 and Rashid (who is becoming a batting all-rounder...) 85.

I see Rashid and Napier have decided to become batsmen who bowl a bit this season

Napier is averaging 170 in the CC this season so far after his unbeaten hundred today!

Good to see Rashid's batting starting to take off again.

Napier - having a remarkable start to the season.... he's done well with bowling as well as batting I recall?

Only one 5-for for Napier, but he takes 1 or 2 every innings. He's been our most reliable bowler that's for certain.

Cracking unbeaten century today, vital too!

According to BBC Sport, Napier has now scored 340 runs in six innings this season - 105 more than he scored in the whole of the 2012 campaign.

Great to see Hampshire on top form again...

Napier with the last two wickets, Lancs 100 behind and 7 down

Sam Robson is continuing his fine start to the season, currently 79* having just been dropped.

Highest first class score for Rashid now, 167*.

Day 3 about to start, Essex in a very good position at 120-2, a lead of 169 and with Alastair Cook 57*.

If Cook can notch a century, and someone else knock in a 50 (Napier...), then we're looking at a target of 300+ for Lancs to chase down. I think we could seal the win tomorrow morning if the cricketing Gods are kind.

Azzy - extremely good fight back from Essex so far.

It certainly looks like Lancs will need to make the highest innings score of the match in the fourth innings if they are to win. Even on the current flat tracks, that is never easy.

Add the ever reliable Masters into the mix and I think you're in a strong position ....

Hopefully. We needed to take advantage of Cook being with us for two games, and it's looking possible that we'll take two wins from those games. Crucial if we're to battle for promotion.

Hampshire were 97-8 now 217-8.

Danny Briggs with a 50 All rounder

Cook out for 60

Still, two 50s for us in two games, that's okay prep for the first test next week.

All five batsmen so far have bettered their first innings score, I hope Napier can do the same!

Jimmy Adams 100

Essex doing really well now, 185-3, a lead of 234. Mickleburgh on the verge of a much-needed 50 from his perspective.

Tomlinson 0 off of 35 balls so far, what a rearguard action

0 off of 37 balls, if this was a Test match it would be the joint-third longest innings that ended 0*

Now 39 balls. What the hell is the guy doing

Haha he averages 0.5, you keep it up Tommo, leave the batting to Adams

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 1* off 45 balls.

Meanwhile Middelsex pile on the runs against Warks on a rain affected day.

Looks like Essex may have put the awful start to the season behind them.

Indeed, although Mother Nature seems to have robbed us of a straightforward victory and made tomorrow a tight day. We need to come in in the morning, smash 15-20 overs for 90-150 runs, then bowl them out quickly.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Now 39 balls. What the hell is the guy doing

He's in training for the next Olympics - entering the Finn class I believe...

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Indeed, although Mother Nature seems to have robbed us of a straightforward victory and made tomorrow a tight day. We need to come in in the morning, smash 15-20 overs for 90-150 runs, then bowl them out quickly.

Alternatively push Napier up the order and smash 10 overs for 200 runs!

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Now 39 balls. What the hell is the guy doing

He's in training for the next Olympics - entering the Finn class I believe...

Well Essex have declared to try and force a result. Lancs need 253 to win and are currently 14-2, Topley and Masters striking early

Ravi with his now-traditional 1 wicket for the Lions

I really don't like these staggered weeks - much harder to follow than when all of the matches start on the same day.

Anyway, here's the round-up:

- Yorkshire and Somerset drew, but Yorkshire dominated the match. Somerset were made to follow and slipped to 61-6 before the end of the game. 4-22 for Jack Brooks in the second innings and 4 for Tim Bresnan in the first. I expect Bresnan has done enough to be named in the Test squad tomorrow.

- Middlesex couldn't quite find the penetration to make a win likely in their rain-affected game with Warwickshire. Having piled up 428, they reduced Warwicks to 267-5 although that's really 6 down as Laurie Evans retired hurt with a broken hand and won't return. Evans, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Tim Ambrose all scored 50s before getting out. Corey Collymore, who has done quite well since being recalled from the 2s captaincy, picked up 3 wickets. With the follow on all but avoided, all money should be on the draw which, given the state of their line-up, Warwicks will probably be happy with.

- In Division 2, Lancs beat Essex by 3 wickets. Desperate for a win to climb up the table, Foster set 253 in 47 overs. It was a close run thing, but Lancs got across the line with 2 balls to spare. Karl Brown and Ashwell Prince did the bulk of the damage with 80 a piece. In the process the talented left-armer Reece Topley took 5 wickets.

- Hampshire-Gloucestershire is this week's 'bore of the week'. 3 days gone and, with the assistance of rain, all hopes of a non-contrived positive result are over. In response to Hants 274, Gloucs are 284-2 with Michael Klinger 131*.

- Worcestershire-Leicestershire runs Hants-Gloucs close. Leics 229-2 in reply to Worcs 320. Ned Eckersley scored a century and Sarwan is 46*. If anyone fancies contriving a result with lob ups etc., I fancy this could be the one.

Gutted that we lost after setting a good total, just goes to show the pressure there is on teams to force results.