County Championship Round 1

Eight games set us off for the county season:

Division 1

Durham v Somerset
Notts v Middlesex
Warwickshire v Derbyshire
Yorkshire v Sussex

Division 2

Essex v Gloucestershire
Glamorgan v Northamptonshire
Hampshire v Leicestershire
Lancashire v Worcestershire

Commentary on all games via the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/13629853

Proper cricket at last! Get Cricinfo up for the day and relax.

All 8 sides that won the toss decided to bowl first!

2 wickets in 2 balls for Roland Jones of Middlesex against Nottinghamshire, dismissing Hales and Lumb. Couldn't quite get the hat-trick though. Also, Yorkshire are in a bit of trouble at 14/3.

Hampshire start 0-2. Adams and Carberry both going for a duck

Bailey and Dawson putting a good partnership together. Now 50-2

Yorkshire 18/3 off 18 overs...

Lunch then. Somerset and Sussex doing particulary well in Division 1. Looking at the possible England players, Taylor is 14* for Nottinghamshire, Bairstow is 21* for Yorkshire, and Bopara has taken a wicket with just his 3rd ball. The Aussie Ed Cowan is ominously on 60*.

Duty281 wrote:Proper cricket at last! Get Cricinfo up for the day and relax.

Cricinfo coverage good but I'm obliged to direct you to Deep Extra Cover's live blog - http://deepextracover.com/livematchcentre/10135

I'm on Notts-Middx today and Saturday.

Can see why everyone chose to bowl first, so hard to bat at this stage of the season and judging by scores it seems that is correct!

Yorkshire 94/8, Chris Jordan of Sussex getting the first five-for of the season.

Yorkshire all out for 96 - England hopeful Bairstow top scoring with 29. Chris Jordan finishing with 6/48, apparently it was a good display of bowling straight and extracting some movement from the pitch.

Not sure what is happening with Worcestershire. Mitchell was down to open as usual but still hasn't come in and we are 4 down. Trying to find some news about an injury or something but nothing to be seen on Twitter or BBC Sport.

On the bright side, looks like Moeen seems to have found a bit of nick, 71 not out at the moment.

Top work by Somerset so far

Good to see Cameron Herring keeping for Gloucestershire as well.

Bailey 93 on debut
Dawson 46
Vince 61 not out
Ervine 42 not out

Hants going well and scoring runs fast! Good comeback after being 0-2

Yorkshire bowled out for 96

Glamorgan bowled out for 134

Essex struggling

Glos 196-3

50 for James Taylor.

Intresting that Tymal Mills got the nod over Reece Topley for us today...however he's bowled well..hasnt got a wicket but has kept it tight

13-3-0-37 -2.84

Decent start from Notts, haven't quite got away from Middlesex so far, but on course for a decent first innings score at TB

Good to see James Taylor starting strong this season

Taylor out for 55, quite gutted for him in truth. Nearly 4 hours of effort, and now the game may have swung Middlesex's way.

I dunno, 200+ is potentially an imposing total early in the season at TB.

Chris Nash getting his 50 up as well. He has to be one of the most under rated players in the game IMO.

Good knock from Jimmy T. Hoping for a Nick Compton-esque season and he can't be ignored!

Anyone know why Root isn't playing for the Yorkies?

ECB asked for certain players to be rested after the winter, and clearly root was one of them.

Ah, fair enough. He probably deserves it.

Ton for Bell-Drummond at Kent as well, he looks to have all the makings of a seriously classy player.

Essex have had a shocking day

won the toss and chose to field, and Glos piled on 300-3

Hamish Marshall batting superbly well in that game, unbeaten on 120. Sounds like Essex bowlers are having a shocker though.

Duty281 wrote:All 8 sides that won the toss decided to bowl first!

Good spot, Duty.

Generally, most of the batting sides seem to have fought hard and sometimes after a rocky start. Six of them got past 225 which for the early conditions doesn't seem too bad. Top marks to Hants and Gloucs who already look in strong shape.

The two batting sides to miss out were Yorks and Glamorgan who couldn't match the others and look in a spot of bother.

Good to see the domestic cricket section here getting back into full swing.

From the 8 games underway:

Hampshire and Gloucs look in good shape: both sides seem likely to pass 400 (although Hampshire could conceivably fold, but that seems unlikely against what is surely a very pedestrian Leics attack) which is a very good effort in early season conditions. Particular credit to Hampshire for recovering from 0/2, although and Dawson will be upset at having done the hard work then given it away.

Yorkshire and Glamorgan are struggling, but neither game is over yet. A strong showing from the bowlers could restrict Sussex's lead to 100 and Northants to even fewer. In these conditions you feel it is sometimes easier to get back into games through bowling than batting, so there is a case to be made that these sides are better off than Essex and Leicestershire,

All the other games are too close to call, or at least too undecisive to make any definite statement until the end of day 2, when we shall know more.

Concentrating briefly on my side Middlesex, I think Notts will be somewhat disappointed so many batsmen got it but couldn't take full toll. Middlesex will be concerned that only Roland-Jones got amongst the wickets, but please that they are in a position where if they bat well they can control the game. That is of course the big if.

2 wickets in 4 overs for Graham Onions this morning.

James Vince 100

Big year for him

I like Vince. Classy player.

Mike Selig wrote:I like Vince. Classy player.

Struggled last year in the 4 day game, but excelled in other formats. Hope he can have a good year all round though, i know the selectors have an eye on him.

3 wickets for Onions, and 3 wickets for Rushworth means Somerset have fallen apart at the seams - 92/6 in reply to Durham's 250. Middlesex have started strongly with 122/2 in reply to Nottinghamshire's 278, while Sussex are powering ahead of Yorkshire. In division 2, Hampshire are on course to take all 5 batting points with Vince compiling an unbeaten ton.

Ben Brown onto 63 not out. Future England player right there!

Durham now 5/2

20/3 Durham, Somerset need quick wickets to stay alive and Trego has obliged by ripping out the top 3 in brisk fashion.

24/4 for Durham now

Yorkshire 27-1 with bad light stopping play.

Durham 82-8

Yorkshire can run but they can't hide, James Anyon will get you!

Middx have worked their way into a strong position provided they aren't blown off course by the forecast rain. John Simpson and Sam Robson, who were both poor last year, in the runs.

Elsewhere, all sorts going on at Durham where after a series of collapses the hosts lead by 210.

Looks like there will be some rain around at times on Fri and/or Sat.

Bit surprised to see Gloucs dominating so much against Essex. No great surprise tho to see Leics struggle.

Yorks making Shelsey sweat on his prediction for Div 1 champions. But early days yet

Indeed, though I do stand by my reasoning: plenty of talented players and Bairstow and Bresnan should play pretty often. Was always a bold call.

No surprise at all that Leics and Glam are going badly.

All sorts of strange things going on with the Leics team: Niall O'Brien opening, Ned Eckersley (wicket-keeper not wearing the gloves) at 3, the highly rated Shiv Thakor at 7 and more bizarrely first change too. Matthew Hoggard is still going but his figures again suggest that England were right in deciding he was past his best 5 years ago...

For Glamorgan there is probably a little progress from last year (not saying much). A few people are starting to talk up their tall seamer Mike Reed who got a couple of wickets. That said, I think this Northants side are poor and so to struggle so badly against them is a disappointment.

From people at Headingley yesterday the opinion seems to be that it's very much division 1 vs division 2 - especially in the bowling department (that may sound weird after being bowled out for 96). The consensus on Wed night/Thursday morning seemed to be that the pitch had eased up for Sussex's innings although that was soon dispelled as soon as Anyon and Magoffin came back on to bowl. You have to wonder at the wisdom recruiting Plunkett and Brooks when Ashraf has been coming on so well. Not even in the 13 this week either - must be disheartening for him.

Liver,

Brooks is a very good bowler who has been with England Lions in the past and I think he'll do very well if he stays fit. Alongside Sidebottom, Bresnan and Patterson (who I think is underrated) that is a good attack. Then add in Rafiq as a very decent spinner and Ashraf as back up and I maintain that Yorks look very strong in the bowling department.

I'm not sure that the signing of Plunkett was necessary though. Its a long time since he showed form (if he ever did - my feeling is that Moores picked him for England more because of his pace than anything).

The start of all 4 games in Division 1 has been delayed.

No I agree with you Shelsey that Yorkshire have a very good bowling line-up on paper although there are certain questions about everyone one of them, Bresnan (injuries and form), Sid (age), Rafiq (experience), Brooks (unknown quantity), Patterson (div 1 quality?) and Plunkett (too many to list).

It's early days for Brooks really, so we'll see how he goes. But as a point, Ashraf averaged 22 last season, while Brooks averaged 35 odd so I'm just wondering why Brooks has got the nod here. I would have left either him or Plunkett out of this one.

Stupid weather is going to cost Sussex