IT WAS perhaps inevitable that Graham Thorpe should choose the eve of the first Test match to make his highest score of the season in the first division of the championship. Scampering singles, he showed no sign of the back injury that had concerned the England selectors and, if Kevin Pietersen should fail, the left-hander’s 95 from 140 balls, which helped Surrey to reach 394 for five against Kent at Guildford, will look even better.

Thorpe began briskly, lifting Amjad Khan over mid-wicket and adding two fours in the same over, but slowed noticeably within sight of his 50th first-class hundred. His application and obvious annoyance at falling short of the landmark when he was deceived and bowled by Min Patel said much for his ambition this summer.

Mark Ramprakash would be another candidate for the England No 5 berth if technique and weight of runs were the only criteria. Despite a badly bruised toe, his footwork was immaculate until, three short of what would have been his fourth century of the season, he advanced to Simon Cook, lost the line and edged to the wicketkeeper.

Alistair Brown took advantage of a toiling attack with a 150-ball century after tea.

Warwickshire fell foul of umpiring confusion over the Duckworth/Lewis method against Surrey on Monday; at Edgbaston they could reproach only bad luck and poor batting. Both they and Nottinghamshire have a game in hand over Surrey and Kent and are arguably best placed for the title push. But, having won a championship toss for the first time this summer, Warwickshire crashed from 101 without loss to 219 all out.

Once Nick Knight had fallen for 57, the Nottinghamshire pace quartet combined clinically to expose an understrength Warwickshire side. The champions had no official overseas player, two men on championship debut and another in his fourth game. In the 41 remaining overs, Darren Bicknell moved with authority to 71 and, although Alex Loudon gained turn to undo Jason Gallian for 62 and Russell Warren for five, Nottinghamshire, top of the table overnight, were only 56 behind at the close.

A seventh-wicket partnership of 191 between Nic Pothas and Sean Ervine, a record for the Rose Bowl, lifted Hampshire to 293 for seven after Sussex had threatened to take control of an intriguing contest.

Pothas hit three sixes and 16 fours in his unbeaten 129, his fifth first-class century for Hampshire, while Ervine, the former Zimbabwe all-rounder, had made 69, his highest score for the county, when he drove the last ball of the day from Naved-ul-Hasan to cover point.

Shane Watson, the Australia all-rounder who is making a good fist of replacing both Shane Warne and Pietersen, struck a powerful 43.

In the second division, Shoaib Akhtar stole the initiative from Northamptonshire in his first championship match for Worcestershire, who finished on 74 for two after dismissing the home team for 299 at Wantage Road. In one devastating over after lunch he bowled Martin Love, Riki Wessels and Damien Wright with vicious inswingers.

The Pakistan fast bowler completed his five-wicket haul in the same manner, Ben Philips the victim this time, having already done for Tim Roberts in the second over after the interval. David Sales, the Northamptonshire captain, managed to guide his side past 200, even after being hit on the helmet, another hazard inherent in facing the “Rawalpindi Express”. But he, too, succumbed soon after in the same fashion as Shoaib’s four previous scalps, leaving the Pakistan player with six for 47, his best figures in English cricket.

After averaging less than nine in 14 first-class innings this season, Ottis Gibson made 87 not out from 149 balls, his highest score for Leicestershire, to lift his team to 342 for four, their biggest championship total of the summer, against Yorkshire at Scarborough. Gibson followed the steely example of Chris Rogers, whose 93 off 150 balls initially fortified Leicestershire in his first championship innings since making 209 against the Australians last Sunday.

Claude Henderson shared an unbroken eighth-wicket partnership of 116 in 39 overs with Gibson after Darren Maddy had completed 10,000 first-class runs. A straw-coloured pitch offered a hint of turn, which Richard Dawson appreciated, but Mark Lawson, 19, a leg spinner, captured the prize wicket of Rogers, stumped by a distance. Leicestershire’s lower order took command at a ground with timeless charm.