LV County Championship, Division One

Day three, close

Hove
Sussex: 365 all out and 35-2
Surrey: 626-3

Surrey took firm control at Hove, removing the final four batsmen in Sussex's first innings for 16 runs after tea and then dismissing their openers for only 16 once play resumed after a bad-light interruption.

Murray Goodwin's made 119 for Sussex in their first innings before he fell to the bowling of Matthew Nicholson, who took five wickets for 89, including Carl Hopkinson with the first ball of the innings.

Richard Montgomerie (78) and Chris Nash (53) then steadied the ship for Sussex, sharing a 110 partnership, but it barely dented the Surrey total.

Mark Ramprakash hit an unbeaten 266 for the visitoras in a quadruple-century partnership with Mark Butcher (179). Luke Wright had ended a decent opening partnership for the visitors when he had Scott Newman caught by Robin Martin-Jenkins on 38, having shared a stand of 82 with Jonathan Batty (39). Mushtaq Ahmed took the most punishment from the Surrey batsman finishing with bowling figures of 178-1 off 35 overs.

Edgbaston
Warwickshire: 335
Durham: 214-5

Dale Benkenstein (57 not out) and Kyle Coetzer (46) provided some stability to the Durham middle order as they struggled to reach Warwickshire's first-innings.

Graham Onions had earlier polished off the Warwickshire tail, taking 8-101 after Kumar Sangakkara (149) and Alex Louden (105) looked to be building a big score. Warwickshire lost their last five wickets for just 32.

Day four, close

Old Trafford
Lancashire: 161 and 296-7
Worcestershire: 327

Result: match drawn

Paul Horton hit 139 as Lancashire fought hard in their second innings and saved a match they looked likely to lose.

The opener had useful support from Mark Chilton (59) and Mal Loye (35 not out). Kabir Ali had earlier destroyed the visitors in their first innings with a superb 8-50 performance with the ball.

Muttiah Muralitharan also impressed with the ball taking 6 wickets for 72 runs, but it wasn't enough to stop Worcestershire posting a decent total thanks to Graham Hick (110), Vikram Solanki (54) and Ali (39).

Division Two

Day two, close

Derby
Derbyshire: 225 all out
Middlesex: 248 and 64-2

Derbyshire took the wickets of Nick Compton (30) and Ed Smith (1) cheaply in the final session to keep the match balanced at Derby.

Chaminda Vaas had earlier taken the opening wicket of the Derbyshire innings his Middlesex debut as the visitors set a slight first innings lead.

Derbyshire had made a decent start reaching 157-3 but Alan Richardson's 5-49 saw a steady flow of wickets with only a belligerent 40 from Graham Wragg to hold the fort.

Nick Compton (51) and Vaas (56) were the top scorers for Middlesex in a game hugely affected by rain. Boyd Rankin, the Ireland World Cup bowler, plumped his figures to 4-80 by mopping up the tail.

Day three, close

Bristol
Gloucestershire: 219 all out and 45-1
Glamorgan: 392

James Harris claimed seven first-innings wickets for Glamorgan as Gloucestershire's batsman struggled on a rain-interrupted day.

Most crucially, Harris removed the top four batsmen, including Kadeer Ali (13) and Marcus North six shy of his century.

Mark Wallace and Alex Wharf had earlier resurrected the Glamorgan innings after a top-order failure by hitting identical scores of 128. Wallace carried his bat through the morning before Wharf added some much needed hitting power.

Mark Hardinges spearheaded the Gloucestershire attack, finishing with 3-59.

Grace Road
Leicestershire: 335 all out
Essex: 39-2

Essex made a terrible start to their innings, with their top three batsmen Varun Chopra Mark Pettini, and Ravi Bopara all failing to reach double figures.

Leicester made a decent start in a match that has already lost two days to rain, with both Darren Rowe and Paul Nixon hitting 85 and Darren Robinson making 43. The game, however, that looks headed for a draw.