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A couple of quick wickets at Edgbaston, now 145 for nine.<\/p>\n
At Southampton, Will Smeed, another slow start, nought off 21 balls, lassoos down the pitch to Liam Dawson, but the keeper can\u2019t whip the bails off. Somerset<\/a> 181 for four.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Fifty for Sam Hain<\/p>\n With a gentle fist pump and a shy wave of the bat, Sam Hain celebrates fifty. He and Barker (22) have pulled Warwicks towards a kind of respectability \u2013 144 for seven.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Hundred-watch in vain as Rew uncharacteristically skews a half volley from Yusuf to backward point. Somerset<\/a> 175-4.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n At Southampton, Kyle Abbott is hustling with admirable vigour. Baker still running in from the other end, elbows horizontally churning. Rew (85) and Abell (41) have now put on a hundred for the fourth wicket. Somerset 175-3, 63 behind.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.41 EDT<\/p>\n Gloucestershire all out – Five wickets for George Balderson<\/p>\n And three for Jimmy Anderson, two in an over, old teammate Will Williams lbw and Henry Brookes caught. Gloucestershire<\/a> all out 136, and I predict a couple of days of toil in the field.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.33 EDT<\/p>\n Weather watch<\/p>\n Luckily, there are no games north of the Midlands in this round. The Met Office promise: a mix of sunshine and showers across northern areas today, with some heavy and a risk of hail. Drier and brighter further south, although a few showers developing across Wales and the Midlands into the afternoon. Pleasant in any sunshine.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Kevin James on Sonny Baker: \u201cHe\u2019s very exciting this year, he\u2019s always up and you now.\u201d Which is music to a selector\u2019s ear. I like watching Baker too, he\u2019s like a very energetic and giant springer spaniel.<\/p>\n Down at Bristol, Jimmy Anderson has his first wicket of the innings, Matt Taylor\u2019s stumps clattered. Glos 124-7.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.38 EDT<\/p>\n I settle down in front of Youtube but instead of events from Southampton, my son has put on Lancs v Gloucestershire<\/a>. We watch a maiden from the eager Balderson before I put my foot down.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Lancs cross over “not ideal” and “bizarre” sub ruling<\/p>\n Controversy over the new substitute ruling continued to rumble on after Lancs were not allowed to swap Tom Bailey in for the injured Ajeet Singh Dale in the match at Bristol. Both Bailey and Singh Dale are right arm seamers, but match referee Peter Such ruled that Bailey, who came on as 12th man fielder to replace Singh Dale, was too experienced, and instead Lancs had to call on left-arm allrounder Ollie Sutton, who was at a second XI game at Grace Road.<\/p>\n By the time Sutton got to the ground, everyone else had left.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be grey areas but if Tom had bowled the next ball, I don\u2019t think anyone would have batted an eyelid,\u201d Lancashire<\/a> head coach Steven Croft said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe certainly weren\u2019t trying to pull the wool over anyone\u2019s eyes. It\u2019s a tough one to take and it\u2019s bizarre how it hasn\u2019t been granted.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our eyes, Tom is deemed to be a like-for-like replacement, it\u2019s not like someone is coming in and bowling 10mph quicker. Instead, we\u2019ve had to call up a left-arm seaming all-rounder and that doesn\u2019t sit right with us really.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how it\u2019s come to that conclusion but we\u2019ve got to crack on with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was based on stats and experience, but none of that was stipulated to us when the regulations came out.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.14 EDT<\/p>\n \u201cTop o\u2019 the mornin\u2019 to ya Tanya!\u201d Hello Tim Maitland.<\/p>\n \u201dI\u2019ve finally settled on my retirement home: the place where I can happily continue to revert towards the drooling, incoherent, free-defecating mess that I was when I entered this world. However, I might need your help pooling the immense mental resources that exist BTL on this blog to complete the purchase, because it\u2019s currently occupied by the Northamptonshire<\/a> Supporter\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n \u201dI\u2019m sure they can be rehomed, given the right incentives, because, if there\u2019s nothing two nightmare spells of Trumpism has taught me, it\u2019s that everything is for sale. Besides a bijou, half-timbered, mock Tudor residence that would allow me to literally roll out of bed at 10-55 to the sound of leather on second division willow is too good to miss out on, isn\u2019t it? The lovely wife (American) is more than happy to use the ground floor on matchdays to offer succour to spectators, indeed she\u2019d like your opinion on whether cricket fans would stump up for US-style, still lemonade (I told her they will if you lace it with enough vodka) and homemade gelatos. <\/p>\n She might need to stock up on the odd sausage roll and scotch egg too, don\u2019t you think? Besides all that, does anyone know what the going rate would be for the finest building in first class cricket?\u201d<\/p>\n Tim, unfortunately I can\u2019t attach your photo, but I would very happily drink still lemonade with ice and perhaps a cinnamon bun for elevenses?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.15 EDT<\/p>\n Friday’s round-up<\/p>\n Somerset\u2019s James Rew was a shot of ginger on a rainy Championship day. He purred the last ball of the evening to the rope with a perfect high elbow, to finish unbeaten on 77. With innings of 64, 122 and 48 already this season, Rew\u2019s average is 100 \u2013 numbers to lighten an England selector\u2019s step. Thirteen wickets fell around him, with Jake Lehmann (76), who has stepped into James Vince\u2019s boots, again top-scoring for Hampshire<\/a>. There were three wickets each for Lewis Gregory and Craig Overton.<\/p>\n Essex had time before the deluge to reduce Warwickshire to 113 for seven \u2013 the pinpoint Jamie Porter leading the way with four for 36. Sam Hain, with 44, was the rock around which the other Warwickshire players failed to stick. There was a first Essex wicket for Zaman Akhter, a Saca (South Asian Cricket Academy) graduate who moved to Chelmsford from Bristol in the great winter raid on Gloucestershire\u2019s bowling stocks.<\/p>\n Akhter\u2019s old club suffered a mid-order malfunction against Lancashire. Ben Charlesworth and Ollie Price had lifted Gloucestershire to a respectable 80 for one, after Cameron Bancroft was dopily run out for six. But George Balderson (four for 27) then took three for five before and after lunch, and when Graeme van Buuren was caught for a three-ball duck, the innings was in disarray. Lancashire<\/a> had their own problems when Ajeet Singh Dale limped off the field with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Ollie Sutton, summoned from a second XI match in Leicestershire.<\/p>\n Middlesex made a plucky recovery against Northamptonshire on a bouncy Wantage Road pitch from the depths of 20 for three after winning the toss and choosing to bat. Half-centuries from Leus Du Plooy and Ben Geddes and an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 120 between Zafar Gohar and Joe Cracknell brightened the scoreboard, before bad light stopped play.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.10 EDT<\/p>\n Scores on the doors<\/p>\n DIVISION ONE<\/p>\n Southampton: Hampshire<\/a> 238 v Somerset 154-3<\/p>\n Edgbaston: Warwickshire<\/a> 113-7 v Essex <\/p>\n DIVISION TWO<\/p>\n Bristol: Gloucestershire<\/a> 124-6 v Lancashire <\/p>\n Northampton: Northants v Middlesex<\/a> 284-6<\/p>\n