Notts in control against Warwickshire

Nottinghamshire took control against the current champions, Warwickshire, through penetrative bowling from their seamers and a century opening stand by Darren Bicknell and Jason Gallian. Warwickshire were cruising along at 101 without loss, after choosing to bat first, before they lost Nick Knight, caught behind off Mark Ealham, for 57. This induced a collapse to 168 for 8 with Andy Harris, Ryan Sidebottom and Greg Smith also in the wickets. Luke Parker and Dewald Pretorius gave the score some respectability with a stand of 55. But Bicknell and Gallian put a total of 219 into perspective by adding 123 and even two late wickets from Alex Loudon leave Warwickshire with a mountain to climb.

Alistair Brown struck his third century of the season as Surrey made the most of near perfect batting conditions at Guildford against Kent. Mark Ramprakash and Graham Thorpe both fell in the 90s when much bigger scores were within their grasp. Ramprakash edged a catch to Naill O'Brien, Kent's wicketkeeper, as he tried to angle the ball to third man, while Thorpe became becalmed and missed an attempted drive at Min Patel, as he came down the pitch. Patel also removed Jonathan Batty (50) but successes were hard to come by for Kent, after Simon Cook's earlier strike to remove Richard Clinton for a duck. Brown reached his ton just before the close, from 150 balls, although both he and Azhar Mahmood could have been run out in a mix-up.

Nic Pothas and Sean Ervine staged a spectacular Hampshire recovery after they fell to 102 for 6 in the face of some impressive bowling from Sussex. Pothas ended the day on 129 - his first ton of the season - and although Ervine fell to Rana Naved, off the last ball of the day, Hampshire are right back into this match. It was tough progress for Hampshire after choosing to bat with Rana, James Kirtley and Jason Lewry causing problems. Shane Watson began the fightback, battling his way to 43, but that was nothing compared to the efforts that came during the final session.

Ottis Gibson and Claude Henderson added an unbeaten 116 for the eighth wicket to resurrect Leicestershire and halt Yorkshire's charge. The pair came together at 226 for 7 following the dismissal of Chris Rogers for 93. Rogers's knock had held the innings together while the Yorkshire attack chipped away at the other batsmen. Richard Dawson took two wickets and Tim Bresnan trapped HD Ackerman lbw for 20. But Gibson has always had the ability to play important innings - but not often the concentration - and applied himself in impressive style, facing 149 balls. Henderson provided sturdy support and Leicestershire are now closing in on four batting points.

Shoaib Akhtar produced a fiery burst of pace bowling for Worcestershire but Northamptonshire refused to cave in. Shoaib's second spell helped reduce Worcestershire from 150 for 1 to 173 for 8 and five of his wickets were clean bowled. However, David Sales stopped the slide finding an unlikely partner in Monty Panesar - career average 8.57 - and they added 64. More astonishingly Panesar then added 62 with Jason Brown (average 7.33) to boost Northants to 299. Panesar continued his starring role by snapping up Stephen Moore and Graeme Hick before the close to leave the match evenly poised.