County Championship: Chris Rushworth gets results early doors

Chris Rushworth made a cracking start for Durham becoming the first bowler of the 2019 Specsavers County Championship to take a wicket with the first ball, having Luis Reece depart for a golden duck at Derby.

The opener had no reply but to edge to Michael Richardson at second slip in cold weather conditions. Two balls later Rushworth had Wayne Madsen off-stump knocked off.

Five wickets fell at intervals before Matthew Critchley (24) and wicket-keeper Harvey Hosein (68 not out) steadied the innings until Critchley was eventually trapped lbw by Garth Harte leaving Derby at 172-7 at tea.

Sussex vs
Leicestershire

While Leicestershire’s Chris Wright struck in the opening
over with his fourth ball, bowling Philip Salt. Both Wright and Taylor set the
tempo for the foxes, combining to take six more wickets before lunch, leaving
Sussex 107-6. It wasn’t long before Taylor had his five-for reducing Sussex to
128-8 with two wickets after the lunch break. Taylor added just one more wicket
for his 6-47 as Leicestershire cleaned up the tail despite a fight back from

A brave attempt by Stiaan van Zyl (28) and David Wiese to steady the Sussex innings from 36-5 and take back the momentum was lost when he departed and the innings teetering at 100-6. Sussex’s only half century came from Wiese (58 from 66 balls) before a late flurry of boundaries from tail-enders Ollie Robinson (23) and Danny Briggs (20) helped to muster a first innings of 173.

Sussex have struck early in their attempt to minimise
Leicestershire inflicting any damage with Mir Hamza and Ollie Robinson picking
up the wickets of Ateeq Javid (7) and Hasan Azad (6) cheaply leaving the Foxes
on 40-2.

Northamptonshire vs
Middlesex

Tim Murtagh had the best start to the bowling for Middlesex as his fellow bowlers struggled with the ball. Steven Finn in particular was heavily punished keeping only two maidens in 14 overs at the expense of 53 runs. Despite losing opener Robert Newton (7) lbw early, Northants steadied their innings with captain Alex Wakely hitting 10 boundaries for his 76 off 140 balls before succumbing to Murtagh for his fourth wicket. At tea Northants were 202-4 with Rob Keogh (41 not out) and Adam Rossington (16) at the crease.

Hampshire vs Essex

James Vince’s England recall hopes were stalled as his first innings for Hampshire was brought to an early end. Scoring only 40 before being trapped lbw by Ravi Bopara (1-7) in the thirteenth over from 68 balls, it was a steady slog for the Hampshire opener. New signing Aiden Markram (68) continued his striking form with nine boundaries in 96 balls before surrendering to Matthew Quinn who added to the wickets total for Essex, taking 2-43 in 11 overs before going to tea at 215-3 with Sam Northeast (49) a run away from a half century and Rilee Rossouw (45) at the crease.

Nottinghamshire vs Yorkshire

Openers Ben Slater and Ben Duckett made a solid start to Nottinghamshire’s county championship campaign putting on 75 together before Duckett (43) was caught by Matthew Waite off the bowling of captain Steven Patterson. Wickets were shared a piece between Duanne Olivier (1-54), Waite (1-54) and Patterson (1-50) as Trent Bridge looked a decent batting pitch with Slater top scoring with 76 off 163. At tea Notts were 222-3 with Joe Clarke (40) and Mullaney (31) at the crease.

Somerset vs Kent

Elsewhere Somerset and Kent shared the points after the
match was abandoned due to rain without a ball being bowled.