The Cricketer wraps up the best of the action during day two of round 13 of the Vitality County Championship in 2024
Hove (day two of four): Glamorgan 186, Sussex 407-5 - Sussex lead by 221 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Skipper John Simpson became the first Sussex batter for ten years to score five Vitality County Championship hundreds in a season as the second division leaders took charge against Glamorgan at Hove.
Simpson also passed 1,000 runs in his unbeaten 112 as Sussex responded to Glamorgan's under-par 186 with 407 for 5 and a lead of 221 runs.
With promotion rivals Yorkshire and Middlesex in position to win their games it is crucial that Sussex do the same and apart from a careless hour before lunch, when they lost four wickets for 25, they were in control at the 1st Central County Ground.
Simpson has so far added 194 for the fifth wicket with Tom Clark, who played his part with an unbeaten 73, and just before bad light intervened at 4.20pm the pair took 19 off ten balls to ensure Sussex collected a fourth batting point.
Ed Joyce – who also left Middlesex to move to the south coast – was the last batter as prolific as Simpson has been in what is his first year with Sussex, and not for the first time this season he made sure his team didn't squander a good position.
Northampton (day two of four): Northamptonshire 178-5, Derbyshire 165 - Northamptonshire lead by 232 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal claimed five wickets as Northamptonshire ran through Derbyshire's batting line-up on a day dominated by spin at Wantage Road before Northamptonshire's batters put the hosts in the ascendancy.
Chahal, a veteran of 152 white ball internationals, finished with figures of 5 for 45, only his third career five-wicket haul, as Derbyshire lost their last six wickets for just 15 runs in 10.2 overs.
For most of the morning, Chahal bowled in tandem with off-spinner Rob Keogh on a pitch offering plenty of turn and bounce with fielders stationed all around the bat. Keogh also took three wickets for 65 runs as Northamptonshire claimed a handy first innings lead of 54 on day two of this Vitality County Championship encounter.
Luis Reece had top scored for Derbyshire with 50 and while Wayne Masden (47) and Aneurin Donald (21) staged a fightback during a 51-run partnership, Chahal removed both batters in a lengthy spell which included a double wicket maiden.
In Northamptonshire's second innings, teenage Derbyshire quick Harry Moore took two early wickets for just six runs, before youngsters Gus Miller (42) and James Sales (40) mounted a stand of 76. Rob Keogh hit a well-paced unbeaten 46 as Northamptonshire closed on 178 for 5, leading by 232 when heavy rain and bad light stopped play.
Ollie Price made a resolute 56 for Gloucestershire at Lord's (Getty Images)
Lord's (day two of four): Middlesex 377, Gloucestershire 154-5 - Gloucestershire trail by 223 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Ollie Price and the weather combined to frustrate promotion-chasing Middlesex on the second day of their Vitality County Championship Division Two clash at Lord's.
Right-hander Price showed guts a-plenty to post 56 not out, his fifth score of 50 or more in the first-class game this season, as the visitors battled to 154 for 5, 223 in arrears of their hosts, on a day when only 41.4 overs were bowled due to bad light and rain.
Not many of the Durham University graduate's even boundaries came off the middle of the bat as the home bowlers found plenty of movement through the air and off the pitch, the inside edge past leg-stump being a profitable source of runs.
However, Price's grit came in the wake of Middlesex skipper Toby Roland-Jones' burst of 3 for 12 in 16 balls either side of lunch and served to take the men from the west country from 74 for 4 to calmer waters, albeit needing a further 74 to save the follow-on. Roland-Jones had taken 3 for 56 and Ryan Higgins 2 for 47 when bad light, followed by rain, drove the players off for the second and final time at 3.15pm.
Leicester (day two of four): Leicestershire 98 & 35-2, Yorkshire 379 - Leicestershire trail by 246 runs with 8 wickets remaining
Yorkshire remain on course for a victory that they believe may be enough to realise their promotion ambitions despite bad weather washing out more than half of the second day of their Vitality County Championship match at Leicester.
Leicestershire will resume on day three at 35 for two in their second innings, trailing by 246 after Yorkshire had posted 379 following an excellent 126 from captain Jonny Tattersall and a career-best 88 from pace bowler Matthew Fisher, who also claimed both Leicestershire wickets.
Rain forced the players off shortly before two o’clock and they were unable to return. It meant 57 scheduled overs were lost but with two full days still to come Yorkshire would be mightily disappointed should they fail to turn their strong position into a win.
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