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County Championship Division One: Jake Ball hat-trick hurts Middlesex

Ball rocks leaders; Bess grabs six as 21 wickets fall at Somerset

 Jake Ball of Nottinghamshire
Image: Nottinghamshire's Jake Ball ran through Middlesex's top order

A first-over hat-trick by Jake Ball left Specsavers County Championship Division One leaders Middlesex rocking at the end of day one of their clash with bottom side Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

Middlesex - four points clear of second-placed Yorkshire going into this round of fixtures, with each having played 13 of their 16 matches - had made a decent enough start to the contest, bowling Notts out for 241 after opting to put them in to bat.

But the visitors then suddenly found themselves on 0-3 in reply as Ball saw off Sam Robson, Ollie Rayner and Nick Compton with successive balls. They subsequently survived without further damage, reaching 9-3 by the close.

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The most fight from Notts prior to Ball's efforts had come via a knock of 100 from Samit Patel - one of four men dismissed by Steven Finn, who also accounted for Tom Moores, whose father Peter was announced as Notts' new head coach on Tuesday.

Steven Finn returned impressive figures
Image: Steven Finn returned impressive figures of 4-54

Meanwhile, it was a comfortable day for Yorkshire in their title push, Alex Lees posting 132 in the defending champions' 341-5 against Durham at Headingley.

Along with Lees' knock, there were also decent contributions from Gary Ballance (71) and Jake Lehmann (58) as Durham struggled to make much headway with the ball.

There were no such problems at Taunton as day one of Somerset's clash with Warwickshire saw 21 wickets fall - six of them claimed by the hosts' 19-year-old Championship debutant off-spinner Bess.

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Dom Bess of Somerset celebrates the wicket of Jeetan Patel
Image: Dom Bess of Somerset celebrates the wicket of Jeetan Patel

After the home side had been bowled out for a woeful 95, Warwickshire - for whom Keith Barker had taken four wickets - then only mustered a slightly better tally of 123 all out in reply, with Bess' 6-28 making his first appearance one to remember. Somerset were 41-1 in their second innings at stumps.

At the Oval, the star man was Rory Burns, whose knock of 101 helped Surrey make 260-6 on a first day against Hampshire that was hampered by bad light.

Burns faced 207 balls in a superb four-and-a-half hour knock, hitting a six and 15 fours before top-edging fast bowler Brad Wheal to Tom Alsop, running in from deep square leg.

He had reached 98 with a hook for six off Wheal and fully deserved his second championship hundred of the season.

Rory Burns
Image: Rory Burns was the lynch-pin of Surrey's innings

In his last seven Championship innings Burns has scored 443 runs at an average of 74 and, overall this season, he has made 1,102 Championship runs at 44 with seven fifties besides his two centuries.

The 26-year-old also moved past 5,000 first-class career runs when completing his half-century.

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