Thursday 21 June 2018 18:18, UK
Ross Taylor collected his first Specsavers County Championship century for Nottinghamshire as champions Essex toiled in the humid conditions at batsman-friendly Chelmsford.
Essex v Nottinghamshire scorecard
The New Zealander, who has joined for the first half of the summer and is playing his penultimate red-ball game for the county, guided the visitors into a dominant position with a 208-ball 146 on day one of the Division One match.
The 25th first-class century of 34-year-old Taylor's career - only the eighth away from the Test arena - took four-and-three-quarter hours and included 23 fours.
It had looked a good toss for stand-in captain Chris Nash to win at the start of the day, and an even better one by the end of it when they had 311-6 on the board.
Somerset were left to regret putting Surrey in after the home side's top-order took advantage in their top-of-the-table clash at Guildford.
Rory Burns (66) and Scott Borthwick (83) made half-centuries and Arun Harinath and Ryan Patel both added 48 before Ollie Pope hit an unbeaten 73 as Surrey closed on 351-5.
There was little to encourage their two England spinners Dom Bess and Jack Leach, who was back in their side five weeks after breaking his thumb, although Bess did have Surrey debutant Theunis de Bruyn caught at short cover for a third-ball duck.
Worcestershire all-rounder Ed Barnard provided a late surge of wickets to turn the clash with Lancashire on its head at Blackfinch New Road.
Worcestershire v Lancashire scorecard
Lancashire's Australian paceman Joe Mennie (4-43) had ripped through the middle order as bottom-placed Worcestershire were bowled out for 247 despite a fine century from Daryl Mitchell. Jordan Clark (4-56) mopped up the lower order.
Four wickets in 16 balls by Barnard, though, saw Lancashire nosedive from a comfortable 77-0 to 86-5 by the close after nightwatchman Stephen Parry, Haseeb Hameed, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Rob Jones were all dismissed for ducks in quick-fire fashion.
Yorkshire's Gary Ballance allayed fears of batting against the pink ball by scoring his first County Championship century of the season in the day-night game at Hampshire. Hampshire v Yorkshire scorecard
Ballance, who is colour-blind, had previously struggled to pick up the different coloured ball against the white sightscreen, but looked comfortable in making 109 in Yorkshire's 315-7.
Harry Brook scored 79 in a 143-run stand with Ballance for the fourth wicket after Yorkshire had tumbled to 21-3, while Dale Steyn picked up 4-48 for Hampshire, including the wickets of Ballance, Brook and Cheteshwar Pujara (0).
Twenty wickets fell on a highly dramatic opening day at Tunbridge Wells, with Warwickshire dismissing fellow high-flyers Kent for 197 before themselves crumbling to 125 in reply after tea.
In two overs' batting before the close of the Specsavers County Championship Division Two match, second-placed Kent made 4-0 to stretch their overall advantage over the leaders to 76 runs.
Tony Palladino took four wickets as Derbyshire took control of their clash against Glamorgan.
Glamorgan v Derbyshire scorecard
Derbyshire's seamers took full advantage of the muggy conditions to reduce the hosts to 52-5 after 21 overs of the first session. Glamorgan recovered after tea, thanks to Chris Cooke's 69, and closed on 175-7.
An outstanding unbeaten 151 from Colin Ackermann, his second century in the Specsavers County Championship this season, left Leicestershire in a strong position at the end of the first day of the match against Middlesex.
Leicestershire v Middlesex scorecard
The South African, playing with a protective cast on a finger on his right hand, passed 150 off the final ball of the day as the hosts moved to 353-8.
Sussex academy graduate Tom Haines scored a memorable maiden first-class century as Sussex put on a commanding display against Durham.
The 19-year-old left-hander - called in to replace England Lions call-up Chris Jordan - featured in a record second-wicket stand of 244 with Phil Salt as Sussex piled up 439-5.
Salt also scored his maiden century at this level as the pair celebrated beating the previous record second-wicket stand against Durham of 196 between Bill Athey and Alan Wells at Hove in 1996.
Finally, Gloucestershire trail bottom-of-the-table Northamptonshire by 257 runs with nine wickets remaining of the first innings after bowling out the hosts for 282 in the pink-ball game at Wantage Road.
Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire scorecard
Matt Taylor bagged four wickets for Gloucestershire, while Luke Procter, Ben Duckett and Richard Levi all made half-centuries for the hosts - Gloucestershire then lost Chris Dent (11) from the final ball of the day to close on 25-1.
