James Foster sees Essex to victory over Kent at Chelmsford

Captain James Foster led Essex from the front as they opened their LV= County Championship Division Two campaign with a win over Kent.

Foster scored 80 off 103 balls and saw Essex over the line just after lunch on the third day at Chelmsford, the home side winning by five wickets.

Essex started the day needing 127 runs for victory and lost 17-year-old Daniel Lawrence in the early overs when he was caught by Fabian Cowdrey off the bowling of Mitch Claydon (3-53).

James Porter dug in alongside new batsman Foster and the pair went on to add 66 for the fifth wicket, although Porter contributed only 10 of those runs in an 85-ball innings of 14 before he was bowled by Matt Coles.

But Ryder proved an able ally for Foster, who continued to dominate the scoring and ensured the target was down to only 23 runs by the time the lunch interval arrived.

Those runs were knocked off in the first nine balls of the afternoon session, as Foster plundered 16 runs off a Claydon over and Ryder hit nine runs off the next three balls delivered by Ivan Thomas to end a game that had been dominated by seam bowlers until the final day.

Craig Meschede played a starring role for Glamorgan as a superb rearguard effort saw them avoid the follow-on against Surrey at the SWALEC Stadium.

Meschede scored his maiden first-class century to lead a recovery from 293-8, with Glamorgan needing to reach 414 to avoid having to bat again.

The all-rounder, on loan from Somerset, ended unbeaten on 101 after sharing a 119-run stand for the ninth wicket with spinner Dean Cosker, who scored 19 but was dismissed just before they reached their target.

But Meschede made sure of a double celebration as he moved to 100 just after they passed 414 - Andy Carter fell five runs later but the game now looks set to end in a draw with Kevin Pietersen likely to get another chance to bat on Wednesday.

Derbyshire are up against it at home to Lancashire, who were indebted to some valuable late-order runs to set a testing target of 365.

That target looked like being around 100 runs lower but wicketkeeper Alex Davies produced the innings of his career so far to dominate a century partnership for the 10th wicket with Kyle Jarvis.

Davies hit nine fours and five sixes in a 99-ball innings of 89, while Jarvis hung around at the other end to score 17 and help Lancashire to 345 in their second innings.

Ashwell Prince earlier fell three runs short of a century and Derbyshire seamer Tom Taylor returned career-best figures of 6-61.

But their run chase started badly, with Tom Bailey trapping Billy Godleman (4) leg before and Peter Siddle having Ben Slater caught behind for seven as Derbyshire limped to 27-2.