England’s Ollie Pope made an unbeaten 48 as Surrey and Hampshire were held up on a truncated second day in their LV= Insurance County Championship clash.
Surrey moved to 153 for four in reply to Hampshire’s first-innings 254, with Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Ryan Patel and Jordan Clark dismissed in the 43.3 overs bowled across four separate sessions at the Kia Oval.
Play was eventually called off at 6.10pm – just over half an hour after the players had left the field for what proved to be the final time.
Matt Critchley racked up his third fifty for Essex in three championship innings this season on a rain-affected day against Lancashire at Chelmsford.
The all-rounder enjoyed the better part of an intriguing joust with England paceman James Anderson, who otherwise had Critchley’s team-mates jumping and weaving while taking two more wickets to return figures of four for 70.
Critchley was last man out for 78 from 154 balls to follow scores of 55 and 53 in last week’s win at Lord’s against Middlesex. It enabled Essex to post 219 and eke out a 12-run advantage that at one time in the day looked beyond them.
When a combination of bad light and drizzle curtailed play with 27 overs remaining, Lancashire’s unbeaten second-wicket pair of Keaton Jennings (45) and Josh Bohannon (28) had swung the pendulum back towards the visitors who hold a 70-run lead.
Rain thwarted Northamptonshire’s hopes of cementing their advantage against Middlesex, with not a single ball bowled on the second day of their Wantage Road fixture.
No play was possible between Nottinghamshire and Somerset at Trent Bridge as Stuart Broad’s ambition of taking early-season wickets was frustrated by rain.
Warwickshire were also hit by the weather with a second-day washout in their meeting with Kent.
Sam Hain (124 not out) and Dan Mousley (72 not out) were ready to build on their stand of 132, only for persistent Birmingham rain to keep the players off the field with Warwickshire 367 for three.
In the second division, two wickets from Matthew Potts allowed Durham to make inroads into the Worcestershire batting line-up before rain ended play prematurely.
Durham posted 425 for nine declared in their first innings after Ben Raine scored an impressive 71 to build on David Bedingham’s century and Alex Lees’ knock of 70 from day one, securing four batting bonus points.
Ed Pollock got the Worcestershire reply off to a blistering start, scoring 41 from just 26 balls before he was bowled by Potts.
The England seamer produced a timely peach to remove Azhar Ali just before the close, signalling that he is well prepared to fill the void of Chris Rushworth’s departure. The visitors will resume day three 329 runs behind the hosts with eight first-innings wickets in hand.
Gloucestershire’s clash with Yorkshire at Bristol was wiped out for a second successive day. Heavy overnight rain further saturated an outfield that was not considered fit for play on day one.
Rain was also the winner on the second day of the game between Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Leicestershire will resume at 243 for two after a second-day washout.
