Surrey v Essex, Lancashire v Nottinghamshire, and more: county cricket - live

The dirty duvet of cloud hanging over Trafalgar Road on Sunday morning could have been pre-ordered by Jimmy Anderson, playing his first match of the year for Lancashire in advance of his international farewell at Lord’s. But Haseeb Hameed, formerly of Lancs, won the toss and, with a twinkle, chose to bowl – so the sell-out crowd had to settle for the consolation of watching Nottinghamshire’s Dillon Pennington, just called up for the Test squad as a possible Anderson replacement.

Pennington, tall and strong, pounding through his run-up, bowled with fire and picked up a couple of wickets. His figures looked a little less tidy after Keaton Jennings, who loves batting at this ground, went on the rampage in the evening session against the second new ball. The sun suddenly out, and the skies forget-me-not blue, he peppered the short boundaries for fun – sixes scattered hither and thither. He finished 183 not out and was applauded off the pitch by a crowd balanced on the fold-up plastic seats who, a few minutes earlier, had roared in Jude Bellingham’s equaliser.

Surrey’s Jamie Smith left quite the calling card during the top-of-the-table clash at the Oval, celebrating his call-up for the Test squad by powering his way to an audacious hundred while none of his teammates passed 26. Eathan Bosch had done the early damage for Essex with three for 52.

At Southampton, Hampshire’s James Vince continued to enjoy his midsummer moment, with a second century in a week, 149 not out against Kent. He was accompanied in his task by an unbeaten 106 from Ben Brown. Michael Burgess cracked an unbeaten 126 as Warwickshire fought back against Somerset at Taunton. More tempestuous times at the Riverside, where Ben Stokes rustled 56 for Durham and Kashif Ali 55 for Worcestershire, on a day when 23 wickets fell.

Sides crumbled like a damp cream cracker on an extraordinary day in Division Two, 75 wickets falling as four games screamed into fast forward. At Grace Road and Northampton the matches moved into their third innings, while at Chesterfield Yorkshire rustled out Derbyshire for 76, with Vishwa Fernando seizing five for 30.

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