The match at The Oval between Surrey and Lancashire always looked as if it had the makings of a real contest, and that is the way it is turning out. In the morning session, Lancashire lost a potential match-winner early on when Stuart Law fell to Azhar Mahmood having added only 18 to his overnight score. The Pakistani was not finished there, either, for he also claimed Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg to finish with figures of eight for 61. With Jimmy Ormond claiming John Wood lbw, it was left to skipper Warren Hegg with 42 before he was last man out to set Surrey a target of 305 to win. At lunch they were 11 without loss.

It only took four balls from Andrew Caddick to finish off the Yorkshire innings at Taunton. Without any addition to the total, Yorkshire were all out for 280 leaving Somerset requiring 262 to win. They got off to a good start, with Marcus Trescothick in particular looking as if he meant business, but he lost Jamie Cox and Michael Burns before Peter Bowler accompanied him to lunch. Trescothick had 48 and Somerset needed another 160 runs to win.

Paul Nixon did his best to get Kent out of a seemingly impossible situation against Hampshire. After he had lost Ed Smith for 77, Nixon saw Matthew Fleming also go to Dimitri Mascarenhas so that at lunch Kent's lead was just 9 with four wickets remaining. Nixon is 54 not out.

Warwickshire are up against it at Grace Road. Chasing a massive 523 first innings by Leicestershire, they lost 6 wickets during the course of the morning and at lunch were 152 for nine, still 371 runs behind.

In Division Two, Northamptonshire's batsmen are making a much better fist of things second time around. Following on 407 runs behind against Derbyshire, Mike Hussey and Mal Loye both completed centuries as they cut the deficit to 194 at the break.

At Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire are moving towards victory against Essex. The visitors were bowled out for 270 in their second innings despite a fighting effort from the tail. Greg Smith was the man to do the damage as the tall, left-arm pace bowler took eight for 53 in the innings to finish with 11 wickets in the match. Chasing 188 to win, Nottinghamshire lost Jason Gallian but are within 134 runs of victory.

David Hemp is leading Glamorgan's efforts to post a difficult target for Worcestershire in the fourth innings. He was 56 not out at lunch as Glamorgan moved carefully to a lead of 109 with eight wickets in hand at 121 for two.

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