Somerset v Essex, Middlesex v Kent, and more: county cricket day two – live | County Championship

Joe Root and Harry Brook pulled on their Yorkshire boots to warm up for the Zimbabwe Test.

It didn’t go entirely to plan on a 16-wicket day at Headingley. Root fenced uncharacteristically at Ed Barnard and was caught for a 17-ball one and Brook ran through a spicy repertoire before he was caught for 33. Jonny Bairstow hustled to 47 before being bowled in a blaze of exploding stumps, but he and the tail had ushered Yorkshire past 200. Ethan Bamber finished with five for 47. Warwickshire then lost six wickets in the evening session.

Gloucestershire completed their 100% losing record at the toss in 2025 and were invited to bowl at Old Trafford. The energetic and swift figure of Ajeet Singh Dale soon removed George Bell and Keaton Jennings, but Marcus Harris had arrived with his overnight bag.

Harris started with neat accumulation but rolled out his greatest hits once he’d passed his hundred – a glide through midwicket, a whip to the rope through backward square, a glorious flick off the toes for six. At stumps, he was 165 not out and the leading scorer in the country with 559 runs.

Somerset prepared an emerald pitch at Taunton but it was Jack Leach, wheeling in for 30 overs from the River End, who caused havoc, inducing a mid-innings collapse and picking up three for 35. Essex squeaked past 200 before Sam Cook, freshly called up by England, removed Archie Vaughan in the first over of the Somerset reply.

There was a return to form for Rishi Patel at Grace Road, his 105 a model of patience and skill as wickets fell about him. The South Australian Harry Conway grabbed five for 68 on his Northants debut.

Toby Roland-Jones, the Middlesex captain, (five for 33) skittled through Kent, who were dismissed for 129. Poor Zak Crawley’s early season woes continued when he was lbw for six. Graham Clark’s unbeaten 110 put Durham on top against Hampshire. And there were fifties for the Jersey international Asa Tribe, Sam Northeast and Colin Ingram as Glamorgan passed 300 for the first time this season against Derbyshire.