Jimmy Anderson laid down an early Ashes marker as he made short work of Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne in his first county appearance of the summer.
Anderson was making a belated start to his 22nd season with Lancashire following a calf injury and left his mark on Labuschagne, who has just arrived for his second overseas stint with Glamorgan. Anderson dismissed him for 12 with a wonderful delivery and went on to finish with one for 22 from 13 overs. Glamorgan, meanwhile, finished 117 for three in the first day of their County Championship match at Old Trafford.
For the third time in first-class cricket Stuart Broad took the wicket of Alastair Cook, but the England bowler was upstaged by Luke Fletcher, who got career-best figures of six for 24 off 16 overs as Essex were bowled out for 99. At stumps Nottinghamshire were 188 for four in reply, with Steven Mullaney getting a half-century.
Northamptonshire’s Ben Sanderson and Gareth Berg split 10 wickets between them as Sussex were skittled for 106. Sussex started badly, with Tom Haines falling early, and got worse. By the end of his fourth over Sanderson had taken three wickets for three runs and Sussex were 19 for three. Four overs and two runs later Berg bowled a two-wicket maiden, and when Tom Clark was pinned lbw by Sanderson, they were 21 for six.
But matters did improve from there thanks to Ollie Robinson’s unbeaten 49, and a total of 106 was in the circumstances something of a triumph. Still the wickets continued to tumble, Ben Curran out to the second ball of Northamptonshire’s reply and Ricardo Vasconcelos soon following. But half-centuries from Rob Keogh and Saif Zaib settled things down and they ended the day with a healthy lead.
The day’s lowest total came at Southampton, where Hampshire were 36 for two against Somerset, but then Sam Northeast was run out and they fell apart: by lunch they had scored seven more runs and lost another four wickets. Their innings ended for 79 and, though both Somerset openers fell with the score on 11, they took the lead for the loss of only one further wicket.
There was some serene batting at Leicestershire, where Sam Evans and Marcus Harris shared a stand of 195 against Surrey, both scoring centuries. From 208 for one, however, the score at stumps of 306 for six will be a minor disappointment. The day’s only other centurion was Robert Yates, who helped Warwickshire to 271 for seven at the close against Worcestershire.