County Championship—Division One, Round Four

Yorkshire extended their lead at the top of Division One with a comfortable win over Essex in Round Four of the County Championships.

Yorkshire, now on 83 points from five games, batted first at Scarborough and made 516 with Anthony McGrath (112) and Andrew Gale (135) top scoring.

Essex could only muster 206 the first time around, with Steven Patterson taking 5-50.

Essex only performed slightly better the second time around with 214. Yorkshire won by an innings and 96 runs.

Second place Nottinghamshire made it three wins out of three, on 67 points, after a tense win over Hampshire.

The home side built a solid first innings foundation as Michael Carberry top scored (132) in their 300 total.

Nottinghamshire's reply of 329 was largely thanks to Ali Brown's 81 and Steven Mullaney's 100 not out as Dominic Cork took 4-34.

Hampshire scored 273 in their second innings with Samit Patel snaring 4-55.

The away side was running out of time to chase the 245 they needed for victory, but made it by five wickets as Mark Wagh hit 131 not out in 158 balls.

Lancashire is third on 60 points, having played four games after drawing with Somerset at Old Trafford.

The Red Rose County made 292 in their first innings thanks to Luke Sutton's 118, while Damien Wright took 5-41.

Sajid Mahmood hit a 76-ball 64 but was then unable to bowl for the rest of the match due to injury.

Somerset slumped to 157-5 but recovered to make 383 thanks to James Hildreth (99) and Peter Trego's 108 from 88 balls.

In a match interrupted by rain and bad light, Lancashire survived a nervy final day on 221-6, despite Alfonso Thomas's efforts (4-33) to ensure a draw.

Warwickshire made it two wins on the spin to climb to fourth on 53 points after four games.

After being put into bat, Warwickshire made 250. Jonathan Trott was top scoring with 67.

Kent replied with 377, Joe Denly making 95 and Rikki Clare taking 6-63.

Warwickshire improved the second time around, with 327 as Ian Bell hit 94.

That left the home side needing 201 for victory, but they capitulated to 156 all out. Martin van Jaarsveld's 59 was the only score of note while Imran Tahir took 4-27.

Essex's slipped to fifth after five games, with 45 points, with their defeat to Yorkshire.

Durham is sixth after three games on 33 points.

Somerset's draw at Lancashire lifts them up a place to seventh after four games on 29 points.

Kent slipped one place to eighth after four games on 26 points. Hampshire props up the table after four straight defeats on 22 points.

The next round of fixtures sees Essex V Kent, Hampshire V Somerset, and Nottinghamshire V Durham on May 10-13.