County Championship round-up: Read gives notice of Nottinghamshire's title intent

Nottinghamshire gave notice that they intend to press favourites Durham harder even than last season in the race for the County Championship title by putting promoted Worcestershire to the sword at Trent Bridge yesterday.

The Midlands county finished runners-up to Durham in 2008 despite regular failures with the bat but there was no evidence of any such shortcoming yesterday, when they moved from 334 for 5 overnight to 504 all out. It was the first time Nottinghamshire had gone past 500 in almost two years.

Captain Chris Read led from the front with 125, hitting 15 fours and two sixes before miscuing an attempted hook to be caught at fine leg off seamer Chris Whelan, who had earlier broken a 104-run partnership between Read and Stuart Broad (60 off 62 balls) when the England pace bowler chopped on. Broad then took all four wickets as Worcestershire toiled at 140 for 4 in reply, despite a half-century from captain Vikram Solanki.

On day one at Edgbaston, where Hampshire were attempting to maintain their early-season form after registering the only victory in last week's opening round of matches, 21-year-old pace bowler Andrew Miller celebrated his Championship debut with three wickets for Warwickshire. The former England Under-19, released by Lancashire three years ago, ended Michael Carberry's progress at 77 when the opener nibbled at an away-swinger to be caught behind, breaking a stand of 91 with former England batsman John Crawley, who he dismissed six runs later. Hampshire slipped from 115 for 1 to 183 for 5 but wicketkeeper Nic Pothas steadied them with an unbeaten 79.

In the Second Division, former Warwickshire seamer Graham Wagg finished with career-best figures of 6 for 35 as Surrey collapsed to 131 all out against Derbyshire at the County Ground. Pedro Collins took 4 for 34 as the hosts struggled to 142 for 7 in reply.

Glamorgan began impressively against Middlesex at Lord's, where Mark Cosgrove hit 17 fours in his 120 but bowlers held sway on day two at Bristol, where Essex's 177 was enough for a first-innings lead over Gloucestershire, who careered to 115-9 in their second innings. Geraint Jones made 103 as Kent (257-3) replied strongly to Northamptonshire's 355 on the second day at Canterbury.

Adam Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma struck five sixes each as Deccan Chargers posted 184 for 6 in a 75-run Indian Premier League win over Bangalore Royal Challengers, for whom captain Kevin Pietersen only made 11 after taking 2-31 with the ball.