Day of woe for England hopefuls

Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell all fell cheaply as England's Ashes hopefuls endured a miserable day on their return to the LV County Championship.

Essex's Cook and Bopara mustered only five runs between them against Middlesex at Lord's in Division Two, and Bell could add only a single for Warwickshire at Trent Bridge in the top flight as the current round of matches moved into day two.

The trio were among several England players released to play for their counties in search of runs or wickets before next week's Ashes decider at The Oval - a move which has so far met with precious little success for any of them.

Morning rain in Nottingham meant Bell and Test aspirant Jonathan Trott had to wait for their chance.

They were soon wishing it had stayed wet too, Bell falling to England seamer Ryan Sidebottom (three for 33) and Trott to Charlie Shreck (three for 62) as Warwickshire's reply to 388 stumbled to 214 for nine at stumps.

Test seamer Graham Onions was wicketless for leaders Durham at Old Trafford, where Ian Blackwell instead did most of the damage in Lancashire's 252 for nine, taking six wickets.

VVS Laxman made 87 and Mal Loye 60 and the visitors chased Durham's 270.

At Hove, Worcestershire's Australian seamer Matt Mason (seven for 60) continued his good form but could not stop Sussex taking a narrow first-innings lead.

Wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd (73) was the main contributor in the hosts' 280 all out.

Worcestershire had a poor start to the second innings as they were 71 for four at stumps.

Yorkshire took a slender lead at Basingstoke, having responded to Hampshire's 250 all out with 273 for seven - opener Jacques Rudolph leading the way with 90.

Back in Division Two at HQ, left-handed opener Cook and number three Bopara both fell to Tim Murtagh (four for 32) in Essex's 107 for four, James Foster ended the day on 40 not out.

Middlesex were bowled out this morning for 356, Danish Kaneria having taken two more wickets to finish with four for 74.

Leaders Kent had to wait until after tea to try to make further progress against Northamptonshire, who were 38 for one after bowling the visitors out for 244 yesterday, as they were kept off the field by rain for the first two sessions.

When play eventually began, Northamptonshire made it 147 for five before stumps.

The bad weather also prevented any play before lunch between promotion-chasing Derbyshire and bottom club Leicestershire at Grace Road.

But by close of play the visitors had moved from 67 for one to 277 for two, in reply to 177 all out, thanks mainly to Chris Rogers (122 not out).