The magnificent Rory Burns batted for three minutes over ten hours as he carried his bat for a career-best 219 for Surrey against Hampshire at the Kia Oval.

But, narrowly, it was not enough as Surrey were bowled out for 483, failing by 16 runs to avoid the follow on.  Burns, who has been on the field for every minute of this Specsavers Championship match, immediately walked out again to commence his second innings.

Burns is a batsman with a reputation for not converting his many fifties into the hundreds that are needed to catch the selectors’ eyes.  But no-one could accuse him of checking out early here.

The match looked dead when Surrey resumed on 410 for seven, with Hampshire still needing 13 wickets on a very flat pitch.  Surrey’s unlikely destroyer was the medium-pacer Ian Holland, who took three wickets for 16 runs in 6.5 overs.  But Hampshire missed a chance when Surrey batted again, with Rilee Rossouw dropping Mark Stoneman at slip off Gareth Berg before the opening batsman had scored.

Perseverance paid off for Sussex’s Danny Briggs who picked up the key wicket of Leicestershire captain Mark Cosgrove on the second day of the Championship match at Arundel.

Leicestershire began on 77 for 2 after bowling out Sussex for 262 but during an attritional morning session they added 80 runs in 34 overs to reach 157 for 4 at lunch.

Briggs was soon into the attack on a pitch which is already turning but could have been forgiven for thinking it wasn’t going to be his day when Cosgrove was dropped twice on 27. Stiaan van Zyl shelled a straightforward chance at mid-wicket and Luke Wright put down a much harder one diving forward from short cover.

Cosgrove rarely looked settled against Briggs’ accurate left-arm spin. He survived a caught-behind appeal driving extravagantly before finally edging behind when Briggs turned one just enough.

Cosgrove had added for the second wicket with Colin Ackermann before the South African was strangled down the leg side by Jofra Archer. Like Cosgrove, he made 40.

At lunch Briggs had 1 for 26 from 18 overs and leg-spinner Will Beer was operating at the other end. Ned Eckersley was 28 not out and Lewis Hill on nine.