County Championship Roundup. Both Surrey and Hampshire win to set the pace in Div One. Notts winning machine continues in Div Two

With just three matches remaining in another fascinating county championship season, the battle to see who is crowned Division One champions looks like going down to the wire with both Surrey and Hampshire likely to fight it out to see who will be champions come late September.

Both sides picked up victories in the latest round of matches with Surrey currently holding a 16 point lead over Hampshire with Lancashire, who also won, a further 34 points behind.

At the Kia Oval, Surrey maintained their unbeaten county championship campaign with win  number seven after a six wicket victory over Warwickshire.

With Surrey holding a first innings lead of 63, Warwickshire were going well in their second innings after recovering from 7-2 to 143-4. Thanks to 96 from Sam Hain the visitors were looking to put a tricky target for Surrey to chase down, but once Will Rhodes was dismissed for 74 Warwickshire lost their last six wickets for 30 runs with Kemar Roach taking 5-72 to leave Surrey a tricky 248 to win.

Sixty from Rory Burns and a quickfire unbeaten 80 from Hashim Amla was enough to see Surrey cruise to yet another comfortable win.

At Scarborough second placed Hampshire kept the pressure on Surrey after a seven wicket victory over Yorkshire.

Yorkshire were bowled out for 272 in their second innings with Kyle Abbott picking up 4-77 to leave Hampshire 214 to win.

72 from Felix Organ and 71 from Ian Holland was sufficient to see Hampshire complete their eighth win in the championship.

Third placed Lancashire are still not out of the equation after crushing Kent by 184 runs at Old Trafford.

Despite Kent holding a 135 run lead on first innings the home side turned the game around after declaring their second innings on 436-9 with Josh Bohannon hitting 134 to leave Kent 312 to win. The visitors were skittled out for 127 with Tom Bailey taking 5-46 to give Lancashire their fifth win of the championship campaign.

At Cheltenham College, Northamptonshire won a thrilling game after being set 202 to win, the visitors reached their target with eight wickets down.

In the division’s only other match played, Essex and Somerset ended in a draw after Essex had hit 505 in their first innings with Somerset replying with 605.

In Division Two leaders Nottinghamshire made it six wins out of eleven games after thrashing Sussex by 256 runs at Trent Bridge inside three days.

Nottinghamshire set Sussex a target of 399 runs which never looked likely to be a winning target for Sussex, with the South Coast team bowled out for 142 to stretch their advantage over second place Middlesex.

Middlesex came away with a draw at Chester le Street against Durham after Middlesex had held a narrow 34 run lead. In their second innings Durham had slipped to 57-3 but rallied to hold on for a draw.

At Worcester Derbyshire kept up the pressure on Middlesex after completing a 98 run win over Worcestershire.

The hosts required 289 to win but were bowled out for 190 with Anuj Dal taking 5-40 to complete a third win for Derbyshire.

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