County Championship round-up: Impressive run-chases and dogged draws

There were smiles all round for Lancashire once again as Matt Parkinson's seven wickets secured them an innings victory against Kent

Expect the unexpected is probably the best way to sum up this County Championship season after three rounds.

The latest set of fixtures concluded with a couple of spectacular fourth-innings efforts to chase down victory targets plus a couple of determined efforts to secure what could be vital draws come the second phase.

But there were also a couple more teams racking up another win to put themselves among the early pace-setters in the three-group format.

Group One

Rob Yates' fine 120 not out guided Warwickshire to a seven-wicket win against Essex.

The county champions tasted defeat for the first time in 22 first-class matches as the Bears chased 256 with seven balls to spare thanks to Yates' second ton at this level.

He and India batsman Hanuma Vihari (52) had earlier added 115 for the second wicket while Sam Hain (60) put in an assured display in a third-wicket partnership of 118.

Warwickshire top the group after two impressive chases in their past two matches while Essex are third with one win, one draw and one defeat.

Rob Yates' excellent 120 not out guided Warwickshire to a seven-wicket win against Essex

Meanwhile, it was a case of two more draws in the group.

Durham were unable to find a way past Derbyshire on the last day at Chester-le-Street as the visitors reached 280-5.

Skipper Wayne Madsen (74) and Matt Critchley (69) shared their third 100-run partnership of the season so far to leave both sides still searching for their first wins.

At New Road, the struggle for wickets continued as Nottinghamshire batted the whole day without losing one in their follow-on against Worcestershire.

Haseeb Hameed registered his second ton of the match with an unbeaten 114 while fellow opener Ben Slater made the same score in Notts' second-innings score of 236-0. Only 20 wickets fell for a combined 948 runs over four days.

Group Two

Hampshire and Gloucestershire's winning starts to the season came to end as they drew at the Ageas Bowl.

But Hampshire had looked on course to make it three wins from three until Gloucestershire last pair Josh Shaw and Dom Goodman saw out the final 17 overs of the day.

Gloucestershire were following-on and had edged into a slender lead before three wickets in six balls reduced them to 161-9 with more than an hour still to play.

Hampshire could not find another breakthrough though as Shaw and Goodman battled through to 197-9.

Hampshire stay top by three points ahead of Gloucestershire in second.

The two other matches in the group finished on Saturday as Middlesex beat Surrey by 10 wickets and Somerset beat Leicestershire by nine wickets.

Group Three

Ricardo Vasconcelos has made scores of more than 150 twice already this season

The performance of the round arguably belonged to Northamptonshire as they chased 355 on the final day to beat Glamorgan by seven wickets.

A run-drenched Sunday first saw Glamorgan push on from 205-4 to declare their second innings on 311-5 setting Northants a big target in a minimum of 79 overs.

But not to be determined by the required rate of around four and a half an over, they rattled off the runs with more than six overs to spare.

Ricardo Vasconcelos smashed an unbeaten 185 from 221 balls while Rob Keogh weighed in with 126 off 140 balls in their third-wicket partnership of 239.

Yorkshire claimed the four wickets they needed to beat Sussex at Hove for their second win in as many games.

The hosts resumed needing another 99 runs to sneak the win themselves but lost Ollie Robinson early on.

Ben Brown and Jack Carson looked to be hanging in there before England Test captain Joe Root broke their eighth-wicket resistance with his off-spin.

Dom Bess took the last wicket to fall to finish with 6-53 as Yorkshire won by 48 runs.

Lancashire also won for the second time in a row as they beat Kent by an innings and five runs.

Matt Parkinson spun them to victory with 7-126 as he took nine wickets in the match.

Kent had resumed on 209-1 in their follow-on, 147 adrift of making the visitors bat again, with overnight centurion Daniel Bell-Drummond still at the crease.

But the captain was the first to fall for 114 before England batsman Zak Crawley and Jack Leaning were dismissed in successive balls by Parkinson leaving Kent on 238-4.

It did go into the final session, but it was always a matter of time before Lancashire would wrap it up once Kent lost Heino Kuhn, Joe Denly and Darren Stevens in the space of six overs.

Lancashire lead the group by six points with Yorkshire in second.