County Championship Plays of the Day - 14 April

The sun shone and wickets fell as the Specsavers County Championship returned for the second day of the season and so too did the cartwheeling stumps. 

Scorecard: Hampshire 290 & 163/8 v Worcestershire 211
Scorecard: Lancashire 158 v Nottinghamshire 127/6
Scorecard: Kent 64 v Gloucestershire 110/8
Scorecard: Warwickshire 284/9 v Sussex
Scorecard: Middlesex 214 & 159 v Northants 71 & 9/0

Shot of the day
The cricket season only truly starts when Ian Bell emerges from his winter hibernation and unleashes an array of rasping drives. And so, at the first possible chance, he deployed his dreamy cover drive, going on to hit a majestic 70 - having brought up his half-century in style - before playing a loose shot to David Wiese that was caught at backward point.

Bowler's Paradise
In truth, Bell was one of only a handful of batsmen to find some rhythm out in the middle, as the bowlers made the most of favourable conditions and picked up 85 wickets in the day. Down at Canterbury, Gloucestershire dislodged Kent for a mere 64 before losing 8 wickets of their own, while Jake Ball ran the show at Old Trafford, taking 5/54 as Lancashire were dismissed for 158. The Hampshire and Worcestershire bowlers slogged it out down in Southampton, sharing 16 wickets between them, but it was those in the Lord's bleachers who were treated to a bowling bonanza as Brett Hutton, James Harris, Tim Murtagh and Doug Bracewell got stuck in, 26 wickets tumbling across the three sessions.

Murtagh on the dance floor
Although it was Harris who took the plaudits at Lord's with a defiant 46* followed by 5/9 and another 18 runs, the day was a particularly special one for Middlesex's Tim Murtagh. Almost 20 years after making his first-class debut, the Irish bowler was causing mayhem with the ball once again, taking 4 for 27 runs to bring up a monumental landmark in the process.

Leave it out
There are, as you all will know well, only two types of leave. The good kind and the not-so-good. Unfortunately for new Lancashire captain Liam Livingstone, his first dismissal of the season, departing for 9, is most certainly the latter.