Jonny Bairstow captained Yorkshire to a record-breaking three-day victory over Worcestershire, seeing his side steamroll their opponents by an unprecedented 504 runs at Headingley.
After a losing start on their return to the highest flight of the Rothesay County Championship, the White Rose roared back to form on home turf, putting together the competition‘s biggest runs victory.
A career-best 107 for nightwatcher Dom Bess, in addition to Dawid Malan’s unbeaten 76 and a rapid 44 not out from Bairstow allowed the Tykes to declare 4 down on 315 to set the Pears a notional goal of 610.
In point of fact they barely scraped to a few figures, knocked over for 105 in lower than 38 overs as all-rounder George Hill collected 4 for 23.
In becoming the primary ever team to win a game by 500 runs or more, Yorkshire eclipsed the previous better of 483 set by Surrey in 2002.
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Kent
There was also a three-day win for Kent in Division Two as they chased down 316 for the lack of only two wickets.
There was a welcome half-century for England’s out-of-sorts opener Zak Crawley, who made 58 off just 66 balls following his first-innings duck, but he ceded centre stage to a pair of centurions.
Partner Ben Compton made an unbeaten 124 and Tawanda Muyeye scored yet one more at almost a run-a-ball in a shocking, unbroken stand of 225.
At Hove, Sussex moved right into a position of strength against Somerset.
After declaring on 501 for seven, with Tom Haines finally removed for 141 and John Simpson unbeaten on 110, they took the sector with a lead of 594.
By stumps that they had reduced their opponents to 125 for 4, Sean Hunt chargeable for all of the wickets in an inspired 10-over burst that included last week’s triple centurion Tom Banton for a duck.
Nottinghamshire and Essex continued to fight out a detailed contest at Trent Bridge, with all results still on the table.
Five quick wickets for the house side kept the first-innings deficit to only 20 and so they closed on 233 for five, captain Haseeb Hameed having anchored their effort with 92.
Surrey
Defending champions Surrey got the higher of a curious conclusion against Hampshire on the Kia Oval, claiming late breakthroughs in murky conditions to take control.
The umpires seemed uncertain whether the sunshine was bad enough to take the fast bowlers out of the sport, flipping forwards and backwards on a few occasions, just for seamers Jordan Clark and Kemar Roach to go away them in a bind at 35 for 3 by stumps in pursuit of 377.
Earlier, Dom Sibley hit his second century of the match and England pace prospect Sonny Baker nabbed a five-wicket haul.
Durham didn’t get any late successes in 4 overs at Chester-le-Street, where Warwickshire will try and rating 327 runs with all 10 wickets remaining on day 4.
Durham declared eight down, Ben Raine’s 81 giving them the headroom to accomplish that, before the Bears reached 12 without loss.
Within the second tier, Lancashire were forced to follow-on after being rolled for 228 by Northamptonshire at Emirates Old Trafford.
They made a safer begin to their second attempt, with a half-century from Josh Bohannon taking them to 126 for 2 – still 142 behind on the close.
Gloucestershire were also sent back in by Glamorgan but showed their resolve by posting 106 without loss to trim the Welsh side’s result in 55 heading into the ultimate day.
At Grace Road there was an enterprising 77 from England spinner Rehan Ahmed, deployed here as a gap batter, as Leicestershire opened up a 382-run lead over Derbyshire with two wickets left.
