County cricket talking points: Surrey rumble on but Lancashire are looming

One way a captain can get ahead in a game and open up pathways to a victory is to win the toss, bat first and contribute a daddy hundred. With his team’s batting almost comically fragile this season (his own form no small part in that), Tom Abell batted more than 100 overs for his undefeated 150, looked at his four international bowlers – plus Jack Brooks, who is closing in on 500 first class wickets – and must have thought Somerset’s nightmare start to the season was finally to be arrested.

But Rory Burns had routes of his own to the win that would keep Surrey top of Division One. His lay in a phalanx of bowlers who bat and batters who bowl. One of the former, Sam Curran, top scored in the first innings to keep the leaders in the game and one of the latter, Ryan Patel, hit a century in the second to make it two wins out of three for the Londoners.

Bowling options are often cited as essential in white-ball cricket, but they can be just as important in the first class game, both in a match and also across a season of varying conditions. Seven Surrey bowlers delivered at least 10 overs in the game and six took wickets – that’s healthy competition for a place in the XI and for the next over from the Pavilion End.

Hampshire bounced back from last week’s shellacking by the leaders to deal out an innings win of their own, Kent feeling the backlash at Canterbury.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat and their innings followed a similar pattern to Somerset’s 70 miles or so to the west, Daniel Bell-Drummond with the daddy ton at No3. Keith Barker led the attack with six wickets, as the seamers shared the scalps.

But Hampshire are an ageing/experienced XI (delete as you prefer) and, coming in with the new ball blunted,