Foakes shines with unbeaten century as Surrey dominate Warwickshire

Ben Foakes underlined his intention to nail down the England wicketkeeper's

spot with a high-class century for Surrey against Warwickshire on the second day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Edgbaston.

Foakes struck a composed unbeaten 132 to provide the backbone as Surrey kept the champions in the field for almost two days on the way to an imposing 428 for eight declared.

It was not a flawless knock, as he was dropped in the slips on 37 and 54, but those were rare aberrations in over six hours of impressive concentration and resolve as the 29-year-old faced 263 balls and hit 18 fours and one six.

With support from Ollie Pope (58) and Jordan Clark (50), Foakes lifted Surrey to a total with which they will aim to put their hosts under serious pressure.

In 12 overs before the close, Warwickshire faltered to 16 for two in reply, losing Dom Sibley for a first-ball duck and skipper Will Rhodes for six.

Matt Critchley marked his Essex debut with a century that went up through the gears and heaped more misery on a Kent side kept in the field for five sessions at Chelmsford.

The close-season signing from Derbyshire was finally last man out for 132 as Essex built on the first-wicket platform of 220 established between first-day centurions Sir Alastair Cook and Nick Browne to plunder 514 from an ailing Kent attack.

Kent's top order was shorn of the likes of Zak Crawley, Jack Leaning, Sam Billings and George Linde for various reasons but Nick Compton eked out a patient 47 in negotiating 33 overs in the evening and reducing Essex's lead by 122 runs for the loss of Daniel Bell-Drummond.

Joe Weatherley masterfully scored his highest County Championship score as Hampshire built a big first-innings lead over Somerset.