County Championship round-up: Lancashire's Simon Katich continues to cause havoc for bowlers

Ashes watch

Australia could certainly do with a spare top-order batsman or two after the first day at Trent Bridge. Well, luckily for them they don't need to look too much further than the County Ground in Northamptonshire, where Lancashire's Simon Katich continued to cause havoc for the home side's bowlers. He magicked his overnight 114 into a grandaddy double hundred as he was last man out on exactly 200 out of a total of 442.

Meanwhile, down in Uxbridge another Australian was turning his overnight score into a big score with consummate ease in tricky conditions. Middlesex's Adam Voges was drafted in as a replacement for his compatriot Chris Rodgers and he has taken up were the Ashes opener left off. His 150 heaved his new county to 309 after at one point being in dire straits on 227 for 8. He couldn't quite help them avoid the follow-on against Warwickshire's wicked seam attack but the 33-year-old wicketkeeper at least showed why he was capped 20 times at one-day level.

Bowler of the day

Durham's 26-year-old Chris Rushworth was due to be sacrificed after his county team-mate Graeme Onions failed to make England's starting XI. However, after taking 6 for 64 in Derbyshire's first innings with a masterly display of swing bowling which would have tickled James Anderson's fancy, Durham coach Geoff Cook decided to hand Onions his second disappointment of the day. Rushworth repaid that warranted decision with the wickets of Wes Durston and Dan Redfern and then returned to snare danger man Shiv Chanderpaul as Derbyshire collapsed pitifully. Durham's king of swing finished the day with 3 for 33, with the visitors on 181 for 7 and facing another heavy defeat

Batsman of the day

Gloucestershire's Chris Dent turned many a West Country head as a teenager but the transition to first-class cricket has proved problematic. His home county has shown the sort of determined and dogmatic faith in him normally associated with Scientologists. Yesterday he provided evidence to the wider world of his talent. The 22-year-old moved past his previous best first-class score of 114 with a boundary off Kent's England off-spinner James Tredwell and was finally out for 153.