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ScorecardRob Keogh struck 21 fours and three sixes in his innings•Getty Images

Rob Keogh’s first century of the season in the Specsavers County Championship, backed up in a partnership of 159 with Steven Crook, put Northamptonshire in control on the first day against Worcestershire at New Road.The 24-year-old Keogh made 154, with three sixes and 21 fours from 236 balls, and Crook provided aggressive support with an unbeaten 84 from 123 deliveries in their side’s progress to 345 for 6.The end for Keogh, after nearly five hours, came from a misjudgement when he was run out by Ed Barnard, swooping from mid-off as the batsmen went for a sharp single.This was a big change of tack for Northamptonshire. Three days after winning the NatWest T20 Blast trophy at Edgbaston, they needed to refocus on avoiding the Division Two wooden spoon in the Championship.Thanks to Keogh’s guidance, it’s a case of so far, so good. Having started the day 17 points clear of bottom county Derbyshire, they extended the gap by taking three bonus points in a challenging response to Worcestershire’s decision to bowl first.The initial skirmishing marginally went in the home side’s favour as Northants lost their fourth wicket at 118 after a hard-fought 41 overs, but in the 90 minutes up to tea Keogh and two partners scored 128 in 23 overs.Richard Levi was first to raise the tempo, although the South African would have been disappointed to fall into a Worcestershire trap after making 33 out of 54 in 10 overs.Tempted by a short ball from Charlie Morris, he pulled it straight to deep square leg for a comfortable catch by Joe Clarke, one of two men posted for the shot.By then, Keogh was approaching his best score of the season, 75 against Sussex at Arundel, and ready to avoid Levi’s mistake when he succeeded in clumping a similar shot over the rope.Crook was just the man to put pressure on a quartet of seamers, toiling on a hot afternoon. Not for the first time at New Road, the allrounder took the game to the bowlers as a new partnership raced along at five runs an over.Keogh hit another six and duly reached three-figures with his 15th four from 144 balls. His innings was perhaps not quite chanceless after a couple of flirtations outside off stump, but it was a high-value performance in straightening out his team’s early problems.Rob Newton, after a double century in the previous match, was out in the sixth over, a leading edge off Barnard falling to Morris at mid-off, and Ben Duckett, after a bright start, went for 26, driving Joe Leach to extra cover.Alex Wakely followed up his valuable runs on T20 finals day by making 25 out of 64 added for the third wicket, but was out soon after lunch, pushing at a ball from Barnard for a routine catch by wicketkeeper Ben Cox.Levi was involved in a stand of 54, at more than twice the rate, and Worcestershire were pushed back by the force of Crook’s half-century from 64 balls.Keogh was on 106 at tea and could have gone without addition when pulling Barnard to deep mid-wicket, but Tom Fell, having made ground to his left, was unable to take a difficult chance.

ScorecardOli Westbury celebrates his hundred•Getty Images

Centuries from Oli Westbury and George Bartlett put England Under-19s in control on the opening day of their Youth Test against Sri Lanka Under-19s. Westbury batted all day to reach the close unbeaten on 157, as the Sri Lanka attack was made to toil.Two late strikes did redress the balance slightly, after Westbury and Bartlett had put on 231 for the third wicket. Lahiru Kumara picked up his second wicket when he removed Bartlett for 131, off just 152 balls, and Jehan Daniel then bowled Joshua Dell to leave England on 327 for 4, before Ollie Pope accompanied Westbury to stumps.Bartlett, who was dropped twice in his innings, was one of ten new caps in England’s four-day side. “Today has been surreal, playing cricket for your country is what you dream,” he said.”Me and Wes fought hard early on and as the ball got a bit older the boundaries came a bit easier and it became easier to build on our partnership. It’s a shame I couldn’t build an even bigger score off the back of that hundred – it felt like we have built a great platform for the team to go on and get a great score.”Kumara had struck early, dismissing England captain Max Holden with the score on 20, and Shammu Ashan got rid of George Hankins, caught at short leg for 28 from the final ball before lunch, after a 65-run stand.Westbury and Bartlett then combined for most of the afternoon and evening to give a new-look England side an excellent platform. Westbury’s hundred was more watchful, coming off 172 balls, while Bartlett took 127 deliveries in reaching three figures.

Twin spin, batting big and being wary of how a deteriorating pitch can dictate the pace of play. Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann highlighted these areas as key battlegrounds in the series against Sri Lanka, as the touring team moved out of their initial Colombo base to prepare for the first Test match in Kandy.Steve O’Keefe’s 10-wicket haul opposite Nathan Lyon has more than likely vaulted him back into the Test XI after he missed the tour of New Zealand, particularly as Lehmann and the selection chairman Rod Marsh are expecting a sparsely grassed surface when the series begins on July 26. They also expect pitches that will start out flat before deteriorating rapidly at the back end of each match, and can foresee Sri Lanka trying to test the patience of an aggressive batting line-up by blocking the boundaries. To lose patience is to lose the battle.”You play the conditions on each game, so for us it did start to turn a lot [at P Sara Oval], which is pleasing, our spinners exploited that very well, so the conditions they’re learning to bowl in is pretty important as the Test matches wear on here in Sri Lanka,” Lehmann said. “They’re pretty good wickets to start with, and that’s the challenge for us, going big and making big runs.”We know that Sri Lanka will defend a lot once batters are in, so it’s going to take a lot longer to get your runs if that makes sense. We’ve spoken about the need to bat long periods of time is going to be key, which we’ve done pretty well to be fair over the last little while, but the challenge is to do it here.

Australia’s likely XI for first Test

David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith (capt), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill (wk), Steve O’Keefe, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

“Knowing the game is going to speed up as the wickets deteriorate, that’s going to be important to be ahead of the game in the Test series, but really happy with where everyone’s at. Our batters have a big role to play and our bowlers were probably a little bit rusty in the first innings but pleased we got through, there’s no injury concerns and away we go.”Lehmann spoke warmly of O’Keefe and also Lyon, who was recovering from illness over the course of the tour match, and is set to play a central role in the same country he made a memorable Test debut back in 2011. Significantly, Lehmann pointed to the use of tandem spin, turning the ball in opposite directions, as something that would be vital not only in Sri Lanka, but also India next year.”He’s been excellent for NSW, had a lot of success in Shield cricket, his 200th first-class wicket today so pleased for him,” Lehmann said of O’Keefe. “He’s worked really hard, he’s a really lively, buzzy character for us and played exactly the role we want him to play over here in this game. Bats really well, fields really well and complements Nathan really well, spinning the other way.”We think that [twin spin] is the way to go. India do it there with Jadeja and Ashwin and most teams have a spinner going both ways, so for us that’s important.”A conclusion drawn by Lehmann and the team performance manager Pat Howard from unsuccessful recent tours to India and the UAE to play Pakistan was that touring sides needed to spend as much time as possible in unfamiliar climes before walking out on day one of the series proper. To that end, the Australians have followed an internal practice fixture with the match in Colombo, and will now have five days in Kandy before Angelo Mathews tosses the coin next week.”We’ve come over here a little bit earlier than we normally would, we think that’s a helpful thing in future, we haven’t done that in the past,” Lehmann said. “So to come a little bit earlier here and go a bit earlier to India to get acclimatised for an extra few days and hopefully an extra game in most places.”Having entered the final week of their preparation, all Lehmann is looking for now is the announcement of Sri Lanka’s tour squad, the better to plan individual opponents. “I wouldn’t mind the side at some stage,” he said. “That’s the challenge, I don’t think anyone knows what squad they’ve got. Once they name their squad we’ll work through that. We know a bit about them. They’ll be a lot better side at home, and that’s going to be a challenge for us, but end of the day we just worry about what we’re doing. Once we get their squad away we go.”The only Australian player under any sort of fitness cloud is David Warner, in the latter stages of recovery from a broken thumb, but Lehmann gave no hint of thinking the vice-captain might be in any doubt to open the innings with Joe Burns: “We’re preparing for him to play.”

Azeem Rafiq has signed a new contract with Yorkshire after almost two years out of the professional game.Rafiq, an off-spinning allrounder who became the first player of Asian origin to captain Yorkshire in 2012, was released in 2014 after failing to build on the potential that saw him captain England at age-group level and win a place on the ECB’s performance programme in 2013.He has continued to represent Barnsley in club cricket and recently returned to the Yorkshire second team. With the club losing several players to England duty in the coming weeks, notably their lead spinner Adil Rashid, Rafiq has signed for the club until the end of the season and is in the squad for the NatWest Blast match against Nottinghamshire in Leeds on Friday.If he plays, it will be his first game for the first team since July 2014. He will be considered for all formats of the game.Rafiq, born in Karachi and raised in Barnsley, played 25 first-class matches, 20 List A matches and 60 T20 games since making his debut in a T20 match at Trent Bridge as a 17-year-old in 2008. Through no fault of his own, he was deemed ineligible to play in the game due to passport and registration issues. Yorkshire had just taken him along for the ride but were shocked to find an old Trent Bridge pitch designed for spinners. They played Rafiq without reflecting on the paperwork and were subsequently thrown out of the competition.He played a crucial role in the club’s promotion season of 2012 and was integral in the final match against Essex, where he made a fifty in both innings and took 8 for 115 with the ball.Yorkshire will hope that his period out of the professional game will have helped him mature. Aged 25, there is no reason why his best years should not be ahead of him.Yorkshire have also recalled Josh Shaw from his loan spell at Gloucestershire with immediate effect. The seam bowler has taken 19 first-class wickets this season, including two four-wicket hauls.”Azeem has played for the second team over the last couple of weeks and in light of his positive performances, we are delighted to offer him a new contract at Headingley,” Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, said. “Josh’s loan spell at Gloucestershire has helped with his development this year and this is clear to see from the wickets that he has taken.”With Liam Plunkett and David Willey being called up to the England ODI squad and with injuries to Ryan Sidebottom, Matthew Fisher and Jack Brooks, our seam bowling resources are stretched.”Therefore we have requested that Josh returns from his loan spell with immediate effect. An option is in place for Josh to return to Gloucestershire at some stage during the season.”

Mosaddek Hossain’s late-overs heroics gave Abahani Limited a crucial three-wicket win over Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club at BKSP-3 in Savar, but an umpiring decision late in the game marred the thrill of the contest.With ten runs required off the last three balls of the match, Mosaddek squeezed the ball to sweeper cover, but the throw wasn’t collected cleanly by Doleshwar wicketkeeper Rony Talukdar. Mosaddek and Taskin Ahmed were involved in a mix-up while trying to pinch a second run. While Taskin tried to complete it, Farhad Reza, the bowler, broke the stumps at the non-striker’s end with the batsman still a foot outside the crease. But umpire Rezwan Parvez was unmoved amid huge appeals from Doleshwar fielders. After the umpire had given it not out, Doleshwar’s players spoke to him but to no avail. The rest simply looked crestfallen from the boundary edge, with hands going on head and hips.With Abahani needing eight off two balls, Mosaddek struck Farhad’s full toss sweetly over long-on before smashing him over cover for the match-winning boundary. Abahani’s players were jubilant, even as their supporters made lewd gestures towards the bemused Doleshwar players.Mosaddek timed his unbeaten 35-ball 57 to near-perfection despite wickets falling at the other end in their chase of 192. He was quiet during his 27-run stand with Rajat Bhatia before finding his seven boundaries, mainly on the off-side, as the Doleshwar bowlers got fuller as the match progressed. Two sixes apart, there were hardly any traces of the lofted hits.Mosaddek arrived at the crease following Shakib Al Hasan’s dismissal in the 19th over. Batting on 40, Shakib missed Ashok Menaria’s delivery as Talukdar fumbled before breaking the stumps to have him stumped.The game began at 1:00pm, four hours after the scheduled start, due to heavy rain. But it was a see-saw contest from when Doleshwar slipped to 58 for four in the 11th over. Nasir Hossain blasted a 56-ball 72 from that point, hitting four boundaries and two towering sixes. He added 82 runs for the fifth wicket with Sunzamul Islam before another quickfire 25 with Reza. Ziaur Rahman closed out the innings with a six and a four in his 11-ball 18.Abahani dropped four catches including one where Mohammad Shahzada crashed into his captain Tamim Iqbal who had almost completed the skier offered by Nasir. Abahani too lost early wickets as Tamim was caught well at mid-off and Liton Das at long-on. Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib added 74 runs for the third wicket, which put the impetus into their chase.

Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim have signed contracts with Northern Superchargers, assuaging concerns that Pakistani players would be locked out of the Hundred under new Indian owners.The ECB insisted earlier this year that the identity of new investors – four out of eight are based in India, and a further two are Indian-American – would have no effect on the involvement of Pakistani players in the Hundred. “We’re aware of that in other regions,” Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, said in February, “but that won’t be happening here.”Eyebrows were raised when no men’s players were signed at March’s draft, in contrast to previous seasons. But the snub could also be explained by the unavailability of Pakistan’s white-ball squads (due to a tour of West Indies and a tri-series in the UAE), their recent struggles in T20Is, and the late pullouts of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah last year.Related

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Then, on Monday, Amir and Imad became the first two Pakistan players to sign deals for the 2025 season, as late replacements at the Superchargers for Ben Dwarshuis (full season) and Mitchell Santner (two games) due to international duty. The Superchargers’ incoming owners are Indian media tycoons the Sun Group, who will assume operational control on October 1.Amir and Imad will link up with Ben Stokes in the Hundred, who revealed on Monday that he will play an informal, mentoring role at the Superchargers as he starts his rehabilitation from the shoulder injury that ruled him out of England’s fifth Test with India. Stokes opted out of the Hundred earlier this year, but will support Andrew Flintoff and Harry Brook.”You will see me knocking about the Hundred, not in a playing way,” Stokes said. “I had to make a decision in January if I would participate in the comp, but that was after my hamstring surgery. I said I’d still like to be a part of it, so I will be milling about. I won’t have a notebook and pen. I said I would come and give my time to the team. I will be cracking on with my rehab.”Most of England’s Test batters will be available throughout the Hundred, though most of their fast bowlers will be resting. London Spirit have roped in John Simpson as their wicketkeeping to face Oval Invincibles in Tuesday’s curtain-raiser, with Ollie Pope and Jamie Smith both rested, while Glamorgan allrounder Dan Douthwaite has also signed a short-term deal.Mark Chapman and Farhan Ahmed have replaced Rachin Ravindra (international duty, four games) and Marchant de Lange (injury, full tournament) at Manchester Originals, while West Indies allrounder Akeal Hosein will deputise for South Africa’s George Linde at Trent Rockets for two matches.

The Hundred replacements:

London Spirit: John Simpson and Dan Douthwaite to replace Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope for August 5
Manchester Originals: Mark Chapman to replace Rachin Ravindra (August 6-13), Farhan Ahmed to replace Marchant de Lange; Amuruthaa Surenkumar to replace Ella McCaughan
Northern Superchargers: Imad Wasim to replace Mitchell Santner (August 7-10); Mohammad Amir to replace Ben Dwarshuis
Trent Rockets: Akeal Hosein to replace George Linde (August 10-14)

Jofra Archer is in the frame to play in the second Test against India at Edgbaston next month, according to England’s national selector, Luke Wright, assuming he is able to prove his fitness when Sussex play Durham at Chester-le-Street in a fortnight’s time.Archer, 30, has not played first-class cricket for more than four years due to a succession of injury issues, including multiple surgeries on his troublesome right elbow and a stress fracture of his back.He had been earmarked for a red-ball comeback for England Lions, against India A in this week’s second unofficial Test, but was sidelined due to ligament damage in his thumb, sustained while fielding in the IPL last month.Related

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Now, however, he is approaching a return to action, and with England facing a defining eight months of Test cricket – encompassing five home Tests against India and an away Ashes tour – the selectors are eager to reinsert him to the mix.”Jof’s also trucking along really well actually,” Wright said. “The plan is for him to play a few second-team games, loading up in the second team for Sussex. And then the idea for him is to play for Sussex against Durham during the first Test [June 22-25]. Then if all things go well, fingers crossed, he should be available for the second Test.”Archer’s most recent first-class fixture came for Sussex against Kent in May 2021, prior to the recurrence of his elbow fracture. Before that, the last of his 13 Tests came against India in Ahmedabad in February that year. To date, he has claimed 42 wickets at 31.04, with two six-wicket hauls in the 2019 Ashes.”Like anything with all these bowlers, he’s got to keep ticking things off everyday with no setbacks,” Wright added. “But, if all goes well and he gets through that Durham game, then he’s available potentially for selection for that second Test.”Archer is one of a number of England fast bowlers who are currently on the comeback trail. Mark Wood and Olly Stone both underwent knee operations, in March and April respectively but, according to Wright, are now back to bowling off a few paces, and could come into consideration for the latter half of the India series.Gus Atkinson – England’s player of the summer in 2024 – is also missing from the first Test squad after sustaining a hamstring injury during the Zimbabwe Test.England’s five-match series against India begins on June 20 at Headingley, before back-to-back Tests at Edgbaston (July 2-6) and Lord’s (July 10-14).

Ahead of his final Test match, Angelo Mathews became the latest voice to sound the alarm around the lack of Test cricket for nations outside of India, England and Australia.Sri Lanka will be playing just four Tests in 2025 – their lowest number of Tests in a calendar year since 2013, not counting a Covid-curtailed 2020. If you look at the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, an even bleaker picture begins to emerge. In the previous cycle, each of Australia, India and England played at least 19 WTC Tests each over a two-year period. Champions South Africa, for instance, played just 13.In the upcoming cycle, Australia are slated for 22 Tests, England 21, and 18 for India. Sri Lanka are set to play even fewer than they did in the previous cycle, with 12 Tests over the course of six two-Test series – joint lowest with Bangladesh.”I think it’s quite sad to be honest,” Mathews said. “I mean, the younger generation are urging for more Test cricket. Test cricket is obviously the pinnacle of cricket. We all should push for more Tests. These guys are so enthusiastic about Test cricket.”I feel there has to be a minimum of 10 matches at least [in a year]. Teams like England, India or Australia are playing 15-plus games a year. Why can’t we play? We can. If we keep pushing, I mean, we have to. We have won World Cups. We have done so much for cricket as a nation, and we deserve to play Test cricket, just like Australia, India and England.”Related

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Mathews’ gripes aren’t new. Sri Lanka Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva banged the drum earlier this year ahead of their two-Test series against Australia. But it’s notable that a player with 118 Tests under his belt speaks up, after all, how many more Sri Lankans will realistically have the opportunity of matching that milestone?Even the timing of his retirement was, in part, impacted by the lack of Tests scheduled for Sri Lanka. While retirement was always on the cards for the now 38-year-old, particularly with it being the start of a new WTC cycle, the decision to play just the first Test was a decision borne in many ways out of circumstance.”I played my 100th Test in Galle, so I thought I’d say goodbye in Galle. But the main reason was because we don’t have any games coming up, at least for now. After this, we’ll be having our next assignment in Test cricket after a year’s time, that is a very long wait,” explained Mathews.”I thought it’s good to give an opportunity to whoever is going to replace me in the second Test, because he’s not going to get an opportunity till the next year (laughs). And in that year, you don’t know what what’s going to happen. So I thought I’d just play one game and then try and give an opportunity to the other guy who’s replacing me in the second Test.”

A trademark, enterprising century from Dinesh Chandimal led Sri Lanka’s charge towards a big score, making New Zealand rue multiple lapses in the field on the opening day in Galle. Chandimal switched gears across the first two sessions on his way to a 16th Test century, helping the hosts finish on a commanding 306 for 3. Unbeaten half-centuries from Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis provided the support act.New Zealand would have picked up more than three wickets in the day had Daryl Mitchell not put down two catches at first slip, Tom Blundell not missed Dimuth Karunartne’s stumping, and William O’Rourke not overstepped when he had Mathews caught behind. It was Chandimal’s chanceless innings, however, that hurt the visitors the most. He raised his sixth hundred in Galle and his fourth 50-plus score in eight Test innings while batting at No. 3 – out of his usual position in the middle order, to accommodate Kamindu at No. 5 and Kusal Mendis at No. 7.The only thing that went New Zealand’s way was the early wicket of Pathum Nissanka who edged an outswinger from Tim Southee behind at the end of the first over. Chandimal took on the fast bowlers when the new ball was still swinging around to set an early base for his team, and once the ball got older and conditions eased out for batting, with the sun beating down nicely, the hosts piled on the runs.Tom Blundell missed a stumping chance of Dimuth Karunaratne•AP

Karunaratne was the beneficiary of two lives; first dropped at slip on 5, off O’Rourke, and then he survived a stumping chance on 17 when he came down to attack Ajaz Patel and took a big swing but missed. Chandimal also edged the ball a few times early on against the pace bowlers but that didn’t deter him from going for his shots. He got off the mark with a fierce scythe that crashed the ball to the deep-point boundary and then went over the covers against Southee’s outswinger. He took on Ajaz’s left-arm spin from around the wicket to score quick runs.The most picture-perfect of his boundaries was against O’Rourke when he drove a full delivery on the up, square on the off side with a lot of power and impeccable timing. When he raced to 41 off 42, Southee brought on left-arm spin from both ends to stem the flow of runs before lunch and the tactic worked as Ajaz and Mitchell Santner bowled in tandem for 15 overs for 36 runs, with the odd ball turning sharply. A now-patient Chandimal was on 49 for 13 balls before finally getting to the landmark on his 79th ball.A brief spell of showers in the first hour pushed the lunch break from 12pm to 12.22pm and when play resumed, it was a fielding effort, aided by a mix-up, that ended the century partnership. Karunaratne flicked a ball from Santner to midwicket and ran all the way to the other end, but Chandimal barely left his crease. Glenn Phillips’ throw from midwicket, meanwhile, reached short leg and not the keeper, and Latham hit the stumps with an under-arm throw just in time to find the batter – scrambling to regain his ground – short.New Zealand then handed a life to Mathews. When O’Rourke had to re-bowl the last ball of the 44th over because he had overstepped, he had Mathews tickling one down the leg side and saw the umpire’s finger go up only to see the hand stretched to the side seconds later. Mathews settled his nerves thereafter by patiently seeing off the spinners who stuck to tight lines and lengths with slightly flat trajectories.Dinesh Chandimal, who recently had a baby, made 116•SLC

Chandimal, meanwhile, continued to drive full deliveries through the covers, loft the spinners down the ground when the field wasn’t spread out, and he even got a bonus four runs via overthrows to reach 95. He soon acknowledged his century with a rock-the-baby celebration having become a father in June. Mathews relied heavily on back-foot cuts and punches off the spinners, transferring his weight on the ball with his powerful arms and wrists. Chandimal fell soon after Mathews registered his 44th Test half-century, when he danced down and missed an offbreak to lose his off stump, a reward for Phillips for bowling tight lines through the day.Luck continued to favour the hosts even in the last session. Kamindu, the centurion from the first Test, edged his seventh and eighth deliveries in almost identical fashion off Southee not long before the second new ball was taken, but on both occasions the ball flew through the gap between Blundell and wide slip. After being dropped by Mitchell at slip off O’Rourke after the new ball was taken, Kamindu produced a flurry of boundaries, which started with a slog-swept six off Ajaz and included three more fours in quick succession to bring up his 53-ball half-century.O’Rourke used his height and bounce to also draw an edge off the splice of Matthews’ bat late in the day, but when the ball only kissed Tom Latham’s fingertips before going for four, Latham’s wry smile summed up New Zealand’s day.

Worcestershire 147 for 7 (Libby 61*, J Taylor 2-11, Lawrence 2-27) trail Surrey 490 (Lawrence 175, Smith 86, Sibley 76, Taylor 3-99) by 343 runsShoaib Bashir equalled the most expensive over in the history of English first class cricket while on loan to Worcestershire for the Vitality County Championship encounter with Surrey at ‘Visit Worcestershire New Road.’The England spinner, on loan for a month to Worcestershire from Somerset, conceded 38 runs including five successive sixes to Dan Lawrence.It was a wake-up call for Bashir who in the winter picked up 17 wickets in three Tests in India.Lawrence cleared the boundary with the first five deliveries of the over between long off and wide long on.The next ball went for five wides and then Lawrence took a single off a no ball before last man Dan Worrall failed to score off the eighth delivery.It equalled the 38 struck by Freddie Flintoff off Alex Tudor for Lancashire against Surrey in a Championship match at Old Trafford in 1998.Lawrence went onto to make a career-best 175 before he was last out with the Surrey first-innings total on 490.Worcestershire then slumped to 147 for 7 with only Jake Libby, with a 145-ball half century, offering much resistance as Lawrence’s fine day continued with two wickets.Lawrence surpassed his 161 for Essex – against Surrey in 2015 at the Kia Oval – in only his second first class match.The only other time more runs have been conceded in an over was a Shell Trophy encounter in New Zealand in 1990 when Lee Germon and Roger Ford (Canterbury) took advantage of contrived bowling from Robert Vance (Wellington) and hit 77.Lawrence had a scare in the middle of his sixes blitz when the third was caught by Adam Hose at long on but the Worcestershire batter carried the ball over the boundary rope.Surrey advanced from their overnight 340 for 5 in sedate fashion during the morning session, adding 88 in 29 overs for the loss of three wickets before Lawrence cut loose on the resumption.Worcestershire were without the injured pace bowler, Adam Finch (leg) and Academy player Chris Ellison deputised in the field.Tom Taylor struck in the first over of the day after Surrey had resumed on 340 for 5.Jordan Clark added only a single before he played back and picked out Bashir at midwicket.Lawrence, who had resumed on 91, completed his century in regal style with a cover drive off Taylor for his 14th boundary.Sean Abbott showed plenty of aggression in the chase for a fourth batting point but he paid the price after giving Taylor the charge and was bowled.Gus Atkinson tried to work Bashir to leg and was bowled to give the spinner his second wicket.James Taylor was run out after playing Bashir to third and attempting a second run and Lawrence’s fine knock ended when he was caught at deep backward point off Allison, his 223-ball knock containing six sixes and 16 fours.When Worcestershire batted, Sean Abbott struck with his first delivery after replacing Worrall when Gareth Roderick was caught behind from a delivery which nipped away.Kashif Ali, back in the side after his break from the game, made 17 before being strangled down the leg side off Atkinson at 59 for 2.Rob Jones was undone by a delivery of extra bounce by James Taylor to give Ben Foakes his third catch.Foakes held onto another chance after Hose (10) aimed a drive at a widish delivery from Taylor.Ethan Brookes, in his first Championship appearance for five years, then fell to a sharp catch at first slip by Ollie Pope off Clark at 99 for 5.Matthew Waite played back to Lawrence and was bowled and Tom Taylor departed in similar fashion for a duck.