Lancashire and Middlesex in Kookaburra run-fests as Kent battle back

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION TWO ROUNDUP: Chris Green and Tom Hartley were Lancashire's stars on day two, while Leus du Plooy and Kane Williamson added to Max Holden's first-day hundred for Middlesex

Cardiff (day two of four): Kent 155 & 106-1, Glamorgan 327 - Kent trail by 66 runs with nine wickets remaining

Ben Kellaway and Colin Ingram combined to give Glamorgan an ascending position on day two before Kent frustrated the bowlers in the beginning of their second innings.

Kellaway, who struck a mammoth 181 not out maiden century in the reverse fixture, gave fears of déjà vu with 90, together with Ingram's 87 to combine for a 174-run partnership resuming from overnight.

Glamorgan finished on 327, damage limited by Matt Parkinson taking 4 for 103 to grind his way through the Glamorgan lower order after Wes Agar claimed four wickets to handle the top order on day one.

Ben Compton led in the visitors' controlled reply of 106 for 1. The opener closed in on 1,000 runs for the season – needing a further 33 to pass the milestone in a race to be the first to do so this season.

Related: In the race to 1,000 County Championship runs, Saif Zaib comes of age

^{Leus du Plooy made a hundred for Middlesex (Warren Little/Getty Images)}

Cheltenham (day two of four): Lancashire 557, Gloucstershire 179-1 - Gloucestershire trail by 378 runs with nine wickets remaining

Chris Green and Tom Hartley produced record-breaking performances with the bat as Lancashire assumed the upper hand on day two of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire at the College Ground, Cheltenham.

Both made their highest individual first-class scores, Green raising a superb 160 from 199 balls with 13 fours and eight sixes, and Hartley 130 via 153 deliveries with 14 fours and six sixes as the Red Rose county posted a formidable 557 in their first innings. Together, the pair staged Lancashire's biggest ninth-wicket partnership of 212.

Opening-day centurion Matty Hurst made a career-best 106, while Gloucestershire seamer Zaman Akhter and spinner Graeme van Buuren claimed figures of 4 for 85 and 3 for 117 respectively as their side waged a campaign of damage limitation on an essentially sound if slow Festival pitch.

Demonstrating character aplenty, Ben Charlesworth and Joe Phillips launched a spirited counterattack thereafter, staging an impressive unbroken alliance of 159 in 43.3 overs as Gloucestershire reached the close on 179 for 1, trailing by 378 runs.

Merchant Taylors' (day two of four): Middlesex 625-8d, Northamptonshire 126-4 - Northamptonshire trail by 499 runs with six wickets remaining

Kane Williamson and Leus du Plooy scored centuries as records wanted and unwanted were set on day two of Middlesex's Rothesay County Championship clash with Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylors' School.

Former New Zealand Test skipper Williamson's 114 came on his Championship debut for the Seaxes, while du Plooy's unbeaten 105 was his first in four-day cricket this season.

Williamson and Max Holden (151) took their mammoth second-wicket stand to 239 so eclipsing the 222 of Sydney Brown and Bill Edrich at Lord's in 1949 and, with Joe Cracknell adding a blistering 73, Middlesex totaled 625 for 8 their highest-ever score against the Steelbacks.

Saif Zaib took 3 for 70 amid the run-fest, but fellow spinner Yuzvendra Chahal returned 0 for 175 the worst return by a Northamptonshire bowler without taking a wicket in Championship history – all on his 35th birthday.

Needing 476 to avoid the follow-on, Northamptonshire reached 54 without loss before stumbling to 126 for 4 by the close, Lewis McManus top-scoring with 39, Ryan Higgins taking 2 for 17.