4.25pm Headingley is a wonderfully strange place, writes Vic Marks. Here there is cloud cover - just like yesterday- but it's about ten degrees colder than yesterday and the ball is not really swinging for the Pakistan bowlers, who set to work with a first innings lead of 170.
And what could be stranger than Shane Watson taking six wickets? Nothing discernible is different in his bowling except that the Pakistan batsmen keep getting out to it. He contrives a little bit of swing at moderate pace.
It's a place for the part-timers. Umar Amin now has his second Test wicket, a bottom edge from Watson crept onto his stumps, which prompted Salman Butt to give him a remarkably long spell.
The game should be a doddle for Pakistan but it doesn't feel like that. There's the thirteen consecutive victories for Australia in Tests, the fact that Ponting's men overcame a 206 run deficit in Sydney last January. Moreover Ponting has that determined look. By and large the impression is that the neutrals are favouring Pakistan in this match.
4.23pm The Essex chairman, Nigel Hilliard has just popped into the box, writes Paul Weaver in Chelmsford. A busy man Nige, because apart from Essex he's very involved with the ECB. But he's always up for a chat - even when the ECB have taken some stick, which is hardly a rare event.
Everyone here is looking forward to the development of the ground, plans for which have just been approved. There will be new stands, shops, corporate entertaining facilities and residential areas. That means quite a change. Chelmsford is hardly the most aesthetically pleasing of grounds but it's been the headquarters since 1967.
Essex, of course, were the great nomads of the game, hauling their travelling circus all over the county and, somehow, always managing to pitch the press tent flush in the face of any prevailing strong wind; when it blew down we would mooch off the pavilion. Nowadays, though, Colchester and Southend are the only venues away from here.
The boys here reckon we might be building up to something special tomorrow, the final day. Then again, it could be that we are just building up to a major drenching. There is a lot of rain not far away and its dark and blustery here. If the weather does stay good, however, this could be a good match of cricket. Essex have just come out after tea, when they were 75 for two, a lead of 150.
Tim Bresnan is not a fast bowler, not really, but he certainly charged in and bent his back, even though the pitch is enough to make any bowler other than a spinner break down in tears. With his very first delivery he bowled Jaik Mickleburgh via the inside edge of his defending bat. Then Steven Patterson bowled Tom Westley.
2.38pm Croft's wicket was claimed in the 10th over of the afternoon, writes Paul Rees in Swansea. It was not the best ball he had delivered in a long career that started back in 1989 when Graham Thorpe was the then young spinner's first victim, trying to hit him out of the Oval but getting no further than the hands of Alan Butcher.
His 1,000th wicket was not quite as illustrious, belong to White who had not looked in any discomfort. Croft, bowling around the wicket, pushed the ball through flat and short, pitching on leg-stump without generating much turn.
White, conscious of the two close fielders on the leg side, tried to push the ball through mid-wicket but succeeded only in edging the ball, which was well caught by Mark Wallace, the manner of Croft's previous two wickets in the match. As the crowd rose to Croft, who had sunk to his knees after seeing the umpire George Sharp's finger raised, time went back a couple of generations.
Not just because two former Glamorgan players, Don Shepherd and Peter Walker, were walking on to the pitch, but because the former, the last Glamorgan player to reach 1,000 wickets, back in 1960, was clutching a bottle of champagne which was popped open.
A glass was poured for Croft, who duly emptied it, just as in days of yore senior players who be given a glass of bitter rather than orange squash during the drinks break.
Thorpe mused today that he could not see any other player reaching 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets, never mind for one county, with less first-class cricket played now. He also remembered his dismissal by Croft, who was to become an England colleague, although not that his future coach at Surrey, Butcher, was the catcher.
Croft has always had a sense of timing. No sooner had the champagne been consumed and play resumed than a big black cloud rolled over from the east and deposited itself on the ground. Leicestershire were 244-7 and Croft was among the clouds.
2.15pm Play resumed at 1.40pm, writes Paul Rees in Swansea. Only 24 overs were lost with play extended for half-an-hour. Croft bowled the second over of the day, a maiden to Wayne White, but it was James Harris who struck first.
He had the left-handed Tom New caught behind with the opening delivery of his second over to leave Leicestershire on 226-6 and Croft, who was operating with a short leg and a leg slip, with two right-handers to bowl at, unable to exploit the bowlers' rough. White and Jigar Naik looked to be aggressive against Croft, who added a silly point for the latter after what would have been a bat-pad chance, and the off-spinner resorted to bowling around the wicket, but it was Harris who was causing the greater problems.
1.30pm I was just saying it's been a bad match for Grant Flower – it's got worse, writes Paul Weaver in Chelmsford. It's just been announced by the ECB that he has received three penalty points for an incident during Essex's Friends Provident t20 match against Sussex earlier this month.
Flower was reported by umpires Mark Benson and Richard Kettleborough after he knocked his stumps over after being given run out. The points will remain on his license, so to speak, for two years. At least he had a catch this morning, a steepler at deep mid-on to dismiss Steven Patterson off the bowling of Tim Phillips, the bowler's 100th first-class wicket for the county.
It was the third of the four Yorkshire wickets to go down this morning. Next ball - the first of a new over - Andy Carter bowled Tino Best. Earlier he had bowled Gerard Brophy and Phillips had caught and bowled Tim Bresnan.
Yorkshire lunched on 314 for nine, still 85 behind. But what a game Adil Rashid is having. He has followed his five wickets with an unbeaten fifty.
1.25pm At Edgbaston, we could be creeping towards something special, writes David Hopps. Stuart Broad now has the first seven Warwickshire wickets, and the lunchtime scoreboard tells of their embarrasment - 36 for seven, still 40 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat. Notts' players are chatting excitedly over lunch about their chances of seeing him take all 10.
In the press box we keep asking if we are suffering from the traditional affliction of world-weary cynicism because we think that Broad has bowled soundly, but not spectacularly, and that Ryan Sidebottom has bowled just as well.
Be that as it may. We may be wrong. Broad has the happy knack of taking wickets, a bowler who sets sequences in motion that lead batsmen into error. He has drawn Warwickshire's batsmen into a series of unwise shots and has 7-22 at the interval. Sidebottom, who has been right on the button, has 0-14. He can claim his solidity as an assist. But it is Broad, with his extra pace, who is heading for the headlines.
Darren Maddy and Chris Woakes are the latest lemmings. Maddy's shot was astonishing. The players had just returned to the field after a brief shower, Broad bowled a wide one and Maddy, who is known these days as a Twenty20 specialist, dropped to one knee and, at full stretch, carved it to square cover. It was about as far away from championship cricket as you could get. Perhaps at this stage in his career that is where he would rather be.
Chris Woakes was the last man out before lunch, a jabbed drive at a ball that left him flying to Andre Adams at third slip. The Edgbaston crowd, which can be cutting, has suffered in virtual silence, resigned to another abject display. They are reading their newspapers and muncing their sandwiches with morbid expressions, occasional mutterings drowned out by a cacophony of drills and various banging implements the names of which they probbaly neither know nor care.
Ashley Giles, Warwickshire's coach, has a strong and enlightened commitment to producing young, local players, and Warwickshire need to give him time to deliver. In the meantime, there could be suffering ahead. They have made no secret of their desire to sign Eoin Morgan from Middlesex, but if Morgan does switch counties why would he want to join a county heading for Second Division cricket, which would do nothing to enhance his Test ambitions?
1.15pm Pakistan 218 for five at lunch, writes Vic Marks at Headingley. If you asked Andrew Strauss or any of the other England players whom they would rather face - on the evidence of the Headingley Test - the answer is surely a no-brainer. "Australia please."
So far Asif and Aamir have made the ball talk on the pitch. When Australia bowl the talk is off the pitch "How come they can't get the ball to move like the Pakistanis?" Admittedly it is about ten degrees colder today so maybe it's not a swinging day. Australia's bowlers have not threatened too much with Bollinger particularly flat.
We started late. Sri Lanka were still playing against India so Murali was engaged, but in the TMS box we had the next best thing. So we diverted from Galle to Swansea - well, both venues are by the sea - and we had Robert Croft on air with 999 wickets to his name. He was prowling around hoping for the weather to clear and hoping the captain would stick him on to bowl.
I don't think Murali's 800 will ever be beaten: the number of Tests per annum is more likely to fall than rise. Croft's 999 probably will be surpassed but not very often.
12.25pm Stuart Broad has five Warwickshire wickets in as many overs and he would not claim that his new ball spell has been in any way remarkable, writes David Hopps at Edgbaston. He has done basic things efficiently enough and Warwickshire's batsmen have just collapsed before him.
Jim Troughton became Broad's fourth victim when he was bowled, playing all around one, and Rikki Clarke, pushing hesitantly at his first ball, perhaps understandably, was immediately lbw. Warwickshire's lowest total is 35 vs Abbeydale against Yorkshire in 1979. That's their first target. As for Notts, their championship challenge has been stepped up in unmistakeable fashion.
12.22pm No play before lunch at St Helen's, writes Paul Rees. Robert Croft is pacing around the members enclosure, glancing at the sky, which is blue in one direction and black in another, cursing the lack of wind.
He should be bowling again this afternoon. The rain has stopped, the mopping up has started and the outfield, which even when it was pouring held no surface water, dries quickly.
Croft is looking to become only the ninth player to score 10,000 runs and take 1,000 wickets for one county since the Second World War: Peter Sainsbury of Hampshire was the last, in 1972, preceded by Fred Titmus, John Mortimer, Derek Morgan, Ray Illingworth, Tom Cartwright, Tom Brown and Trevor Bailey.
12.20pm After an hour here Essex, who have Yorkshire 285 for seven, are fancying a useful lead, writes Paul Weaver in Chelmsford. Gerard Brophy had his off stump plucked out by Andy Carter after adding just eight runs to his overnight 25. Then Tim Bresnan gave a simple caught and bowled to Tim Phillips and that was 254 for seven. But Yorkshire have been batting better ever since Essex took the new ball at 260 for seven.
Grant Flower, meanwhile, must be hoping that he has a better second half to this match. After his slow-coach innings of five, which occupied 102 minutes and 78 balls, he bowled two overs yesterday which were not noticed by the scorers, until they made a correction late in he day. Remember the song Mr Cellophane Man, from Chicago?
12pm Seven overs into Warwickshire's second innings and the scoreboard already reads 9-3, writes David Hopps at Edgbaston. The entry c Hales b Broad appears twice, courtesy of weak steers to gully by Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott. Ant Botha, an emergency opener, has just played a pitiful hit to leg to send a gentle skier to mid-on. Stuart Broad, in his fourth over, has 3-5 and he has hardly worked up a sweat. Had Jim Troughton been dropped on nought it could have been worse.
There is a sense of resignation among a small Edgbaston crowd as they watch what threatens to be Warwickshire's eighth championship defeat in 11. They began the second innings 76 behind after dismissing Nottinghamshire for 389, but Notts' addition of 91 for the last two wickets seems to have had a demoralising effect. At least the drills and diggers are a little quieter today.
A quick study of Warwickshire's championship averages reveals the extent of the problem. Take away Neil Carter and Rikki Clarke, both all-rounders, and two England batsmen who are rarely available, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, and the next person in the batting averages is Westwood with an average of 27 and four fifties in 22 knocks.
11.15am Torrential rain early this morning in Swansea has delayed the start at St Helen's with the covers, if not the outfield, covered in water, and it has just started pouring down again as the sun shines across the sea in Devon, writes Paul Rees.
The local newspaper, the South Wales Evening Post, would call it symbolic. It launched a campaign in an editorial earlier this week to turn the ground, which is council owned, into an aquarium.
Never mind that St Helen's has played host to some notable sporting occasions in the past: Wales defeated New Zealand in rugby here in 1935 and Glamorgan twice got the better of the Australians in the 1960s in Swansea, but the Evening Pot feels the ground, which no longer hosts first-class rugby and which only welcomes Glamorgan for five days each summer, should be deleted from the sporting map.
"It is 30 years past its sell-by date," wrote the Post. "It is perhaps time to being down the curtain at the old ground and find a new use for this historic site. It could be a wonderful location for an aquarium, something Cardiff has not got, which would be a valuable addition to the city's tourist attractions."
The Swansea-born Robert Croft, needing one wicket to become the first bowler since Martin Bicknell in 2005 to take 1,000 for one county, has fond memories of St Helen's, and so does the Glamorgan coach, Matthew Maynard, who first made his name as a 19-year old here in 1995 by hitting three successive sixes to reach a century against Yorkshire.
And there was Sir Garfield Sobers who in August 1968 became the first player to hit six sixes in one over, the hapless Malcolm Nash disappearing to all parts of St Helen's with one ball last season bouncing down the road away from the Cricketer's pub.
10.45am Day three at Taunton, writes Mike Averis, the forecast is dire and dark clouds are overhead and the local man has just arrived saying "It's building up nicely for an 11 o'clock downpour." The public address is also warning of bad weather, but there is still plenty to ponder about the Amjad Khan affair.
Midway through yesterday's afternoon session something which, apparently has been under the surface for a while, broke cover when Somerset admitted that had been talking to the Kent bowler about a possible move to the West County. Clearly it was not a good time for anyone to talk, especially when Khan had been dishing out the short stuff to batsmen who could be his team-mates next season.
Somerset's director of cricket, Brian Rose, would only say: "Discussions have taken place but at the moment are on hold," and later the club's website quoted the chief executive, Rich Gould, stressing that it was possible that nothing more would happen. As an attempt to keep the lid on speculation the club was clearly talking with one voice, but looking at the ages of the Somerset pace line up it is easy to see why Rose and co might be looking around.
The current opening partnership is Charl Willoughby and Ben Phillips, neither of whom is quite as old as Andy Caddick, but nor are they in the first flush of youth.
Willoughy has just signed a two-year extension to his contract which will mean he will be bowling at the County Ground when he is 37. He last played Test cricket seven years ago, but continues to make the best use of his god-given talents, maximising the advantage that left-arm quicks tend to have. The ball which got Darren Stevens yesterday was a gem: pitching on around middle and leg, seaming just a little, and flying to gulley.
Phillips seems to have been around for ever. He will be 36 in September, has done well for Somerset this season playing virtually every game in all forms, but is wicket less so far against Kent. Then there is 33-year-old Alfonso Thomas, a bowler who is capable of being both underrated and quite quick when he wants to be. He was far too slippery for the Kent tale yesterday. At first sight it's easy to see why a 29-year-old who won't be called up by England again might be an attraction. However bowling statistics for this season are interesting.
Murali Kartik obviously catches the eye because he's new to Somerset and four consecutive "five fours" makes headlines. The left arm spinner now has 26 wickets half way through his fourth first class match for Somerset and at less than 13. Khan, though, has 28 but they cost slightly over 30 apiece . Thomas, from one match fewer , also has 28, but they came at slightly over 20. Lies, damned lies and statistics.
Nonetheless, its easy to see why news of Khan's negotiations, even if they are going nowhere, might have added a little spice to yesterday's cricket.
10.35am You can discuss Murali's achievement on Dileep Premachandran's blog by clicking here and you can also vote in our poll – is Murali a better bowler than Shane Warne – here.
10.30am Morning. Day three at Chelmsford, Edgbaston and Taunton today. Day two at Headingley and Swansea. Day five in Galle. It's all going on. David Hopps has penned this piece about Muttiah Muralitharan's 800th Test wicket, taken with the final ball of his Test career this morning. Remarkable stuff.
On yesterday's blog we talked about all the above games, majoring on Pakistan's dismantling of Australia at Headingley, where Vic Marks will again be in residence today along with a few raindrops. There was also royalty on the blog - both the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Selvey - and a discussion about teaching. Let's hope the weather gives us another bounteous day today.
