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Your support makes all the difference.Weather forecasts might not have been as glorious as they were for opening day but the extra cloud cover helped spinners around the country.
Surrey dropped Jade Dernbach to play an extra spinner in Zafar Ansari, leaving two former England bowlers on the sidelines in the former and Stuart Meaker. That may have contributed to Lancashire's comeback.
Will Tavare, Graeme van Buuren and Sam Robson all got fifties but miss out on any of our daily awards.
So who were the big winners and losers today?
Star of the day:
Shivnarine Chanderpaul played the perfect anchor innings at five, keeping his head (and wicket) when all around him were losing theirs. Jordan Clark's arrival finally gave him a partner who could hang about and the pair have put on an unbeaten 172 for the seventh wicket. The Guyanese batsman is set for his 74th first-class ton.
Golden ball award:
Jofra Archer took seven wickets, including a stunning in-swinger that England hopeful Dominic Bell-Drummond left outside off, only for it to send his middle stump cartwheeling back towards the river. The silky Barbadian quick could be set for a breakout year on the south coast.
Centurions club:
Hard-hitting all-rounder Jordan Clark got his maiden century for Lancashire. Coming in at eight with Shiv Chanderpaul's snail-paced innings running out of partners, Clark hit a boundary-heavy ton to help Lancs recover from a 122/6 start at The Oval.
Shot of the day:
County bowlers may be the biggest victims of Alastair Cook's international retirement, with the 32-year-old notching his first boundary of the season with this majestic flick through the leg side.
England watch:
Cook will be playing county cricket until July and his first innings since stepping down as England skipper is going well, 39* overnight. Mark Footitt, who dazzled against Warwickshire last week, took another three wickets.
Cow corner:
Marcus Trescothick won the toss and chose to bat, starting the season at age 41, but Somerset's first innings total of 209 seems well under par against Essex.
The people's revolution
With Durham starting the season on -48 points, it was always likely to be an, ahem, uphill battle this summer. It didn't start well.
Notts skittled them for just 162 in their first game of 2017, and while there was a fight back in the final session it was hardly a case of flying out of the blocks - as they had hoped.
Supporters wore anti-ECB t-shirts and hung protest banners against cricket's governing body. The winter has not iced the feeling of ill will.
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