Essex bowlers dominate Warwickshire before rain

Essex seamer Jamie Porter has taken almost 600 wickets in first-class cricket [Getty Images] Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Edgbaston (day one) Warwickshire 113-7: Hain 44*; Porter 4-36 Essex: Yet to bat Warwickshire 0 pts, Essex 2 pts Match scorecard A superb opening spell from Jamie Porter put Essex in command of Warwickshire on a rain-hit opening day of their County Championship fixture at Edgbaston. Porter blasted out Essex's top three with the new ball and ended the day with 4-36 as Warwickshire limped to 113-7 before rain wiped out the last session. Sam Hain defied with skill and sound judgment for an unbeaten 44 from 93 balls but Porter, well supported by three other seamers who all took a wicket, provided Essex with the strong day they needed to bounce back from last week's 10-wicket defeat by Somerset.

It was a good toss for Essex to win as they chose to bowl under heavy cloud cover, likely to be the only helpful bowling conditions in the match as Edgbaston pitches tend to get better for batting the longer a game goes. Porter made the most of the conditions in an aggressive and skilful opening spell of 7-1-19-3, all his wickets coming from potent deliveries which left the batter blameless. Alex Davies fell first ball when he nicked a perfectly-shaped outswinger to wicketkeeper Michael Pepper, Rob Yates edged a similar ball to third slip and Dan Mousley was lbw to a ferocious in-ducker.

Beau Webster plumped for a policy of counter-attack but, after inside-edging a fortuitous four, he charged again and missed at Shane Snater. Zaman Akhter, making his Essex debut, added the wicket of Ed Barnard with a big inswinger that won an interesting lbw decision. Warwickshire were grateful for the resolve and watchfulness of Hain but he lost two more partners quickly after lunch.

Porter returned to trap Zen Mailk lbw and Jordan Thompson was spectacularly caught at third slip by a diving Paul Walter off Sam Cook. Rain then arrived so the rest followed Thompson into the pavilion before another ball could be bowled. Warwickshire have made three changes from the team that was beaten by Sussex at Hove last week with Malik, Keith Barker and Nathan Gilchrist replacing Kai Smith, Michael Booth and Chris Woakes.