Northants catch the selector's eye

I'm at Northampton today - "Described as the Naples of the Midlands - as often as Naples is called the Northampton of Lombardy," as the recently departed Humphrey Lyttelton once said - and the home side have made a pig's ear of their first innings. From 33-1 overnight, they were 33-4 by the time I entered the press box five minutes' late, seven down at lunch and bowled out for 168 soon afterwards. As I type Worcestershire are 50 without loss in reply. Which leads to a convenient reminder about Times Online's session-by-session reports from all our writers in the field, which you can read here.

The match is being watched by Geoff Miller, the National Selector, although I'm not sure who he was wanting to see. Monty Panesar is the big draw but at the start of the day it didn't seem likely that he'd bowl until well after tea. Maybe Miller has seen Northants bat before and had an inkling. Of the other possible England candidates, Kabir Ali (surely well down the fast bowler's pecking order now) took three wickets and Steven Davies, the promising young Worcs keeper, held six catches. Despite that, it is more or less a given that Tim Ambrose will be the England keeper this summer.