India's left-arm spinner Murali Karthik made an impressive debut for Lancashire as he took five wickets for 93 runs in the Frizzell County Championships Division two match against Essex.

Karthik picked up his first wicket in his very first over by bowling Andy Flower and then removed Ronnie Irani and James Foster in quick succession.

Essex scored 267 at Chelmsford with the help of an 86-run partnership between James Middlebrook and Andre Adams. Lancashire were 139 for four at close on Friday.

Dinesh Mongia cracked a half century as Leicestershire declared their first innings at 552 for six on the second day of the Frizzell County Championships Division two match against Derbyshire.

At stumps, Derbyshire were struggling at 62 for three to trail by 490 runs in their first innings in the four-day match at Grace Road.

Mongia, who had scored just a single in their last day-night match on Tuesday, made a 133-ball 71 which included 10 hits to the fence and one six before he was bowled by Derbyshire's South African import Ant Botha.

Electing to bat, Leicestershire amassed the huge score by century knocks of skipper Hylton Ackerman (125) and opener Darren Robinson (123) while Tom New (89) and Paul Nixon (50) were the other notable contributors.