Essex remained on top against Warwickshire after two rain-affected days of their County Championship match at Edgbaston despite Sam Hain’s superb innings.

The visitors closed the second day on 110-3 in reply to the home side’s 190, with 81 overs lost to rain over the first two days.

Warwickshire had been lifted from their overnight 113-7 to 190 all out by Hain’s unbeaten 88 from 179 balls.

Jamie Porter took 4-59, supported by two wickets each for Sam Cook, Shane Snater and Zaman Akhter.

Essex then dipped to 19-2 in reply, but Paul Walter (46 from 97 balls) and Charlie Allison (40 not out) batted with great care and concentration to add 84 from 23 overs before Walter fell five overs before the close.

Warwickshire resumed on the second morning badly in need of late-order ballast and Hain and Keith Barker added 31 before the latter clipped Akhter to mid-wicket.

Ethan Bamber’s fatal edge off Snater in the next over left the home side on 145-9 but Hain’s highly-skilled innings then found another dimension.

He lifted Akhter for sixes over mid-wicket and long-off while cleverly shielding number 11 Nathan Gilchrist from the strike.

The 10th wicket added 45, the biggest partnership of the innings, and Hain was 12 short of a richly-deserved century when Gilchrist’s off-stump was struck by a fine ball from Cook.

Essex’s reply soon hit turbulence when Dean Elgar edged Bamber to second slip. Luc Benkenstein then nicked behind to give Barker his 360th first-class wicket for Warwickshire and his first since he bowled Joe Denly at Edgbaston on 26 September 2018.

Walter and Allison dug in impressively against some testing seam bowling but, after a long rain-break, they were faced with an awkward late 10 overs during which Walter leading-edged Bamber to point.

Despite the time lost, this match has advanced far enough to retain the potential, weather permitting, of a fascinating contest on the last two days.

Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.