Kevan James
BBC Radio Solent commentator

"Whist today will be euphoric for one of these teams, it may just delay the inevitable. But we all turn up for these days, don't we?"

"Days like this are what it's all about."

The biggest day of Somerset's season so far begins.

Another 214 needed to keep that elusive first County Championship title in their own hands.

Tom Lammonby returns to the crease on 29, while Tom Abell has six.

Yorkshire need seven more wickets for victory. Dom Bess has four balls of his over remaining after the players went off for bad light last night.

Lammonby on strike.

Nick Kelly was a little jittery with the bat last night, but he made it through to stumps and he'll face Scott Currie on four not out.

Hamza Shaikh - prolific in the One Day Cup and with a 50 to his name in the first innings here - is on 16.

Away we go in Hove.

Can Nottinghamshire pull off a minor miracle on the final day?

Mitch Hay to face the first ball of the fourth day with Brett Hutton also at the crease with him.

Ari Karvelas to bowl the first over for the hosts.

BBC Sounds

As ever there will be ball-by-ball BBC local radio commentary from the remaining seven matches.

To tune in, click on the 'watch and listen' tab at the top of this page, or you can ask your smart speaker... "play Yorkshire v Somerset day four".

Or whatever game you desire!

Adam Whitty
BBC Radio Leicester commentator

Image source, Rex Features

If there is no rain, one of these two is going down today.

Leicestershire started their chase of 334 well last night, the doggedness of Sheridon Gumbs and Hamza Shaikh, who is unbeaten on 16, and the flashiness of Rehan Ahmed and Nick Kelly, who will be aggressive from the off this morning.

These chases are always so tricky though, so a few early wickets and Hampshire will fancy their chances.

The pitch has stopped doing a huge amount, but good bowling gets its rewards.

A draw is unlikely, so we will get a result, probably my mid-afternoon. The loser is playing Division Two cricket next season. To be fair, the winner will probably be as well, they'll just find out next week.

However, the victor will live to fight another day.

Image source, Getty Images

Sometimes you just can't make sense of County Championship cricket. In each team's first innings at The Oval the average number of runs per wicket was just over 12. In the second innings, on the same pitch, it currently stands at 64.

If Surrey get anywhere near chasing down 612 it will be some final day.

Ryan Patel and Ollie Pope have been scoring at around the required rate in their century partnership so far.

But that's been against attacking fields set by Glamorgan who would love a victory but need only a draw to secure their Division One status for a second season so if at any stage they start to fear defeat we can expect them to go on the defensive.

Patel agrees it's been a strange game.

"Especially after day one when there were 20 wickets I don't think a lot of us thought potentially we'd be in this position right now but we are and it's been a fascinating game of cricket," he said. "Hopefully we can kick on."

The final day at Northampton is going to be a significant one in deciding the second promotion place behind Durham.

Resuming with all second innings wickets intact Northants are chasing 349 and if they get there it'll be the fifth highest successful run chase in their long history.

That would put them four points ahead of rivals Kent and in a strong position going into the final round. A draw would leave them four points behind and a loss would put them 12 points off the pace meaning Kent would probably only have to avoid defeat in their last match.

Much could depend on Ricardo Vasconcelos who's scored five centuries this season and is closing in on a thousand championship runs in the campaign.

Kent's win yesterday confirmed that Derbyshire will miss out on promotion but they'll be keen to secure a fifth win of the season which would be their highest tally of victories since 2014.

Hold on to you hats. This could be a good one.

Image source, Shutterstock

There are so many computations around this game.

Put simply, Leicestershire must win this game to have any chance of staying up.

Hampshire must win this game to have any chance of staying up.

Then both teams need to win their final match next week and hope other results go their way.

If Leicestershire do go on to win this match, the club will have achieved its highest ever fourth innings score in a winning cause at Grace Road against Hampshire.

The current record in that respect was set in 1977, when Leicestershire chased down 171 - with six wickets in hand.

A young man called David Gower was there at the end of the chase on 22 not out.

Off spinner Jack Birkenshaw, who later coached Leicestershire in their championship title-winning seasons in 1996 and 1998, took a vital 4-55 in Hampshire's second innings, restricting the opposition to 214.

Image source, Getty Images

Nottinghamshire are going to have to produce something special today after a dominant Sussex display on day three left the defending champions' hopes of retaining their title hanging by a thread.

After posting 358 in reply to Notts' first innings score of 240 and building up a lead of 118 runs, an excellent performance by Sussex's bowlers - Ari Karvelas and Jaydev Unadkat in particular - left the visitors on the brink of defeat.

Karvelas took the first four wickets to remove the top four Notts batters, including Division One's leading run scorer Joe Clarke for just four.

Notts then slumped from 142-4 to 149-7 by close after a devastating spell at the end of the day by Unadkat.

Mitch Hay (11*) and Brett Hutton, who is yet to get off the mark, return to the crease this morning for Notts, who have a lead of just 31 runs with only three wickets remaining.

Notts will have to somehow dig in to try and bat long and hard on the final day of this match, otherwise their dream of back-to-back titles for the first time in the club's history will be all but over.

Image source, Shutterstock

This is it for Somerset. Their dream of winning a first ever County Championship may well hinge on the next eight hours or so.

There are no added complexities to what Somerset must do. The equation is simple - knock off the 214 more runs they need to chase down the 287 target set by Yorkshire or accept that the title is no longer in their hands.

As for Yorkshire, they will be eyeing seven more wickets to inflict pain on Somerset, who will likely hand the initiative to Warwickshire heading into the final game if they fail to win this, given that Notts are in real trouble on the south coast.

This promises to be compelling, exciting and intensely nerve-wracking.

Not to mention that the weather forecast in Leeds is a bit iffy this afternoon, which could throw another spanner in the works for Somerset.

Huge.

Image source, Shutterstock/Opta

How many Warwickshire fans are feeling like Chris Woakes does in the above graphic right now?

The Bears lead the way in the live table and should Somerset or Notts - or both - lose today, this is how things will look heading into the final game of the season.

Victory for Somerset would of course propel them back to the summit with a five-point lead, while a draw would leave them on 200 points - three behind Warwickshire.

Victory for Notts seems unlikely today, but if they can pull off the unthinkable at Sussex, they would go one point above the Bears, while a draw would leave them seven behind.

It is so tight.

Image source, Shutterstock

Morning!

It's the fourth and final day of the penultimate round of the 2026 County Championship season and it's all still to play for.

Can Notts and Somerset close the gap on Division One leaders Warwickshire?

Who will keep their survival hopes alive in the game between Leicestershire and Hampshire?

Will Northants pull off a mammoth chase to stay in the promotion race?

Stick with us to find out...