2NDXI REPORT: Lancashire and Essex play out high-scoring draw
Lancashire’s Second Eleven Championship match with Essex petered out into a high-scoring draw on a flattish but good batting wicket on the final day at Chester Boughton Hall.
Resuming their first innings on 417 for five, Lancashire batted on past the visitors’ first innings 457 for six declared with Arav Shetty making his highest score in the competition with an unbeaten 84.
Eighteen year-old Shetty hit a six off spinner Ayden Gouldstone to add to his seven fours as he and Jack Carney added 59 for the sixth wicket.
Carney fell for 24, bowled by Noah Thain, and Danny Lamb for two to Gouldstone before left-hander Jon Fielding unleashed a rapid assault on the Essex bowlers with 64 off just 38 balls, hitting three sixes and 8 fours in adding 106 runs in 14 overs for the seventh wicket.
Once Fielding was caught at long-off by Jamal Richards off Omar Akram, Lancashire declared on 545 for 8 with a lead of 88 runs.
But Essex opening duo of Nick Browne and Josh Rymell had little difficulty in erasing that margin, the pair putting 171 runs on the board before Rymell pulled spinner Cian Dickinson to midwicket for 77.
Spare a thought for Thain who then got a duck, lbw to Shetty, as the runs flowed elsewhere with Nikhil Gorantia making an unbeaten 50 off 48 balls alongside Browne who was 119 not out when the teams shook hands on the draw with Essex 254 for two declared in their second innings.
Lancashire receive 15 points, Essex 15.