MATCH REPORT: Surrey in strong position after the second day against Lancs
Surrey enjoyed a good day with both bat and ball against Lancashire to put themselves in a strong position at the end of the second day of this LV= County Championship match.
A century by Cam Steel in a total of 442 was followed by a relentless bowling effort that saw Lancashire finish the day on 233-8 still 209 runs behind, Keaton Jennings top-scoring with 76.
Surrey built quickly on their overnight 340-7, adding 102 runs in 75 minutes when play resumed at a sunny Emirates Old Trafford.
Tom Bailey struck early trapping Sean Abbott lbw for 42 in the third over of the day with just eight runs added to give Lancashire just the start they wanted but Steel, aided by good support from Kemar Roach and Dan Worrall, put bat to ball in emphatic style to take Surrey to a commanding total of 442.
Steel, 84 not out overnight, hit Will Williams for a six and – two overs later – a four to midwicket to reach his first ‘ton’ for Surrey and his first century since 2018.
Lancashire enjoyed a good moment when Roach feathered an edge behind off Luke Wood from the final ball of the 110th over to end a quickfire 57-run partnership and give the Red Rose a third bowling point but Worrall then helped add a further 37 runs before being stumped by George Bell off Matt Parkinson for 18 to leave Roach 141 not out in the visitors’ commanding total of 442.
Jennings and Luke Wells successfully negotiated ten overs to reach lunch with 28 runs on the board, but Wells fell to a stunning catch, low down to his left at second slip, by Ollie Pope off Sean Abbott for 24 soon after the resumption.
Josh Bohannon struck some sweetly-timed boundaries in his 32 before playing a loose drive at spinner Steel that went straight to Abbott at extra cover to end a 65-run partnership with Jennings.
And from a reasonable position of 129-2 the new Lancashire skipper quickly became the mainstay of the innings as wickets fell regularly at the other end.
Steven Croft top edged a pull at a short ball from Sean Abbott down to Kemar Roche at fine leg for 11. Dane Vilas dragged on an attempted pull off a bottom edge against Dan Worrall for 12 before the prized wicket of Jennings was claimed by Jordan Clark who speared in a full delivery that took out the batters middle stump via his pads having made a solid 76.
That was followed by the loss of three wickets for 1 run in 7 balls after Bell edged behind for 20 and Wood chipped to Worrall at midwicket in the same Abbott over. Bailey then went first ball to Roach with Worrall taking a juggling catch at midwicket.
Further damaged was averted by a resilient partnership of 36 over the final hour of the day between Colin de Grandhomme (29 not out) and Williams (19 not out) but Lancashire face an uphill struggle tomorrow.
“We’re slightly behind the eight-ball and to be fair to Surrey they’ve played really well,” said Keaton Jennings.
“We’ve probably made some errors that we could have got away with. It’s a good opportunity to the next two days to come back and fight nice and hard,” he added.
“As you’ve seen tonight it’s still a good surface, we are 210 runs behind and hopefully Will and Col, and later Parky, can push us up towards that 150 behind and help us get a little bit of a grip in the game. We’ve got to fight and apply ourselves (from here) in order to get up near to the follow-on and hopefully go past it,” he said.
“It’s a dry Emirates Old Trafford surface and a good cricket wicket with two sides going head to head and I thought they bowled really nicely today,” said Jennings. “They had sustained pressure for periods of time.
“There’s been moments in the game that could have gone our way but haven’t,” he reflected. “So we’ve got to make sure we fight and apply ourselves over the next couple of days with the opportunity to hopefully get a nice result out of the game.“
Ken Grime
Photos: Barry Mitchell & Luke Adams