Balderson claims four as Lancashire hold lead after day two at Trent Bridge
George Balderson took four wickets to give Lancashire a slender advantage on day two of their Vitality County Championship Division One match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
Haseeb Hameed posted his first Vitality County Championship hundred since September 2022 and his first since being made captain but his Nottinghamshire side still have work to do to match Lancashire’s first innings total, where they trail by 52 runs on 279 for seven.
Hameed, who still harbours ambitions of playing Test cricket despite being tried and discarded twice by England, finished day two unbeaten on 137 after hitting 16 fours, although he was dropped on 104 off left-arm spinner Tom Hartley.
Balderson, who shared a key partnership with Keaton Jennings in Lancashire’s first innings, has four for 72 from 22 overs.
Lancashire could reflect on a satisfactory morning’s work after Nottinghamshire’s strong finish to day one. Forcing the home side to concede another 25 runs for their last two wickets, most of them courtesy of Tom Bailey’s bat. The 33-year-old seam bowler hit five boundaries in his 42-ball unbeaten 31.
Olly Stone, whose performance with the ball on day one deserved more than his one wicket, dismissed Will Williams, caught at second slip, and Saqib Mahmood, who chipped to extra cover, to finish with three for 56 from 23.2 overs.
Seeking to overhaul Lancashire’s 331, Nottinghamshire started on the front foot but Ben Slater’s second-over boundary turned out to be his only scoring shot as Mahmood, bowling for the first time in a senior match for 12 months following a stress fracture, claimed his first comeback wicket via an edge to third slip.
Hameed and Will Young looked as though they could put that setback behind them, weathering what remained of Mahmood and Tom Bailey’s new-ball offensive, but when Williams replaced Bailey at the Stuart Broad End, Young was dropped at second slip on 17 and then bowled for 27, shouldering arms to a ball that hit his middle stump, having come back sharply off the pitch.
A sequence of beautiful shots by Hameed greeted the afternoon, and when Joe Clarke followed a deft steer to the third-man boundary off Bailey with a handsome drive through the covers to greet the return of Mahmood, it appeared the Lancashire bowlers might be in for a tough session.
But again a potentially damaging partnership fizzled out as Balderson came back into the attack, his away movement finding a thin edge to have Clarke caught behind before Tom Moores, recalled after a couple of hundreds in the Second XI, rather gave his wicket away with a rash swing outside off stump that saw him caught behind too in Balderson’s next over.
Jack Haynes proved to be a more patient accomplice, content with diligent accumulation as his captain cashed in on his form to dominate the bowling, most productively through the on side. Having reached his half-century from 99 balls, Hameed went past 100 in just 63 more, bringing up the milestone with his 15th boundary, tucked away backward of square off Balderson.
After going a full season without reaching three figures last year, in which his numbers were generally disappointing after an excellent 2022, there was relief in his celebration on account of that, but also in quelling any fears that the challenge of stepping into Steven Mullaney’s shoes as captain might detract from his batting.
It is his first hundred against his former county and his first against First Division bowling since 2016, when he was a 19-year-old prodigy hailed as the ‘new Boycott’ and made hundreds in both innings in the Roses match at Old Trafford.
He was promptly put down on 104, a difficult chance coming hard to slip Luke Wells off Hartley, but though Hameed survived Nottinghamshire suffered another setback in the last over before tea, Haynes, on 35, becoming the second batter on the day to be out not playing a stroke as Balderson brought one back to claim his third success.
With Hartley and seamer Williams matching each other for economy, Hameed and new batter Lyndon James had to graft for runs after tea, the first 50 runs of their partnership needing 145 deliveries.
The sixth-wicket pair reduced the deficit to 83 runs but the second new ball, with which the Nottinghamshire bowlers had enjoyed success on the first day, brought a rapid dividend. James, driving expansively, was caught at first slip as Balderson picked up his fourth scalp, before Calvin Harrison’s bright 21 ended with an edge to second slip off Bailey.
Photos: Luke Adams and Daniel Adams
