MATCH REPORT: Game in the balance after twenty-one wickets fall on the first day
Lancashire and Somerset slugged it out on a remarkable first day in this Vitality County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford where 21 wickets fell with Lancashire reaching the close 10 runs ahead with 9 second innings wickets remaining.
Keaton Jennings hit an excellent half century but Lancashire were shot out for 140 after being put in to bat before hitting back strongly to bowl the visitors out for 146 with four wickets apiece for George Balderson and Tom Bailey.
The day ended with the game evenly balanced and Lancashire 16 for one in their second innings. Given the excellent weather forecast for the next few days, this game is going to produce a result for one of these teams as Somerset chase the title and Lancashire bid to avoid the drop into division two.
It was probably a sign of things to come when the day very nearly started with a wicket from the first ball after Jennings was put down at second slip with Kasey Aldridge moving low to his right but failing to hold on to the chance.
That was to be about the only piece of good fortune for the hosts during the first half of the day who lost their first wicket when debutant Harry Singh edged Craig Overton to third slip for 7 swiftly followed by Josh Bohannon who edged a seaming Overton delivery behind for 4.
Rocky Flintoff produced a determined, patient 40-minute innings in tricky seaming conditions but fell for 7 when he inside edged Aldridge onto his stumps for 7 thirty minutes before lunch.
The bulk of the run-scoring thus far had been produced by Jennings, who struck the ball with authority in hitting 9 fours – including four in one over from Lewis Gregory – and going to his half century from 65 balls.
The Lancashire skipper also posted 1,000 first-class runs for the season when reaching 55 but fell one run later when he bottom-edged Aldridge onto his stumps just before lunch with the Red Rose side 107 for four at the break.
Somerset made the most of that decisive breakthrough with Overton and Gregory to the fore as five wickets fell for seven runs in a disastrous 39-ball spell for Lancashire at the start of the afternoon.
Gregory trapped Matty Hurst lbw for 11, Luke Wells – batting down the order at number six – fell the same way to the excellent Overton (4 for 32) for 14 who then cleaned up George Bell for a duck. Gregory found an edge off Balderson that was snapped up by Overton at third slip and he next trapped Anderson Phillip lbw, both for 1.
Bailey thumped a couple of fours before he was last out for 12 caught at mid-on to give Gregory figures of 4 for 50 with Lancashire 140 all out.
After the shock of losing the recalled Andy Umeed to the first ball of their reply when Bailey had the opener caught at second slip, a 58-run partnership between Archie Vaughan and Tom Lammonby looked to be steering the visitors into a strong position.
But Vaughan rather swished at a Balderson delivery when on 21 with the resultant edge giving Hurst the first of five catches and Lancashire seized the opportunity with aplomb.
Will Williams nipped one away to have Lammonby caught by Bell at first slip for 36 and Balderson trapped Tom Kohler-Cadmore lbw for 3 in the last over before tea.
Balderson struck twice again straight after the break angling in a delivery that seamed away from James Rew (4) with Hurst pouching the edge and then bowling Aldridge for 1 to leave Somerset 83 for six.
Tom Abell and Gregory steadied matters for a time adding 34 runs until Bailey returned to take three wickets in quick succession, having Abell caught behind for 22 and both Overton (2) and Randell lbw in the same over, the former to a beautifully disguised slower ball.
Gregory (30 not out) and last man Jack Leach hit out briefly to take Somerset six runs ahead before Phillip had Leach caught behind for 13.
That left Lancashire 12 overs to face but Jennings fell for 4 in the sixth of them, edging Gregory to first slip, with Singh (4 not out) and nightwatch Williams (6 not out) steering Lancashire through to the close.
“It was an interesting day that I don’t think any of us really expected," said George Balderson.
“There was a bit more grass on the pitch, we wanted that. We know we want to get a result this week.
“It’s pretty slow but it’s not an impossible challenge to score runs.
“So when you lose the toss you have to front up as a batting unit and try and get a score and we didn’t quite do that.
“I thought they bowled very nicely and made it hard work for us.
“To show the fight when we went back out with the ball and bowl them out was fantastic.
“We didn’t think we’d necessarily bowl them out for parity, but we knew we had the ability and if we held to our areas and bowled well we could keep them to maybe 160-170 it would give us a chance in the third innings.
“The ball started doing a bit (when they were 58-1). The roller had a bit of an impact. It deadened it for the first 15 overs and as it started to wear off it felt like the ball started nipping around again.
“And I think we bowled better as well.
“I found a bit of rhythm and got a bit of a partnership going with Will Williams. And the lads came in and backed it up.
“We’re in a position where we can still win the game and that’s the important thing.
“We need to come out tomorrow and bat well.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Barry Mitchell, Luke Adams, Dan Adams
