Lancashire face uphill battle after following-on
Today's match report presented by C&C Insurance Brokers
Lancashire face an uphill battle tomorrow after being bowled out for 228 and closing on 126 for two in their second innings after Northamptonshire enforced the follow-on.
Josh Bohannon made a determined unbeaten 67 and will have nightwatchman Anderson Phillip alongside when play resumes tomorrow with Lancashire needing a further 142 runs to make Northamptonshire bat again.
Liam Guthrie gave the visitors a dream start when he trapped Michael Jones lbw for 0 with an inswinger as Lancashire batted a second time but the Northants victory quest was held up by a resolute 120-run partnership between Keaton Jennings, who added 49 runs to go with his first innings 96 and Bohannon who took 146 balls to reach a half century that included 7 fours and included a lovely, wristy flick of the wrists off Harrison to the midwicket fence.
The Northamptonshire bowler, on a short-term loan from Notts, changed ends and that bore fruit when he found the edge of Jennings’ bat six overs before stumps – his fifth wicket in this match.
Four first innings wickets for Harrison and three by Justin Broad led a fine bowling effort by Northamptonshire who took the remaining Lancashire wickets by the seventh over of the afternoon session, backing up the massive 496 accumulated by their batsmen, to put their side in the box seat after three days.
It was Raphy Weatherall who struck first after fifty minutes of play when Matty Hurst steered a catch straight to Ricardo Vasconcelos at gully for 16 the over after the wicketkeeper/batter had confidently twice pulled Broad to backward square leg for four.
Harrison picked up his first wicket of the day when Luke Wells, on 20, attempted to repeat the sweep shot that had brought him six runs earlier but this time top edging high to midwicket where Broad took a good running catch.
That ended a promising partnership of 46 and began a clatter of the three wickets to fall for 5 runs in 19 balls with first day centurion Saib Zaib to the fore.
Jennings had looked imperious in stroking his way steadily to 96 and the fierce drive the skipper produced against Harrison looked destined to bring up his century, but instead it nestled in the hand of Zaib at midwicket after the all-rounder flung himself to his right to pull off a stunning catch.
Given the almost perfunctory one over of spin before lunch, Zaib then trapped George Balderson lbw for 1 to complete a magical five minutes and leave the spinner with figures for this season of 5-9 from 9.5 overs.
Harrison (4-34) and Broad (3-58) swiftly wrapped up the innings post lunch, Tom Hartley pulling the former to George Bartlett at midwicket for 8 and Tom Bailey finding the same fielder at long leg off Broad for the same score.
Lancashire made a much better fist of things second time around, but Northamptonshire remain firm favourites to clinch a result tomorrow.
“I think we let ourselves down first thing with a bat. You can't look at too many of those dismissals and say it was bowler perfection at all,” said Keaton Jennings.
“We made errors with the bat and put ourselves under pressure, so we had to fight back. We're in a nice position coming into tomorrow. It's still a good surface. There's a bit of spin, but I don't think there's a huge amount of demons in the surface.
“We've got batters in the line-up that can go and bat long periods of time. That, I guess, is the message.
“I think when you mess up as badly as we did in the first innings, I think you put yourself under pressure and you lose the right to take the game on to a degree.
“We know what's in front of us now. We have to bat the day. We have to be tough and resilient and go about it in a really professional manner. There's different ways of doing it. For Josh (Bohannon), and myself, it was about occupying the crease and making it tough to get out.
“I think from the position we were in, a draw is definitely a good result, but I think we need to make sure we're playing better cricket for periods of time. You can't keep coming into fixtures and trying to scrap out a draw.”
“We need to rely on our skill level and make sure we come tomorrow with a fresh set of bodies, fresh set of eyes, and a really good game plan to implement and make sure we bat the six hours in front of us.
“I thought we bowled all right. I thought it was a good surface. We didn't bowl first for the reason of trying to knock them over for 200. We didn't expect that.
“History will tell you at that the wickets at Emirates Old Trafford do get better. As you've seen today, the balls haven't jumped. It looks hard work to get guys out.
“There's a bit of spin, but always from the foot marks to the left-handers, you're going to get spin. So, the reasoning was try and get them 7, 8, 9 down overnight. Try and bat once, bat big, and then bowl again towards the back end of the game, as they have, almost in reverse.
“So that's the theory behind it. Obviously, when they get 500, you're got your backs to the wall, and then when you get bowled out at 200 on a really good surface, you put yourself under massive pressure.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
