MATCH REPORT: Lancashire fight back strongly at Blackpool
Today's match report presented by C&C Insurance Brokers
Lancashire fought back well to bowl Kent out for 374 on the second day of this Rothesay County Championship match at Blackpool before a century opening partnership between Luke Wells and Keaton Jennings helped steer the hosts to the close on 120-1 to trail by 254 runs after two days at Stanley Park.
That partnership capped a good day for Lancashire which began in sensational fashion when James Anderson took two wickets in his first two overs.
Kent had resumed their first innings on 213-3 but lost Jack Leaning (4) and Joey Evison (0) in near identical fashion, both chipping Anderson to Josh Bohannon at short midwicket to have the visitors immediately on the back foot, with the Lancashire stand-in captain producing a fine five-over opening spell of 2-3.
Compton, 86 not out overnight, and Harry Finch dug in to rebuild the innings, but it was slow going in the face of some accurate bowling by the Red Rose attack.
Compton reached his third century against Lancashire from 201 balls while the pair posted their fifty partnership off 151 balls. In fact, just 66 runs came from the 33.2-over morning session.
Finch came out showing intent after lunch hitting 12 of 13 runs from one Mitch Stanley over but having reached his half century from 123 balls he then nibbled an edge off George Balderson (3-54) to Matty Hurst for 52 to end a valuable 95-run partnership for the visitors.
Lancashire made the most of that breakthrough as the last five wickets fell 60 runs.
Compton’s fine innings ended on 135 after the opener was tempted into driving at the excellent Chris Green (37 overs, 2-104) only to edge behind to Hurst, while Stanley was soon celebrating his maiden first-class wicket when Grant Stewart top-edged a catch to Bohannon for 2.
Matt Parkinson skied a catch to Tom Bailey off Wells for 11 with Wes Agar last out on the stroke of tea for a hard-hitting 41 that contained three sixes.
Jennings and Wells responded in a positive fashion with an opening stand of 119 to lay a solid foundation to the Lancashire reply as the Kent bowlers found the conditions, combined with the Kookaburra ball, just as difficult as their Red Rose counterparts had done earlier.
Wells struck four crisp boundaries as the 50-partnership arrived from 92 balls before the tall left hander greeting Parkinson’s introduction into the attack with a straight six on his way to a 97-ball half century.
Jennings contributed a more circumspect, but equally valuable, innings of 49 before trapped lbw by Evison four overs before the close.
Nightwatchman Bailey (0 not out) helped Wells (57 not out) negotiate the remaining overs to reach the close and Lancashire have moved themselves into a good position in the match.
“I think today was a really good day,” said Lancashire interim Head Coach Steven Croft
“Yesterday straight after lunch, we just let it slip a little bit. We had to chase and claw the game back a little bit.
“But today, we had a really good day. Our patience got rewarded.
“When it came to bat, I thought Keats and Wellesley had a really good opening stand there of 100. There's nothing more you can ask for, really. We lost one (wicket) at the end, but we're in a great spot.
“I think it's one of the wickets you have to be patient with. It seems to have a little bit less bounce than last year. Whether that's good or not, we're not too sure.
“I think to be patient on that wicket is the way to go. Obviously, you've got to build a good foundation.
Croft had praise for Mitch Stanley on his first-class debut.
“I thought Mitch did really well for his first go in first-class cricket,” he said.
“He's been with us now for 18 months. We've seen a lot of him in the second team this year, and he's done really well.
“He's been up to the task, and I thought he did really well today and a bit unlucky not to get one or two more. On a pretty docile pitch he was still getting it through which is great to see.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, Croft added:
“We're on the field first and foremost tomorrow and (the aim is) to build a good platform. It is a quick scoring ground usually here. The pitch is a little bit on the slow side, but if we do get a good foundation, we can start dictating how we want to play.
“I think we're in a really good position. We've played some good cricket.
“We want to win every game we play and if we can't win it, we want to be on the right side of the draw as well, which I think by our own standards we've been a little bit short of that at times this year. Hopefully, we can turn the corner.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
