SECOND XI REPORT: Bell best puts Lancs in charge
George Bell made the second-highest score by a Lancashire batter in the Second XI Championship with an unbeaten 284 out of the hosts’ 507 all out and then took a stumping and a catch as Worcestershire ended the second day at Southport on 148-3 in their first innings to trail by 359 runs.
Bell’s fabulous nine-and-a-half-hour innings contained 35 fours and is only bettered for Lancashire in this competition by Patrick McKeown’s 306 not out against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1998.
It is also the tenth-joint highest individual score in the history of the Second XI Championship and the highest score by a number four Lancashire batter beating Graham Lloyd's 228 against Leicestershire at Liverpool in 1997.
Resuming the morning on 312-6, Bell and Ollie Sutton extended their seventh wicket partnership to 179 runs, Sutton making his fourth Second XI Championship half century and first for Lancashire by contributing an excellent 77 before Charlie Barnard (32) helped Bell add 68 for the ninth wicket.
Will Williams made an early breakthrough when Worcestershire began their reply, having Rehann Edavalath caught behind for 11 with the score on 38. The visitors had doubled their total when Mitch Stanley removed New Zealand Test batter Henry Nicholls caught at gully for 17.
Lancashire landed a further blow in the last over of the day when opener Isaac Mohammed, having hit 4 sixes and 10 fours in an 105-ball 85, aimed a big shot off Arav Shetty and was stumped by Bell to round off a fine day for the Red Rose batter/wicketkeeper.
TEAMS
Lancashire: Harry Singh, Kesh Fonseka, Rocky Flintoff, George Bell (capt/wkt), Arav Shetty, George Balderson, Tom Bailey, Ollie Sutton, Josh Boyden, Charlie Barnard, Will Williams, Mitch Stanley.
Worcestershire: Isaac Mohammed, Rehann Edavalath (capt), Henry Nicholls, Seth Essenhigh (wkt), Jack Home, Ben Allison, Rob Jones, Ben Gibbon, Toby Cox, Harry Darley, Yadvinder Singh, Thilan Walallawita.