MATCH REPORT: Anderson to the fore as Lancashire build an advantage
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Lancashire’s Rothesay County Championship Division Two game against Middlesex has moved on rapidly despite only 55 overs being bowled on a second day that saw Lancashire gain a lead of 77 runs with seven second innings wickets left.
The bowlers held sway once again in helpful conditions with four wickets for James Anderson and three from George Balderson helping bowl Middlesex out for 169, despite a fine innings of 67 from skipper Leus du Plooy.
Three wickets in ten balls by Ryan Higgins in a dramatic final thirty minutes of the day then put a big dent in Lancastrian ambitions to build on their first innings lead of 32.
Balderson and Keaton Jennings had put on 39 for the first wicket before Higgins’ triple strike, Balderson edging behind and both Jennings and Bohannon giving catches to Sam Robson at second slip as Lancashire fell to 45-3 by the close with nightwatch Mitch Stanley 2 not out and Marcus Harris 1 not out.
If the wickets continue to fall at this rate, there is every prospect of a result tomorrow.
An eventful morning session with Middlesex resuming their first innings on 38-2 began in sensational fashion when Anderson took a good catch off his own bowling from his first delivery of the day to send back Ben Geddes for 12.
Remarkably, it was the first caught and bowled wicket for Lancashire by Anderson since he performed the feat to dismiss Essex’s Grant Flower first ball at Chelmsford in 2005!
Caleb Falconer, making his first-class debut in this match, was the next to go when the England under 19 batter was lbw to Tom Bailey for 11 to leave Middlesex 64-4.
With conditions continuing to offer assistance to the bowlers, du Plooy and Higgins counter-attacked with the view of scoring as many runs as possible before they received something unplayable.
That approach led to a fascinating duel with du Plooy crashing an astonishing six over extra cover off Mitch Stanley to add to four nicely timed boundaries in the 39 runs he had scored before rain intervened.
Higgins, who needed a change of gloves after being hit by a sharply rising Stanley delivery, also took a positive approach in making 32 off 30 balls, but that also proved to be his downfall. The Middlesex all-rounder, having hit Balderson’s first two deliveries for four and six, attempted another big hit but only succeeded in pulling the ball to mid-on where Anderson took a well-judged catch over his shoulder.
Harry Duke, signed on-loan from Yorkshire to replace injured wicketkeeper Joe Cracknell, helped du Plooy add eight runs before the deteriorating light followed by heavy rain brought a stoppage at 12.20pm that lasted for 3 hours, 40 minutes.
When play restarted at 4pm, Duke edged Anderson behind for 3 to give Matty Hurst his 100th first-class victim, and Zafar Gohar (4) chipped Tom Bailey to midwicket where Stanley took a really good catch diving forward to leave the visitors struggling on 124-7.
Yesterday, Jennings had provided the backbone of the Lancashire innings with his innings of 67, and du Plooy now did likewise for his side, combining with Sebastian Morgan to chip away steadily at the deficit to bring Middlesex to within 32 runs before their last three wickets fell at the same 169 score.
Balderson took the big wicket of du Plooy, via an edge to Michael Jones at first slip, and had Toby Roland-Jones caught behind, either side of Morgan gloving Stanley to Hurst for 15.
That left 20 overs for Lancashire to bat and they made good early progress before Higgins late strikes.
“It's an interesting pitch,” said Tom Bailey. “It's offered plenty over these last two days.
“I do feel like it is slowly getting better. We were 39 for none, so we're disappointed to lose those three wickets.
“It would have set us up perfectly for going into tomorrow morning, but I think the weather is better as well, so hopefully we can bat most of tomorrow and put ourselves in a good position.
“As a bowler, it's just nice to see some seam movement, some swing as well under these conditions. It definitely makes a change to what we're normally used to (here).
“Day one it did a lot. It's the most I've seen it do in a long time, but me and Jimmy spoke and we definitely felt it was a better pitch today.
“I think we bowled really well, there were some poor shots from those guys, but I think if we can get bat most of tomorrow, we'll be in a great position.
“I think if the sun comes out, which it's meant to, it'll hopefully burn off a bit off that grass and allow us to score some runs.
“Hopefully we're on the right side of it (the result).”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
