MATCH REPORT: Four wickets for Balderson on second day against Northamptonshire
Today's report brought to you by C&C Insurance
Lancashire ended the second day of this Rothesay County Championship match trailing Northamptonshire by 216 runs with eight first innings wickets remaining after closing on 68-2, having earlier bowled the visitors out for 284.
George Bartlett top-scored with 92 and his partnership of 91 with Lewis McManus for the seventh wicket in the afternoon helped turn the Northamptonshire innings around after three wickets in the morning session had them struggling on 92-5.
George Balderson claimed 4-70 and debutant Ben Walkden added two top order wickets to his tally to finish with 3-33 and this game is nicely poised going into the third day.
Keaton Jennings and Marcus Harris negotiated the early overs from Ben Sanderson and Liam Guthie, although the left arm seamer saw Harris put down at third slip when on 8.
The openers had steered the Red Rose reply to 45 before Luke Procter had Harris caught behind for 25 and Sanderson followed that by trapping Josh Bohannon lbw for 4.
Jennings (16 not out) and Arav Shetty (13 not out) added 18 runs before bad light brought an early close at 7pm with 7 overs left.
Resuming the day on 52-2, Procter and Nathan McSweeney made steady progress in adding 30 runs during the first forty minutes, although the pair were fortunate to escape a running mix-up that left them stranded side-by-side as Shetty’s throw from midwicket whistled past the unguarded stumps.
Lancashire’s mid-morning success came in 23 balls either side of noon with three wickets falling for ten runs.
It was Walkden who made the initial breakthrough, nipping one back to trap McSweeney lbw for 20. Procter drove Tom Bailey to Shetty at point after making a patient 39 and Walkden’s debut just kept getting better when he knocked back the off stump of Saif Zaib for 3 during a fine six over spell of 2-15.
That left Northamptonshire five down with only 92 on the board, but James Sales and Bartlett shored up the innings with a 42-run partnership, ended in the second over of the afternoon when Sales, having made 19, played somewhat lazily to nick behind a Balderson delivery that left him off the pitch.
Bartlett and McManus built on that sixth wicket stand with a better one that included some good counter-attacking play with 50 added in 12 overs.
Bartlett reached his fifty off 100 balls with his seventh four when square cutting Mitch Stanley to the deep backward square boundary while McManus also struck seven fours before edging Noman Ali to Harris at slip for 47 to end an excellent 91-run partnership and give the left arm spinner his first Red Rose wicket.
Some good striking of the ball by Bartlett, who added two sixes to his tally, took the all-rounder within sight of a century before he was last out for 92 to give the excellent Balderson a fourth wicket, as the last three wickets fell to the new ball after tea but not before a further 59 runs pushed the Northamptonshire first innings total up to a useful-looking 284.
“I think it's shaping up to be a good game of cricket” said George Balderson.
“I reckon we'd have wanted to bowl them out for a little bit less, having had them 134 for six, but as it is here at Emirates Old Trafford, when the ball gets soft, it can be hard work to get through that lower order and that was the way it was for us. And I thought we put in some good performances.
“I thought Ben Walkden was very impressive for his first outing. Mitch Stanley and Bails tried hard. And if we can get through the next 15, 20 overs and get their ball to 40 overs old, then we'll fancy ourselves to go past them and put them under some pressure.
“I think you always want to go past them, especially when you know that we're going to be batting last on this pitch. We'd aim to try and get as far past them as we can and then give ourselves the advantage of not having to get too many in that fourth inning. But there's a lot of work to do before we get there.
“We've got to put some partnerships together. I thought Arav looked really good for the 15 balls he was out there tonight. So, hopefully it starts with him and Keats in the morning and we can get a couple of partnerships going.”
“I think the pitch is a little bit on the slow side, but there's a bit of nip there, especially when the ball's new and then it's just gradually got a little bit slower. I think tomorrow will potentially be the best day to bat on it. So hopefully we can take advantage of that.
“I think it's just a good cricket pitch. There's a bit there for everyone. I think it'll probably turn a little bit at some stage.
“I was happy with how it went. I thought I bowled quite nicely today. Just trying to be as boring as you can.
“I spoke to Ben (Walkden) about the same thing. We're quite sort of a similar style of bowler. Just trying to put the ball around the top of the off stump as much as you can, hit the seam.
“If you're not bowling a wicket-taking threat, then at least you're probably not going to go for any runs and you can build some pressure. So, I enjoy bowling with Ben. We sort of build it up from both ends.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams
