Rain saves Lancashire after collapse against Northants

Lancashire escaped from a threatening position in their LV= County Championship encounter against Northamptonshire, as rain came to their rescue on the final day at Emirates Old Trafford.

The home side finished on 206/7, losing seven wickets for 72 runs after Paul Horton (65) and Karl Brown (82) assembled a superb partnership worth 130 runs for the opening partnership.

Brown made his fifth consecutive half-century for Lancashire in Championship cricket, but when Horton departed the innings fell to pieces, until rain spared them the embarrassment of losing the game from a strong position.

Lancashire started the day requiring a further 395 runs to achieve a highly unlikely target of 414 runs but, with the right mindset an application, the Division Two leaders could still save a draw from a game which they have struggled to contest since losing the toss on the first day.

Horton and Brown resumed with the score on 19/0 and the pair added exactly 100 runs before lunch to give Lancashire the perfect start to the final day. The pair accrued runs at a similar rate and played fluently throughout the morning session to frustrate Northants, who were in search of a third Championship win of the campaign.

The opening duo added the first 50 runs of their stand in 95 deliveries, although Horton was fortunate to be dropped by Rossington on 20 off Crook when the Northants keeper dived across first slip and failed to hold to Horton’s thick outside edge.

This fleeting opportunity proved to be rather costly for Northants, both immediately and in the long term circumstances that would eventually deny them the opportunity to take the three wickets they needed to win the game.

Horton and Brown made good use of this mistake, adding Lancashire’s first hundred-partnership for the opening stand of the season in 174 balls. This milestone coincided with Horton reaching his fifth half-century of the summer in 88 balls, with his sixth boundary taking him to his half-century and the century stand with Brown.

The pair had scored at a similar rate all morning and moments after Horton had raised the bat to the Lancashire dressing room, Brown was performing the same act as he went to fifty for the fifth time in as many innings in 93 deliveries, scoring eight fours in the process.

Brown has now scored 388 runs in his last five innings for Lancashire in Championship cricket at an average of 77.60, an invaluable contribution in this fixture given the absence of Alviro Petersen due to a back spasm and also Luis Reece, who has been replaced by Brown at the top of the order due to a broken hand.

The threat of rain was a strong possibility heading into the final day, although when the rain forced an early lunch it had certainly arrived earlier than many people might have expected.

The delay for rain in itself was only brief and did not cause any overs to be lost, although the impact of the break on Lancashire’s performance with the bat became evident as the hosts capitulated in ever-deteriorating conditions in Manchester.

It took 15 balls after the resumption for Lancashire’s collapse to begin, with the loss of Horton to Olly Stone (3-26) starting this procession, when he removed the off-stump with a superb in-swinger which forced its way through Horton’s defences.

Alex Davies survived an early lbw shout from Stone off the first ball he faced and it was evident that the ball was moving much more than it had on previous days – a combination of a deteriorating wicket and the overcast cloud cover working in Northamptonshire’s favour.

However, Davies’s stay at the crease did not last very long after his near miss, as he was trapped lbw for one by Stone in his next over, with Lancashire losing their second wicket for the addition of just two runs.

The sight of Ashwell Prince striding to the wicket was a calm and reassuring one for the home crowd, who enjoyed watching the South-African score a career-best 257 not out against this very opposition at Old Trafford two years ago.

But he was the next batsman to fall to Stone, who claimed his third wicket after lunch in quick succession, forcing Prince to edge behind to Andrew Rossington for seven with the score at 146/3.

Steven Croft flourished in that same match in 2013, also achieving a new first-class career-best score against Northants, but the Lancashire skipper departed without scoring when he was judged to be lbw to Rob Keogh (2-69).

Brown’s contributions in both innings became more and more important as the game progressed and with Lancashire ensconced in a totally different game after lunch, it was important that their in-form batsman stood strong and weathered the storm.

If Northamptonshire’s reaction at the dismissal of Prince could have been described as noticeably more upbeat than any other wicket before it, then the response to Brown edging the ball down the leg-side into the gloves of Rossington was similarly significant to the visitors, who were starting to turn the balance of the game back in their favour after a frustrating morning.

This was the fifth wicket to fall for 49 runs after lunch and Northants were now only one wicket away from exposing the tail-end.

In hindsight, the visitors may have been responsible for their own disappointment. Perhaps they batted on for too long last night, or did not bowl the right people in the overcast conditions in the first session; but the fact that wickets were falling at regular intervals ought to have indicated that conditions were deteriorating at an alarming rate and that they needed to hurry up if they were going to have enough time to win the game.

Another important breakthrough cam with the score at 185/6 when James Faulkner was trapped lbw by Keogh for nine, with the Australian offering no shot to a ball which hit the all-rounder above the knee-roll.

The floodlights finally came into effect after a lengthy passage of insufficient light for all concerned and not just the batting side, but the extra light was unable to relieve the momentum and pressure Northants had established by the flurry of wickets and the visitors added to their tally with the dismissal of Arron Lilley when he was out lbw to Graeme White (1-36).

Lilley’s score of 13 was the next highest contribution after Horton and Brown, which demonstrated the extent to which Lancashire had fallen apart after losing their first wicket, but to their relief the umpires finally decided that the light was insufficient to continue.

Soon after the players left the field, the rain which had been scheduled to arrive did so and the amount of rain which fell in the next hour ultimately deprived the visitors the opportunity to win the game and play was eventually called-off at 5.35pm.

LV County Championship points: Lancashire 11pts, Northamptonshire 13pts.

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