Dane Vilas struck a vital half-century on the opening day of the season for Lancashire to help the visitors post a competitive total at Chelmsford.
The South-African import has shown great promise since signing over the winter striking a fifty in the pre-season at Cambridge and his innings of 74 was the backbone of Lancashire's 319 all out.
Haseeb Hameed (47) and Steven Croft (48) demonstrated strong application against the Essex seamers, sharing 68 runs for the third-wicket, while a crucial last-wicket stand between Kyle Jarvis and James Anderson earned the visitors a third batting point.
The tenth-wicket pairing added 61, helping Lancashire to recover after a middle-order collapse saw them slump to 160/6, before claiming a wicket apiece and reducing the newly-promoted side to 39/2 before the close.
The match had been billed as the battle between England teammates - James Anderson and Alastair Cook - although the latter was forced to pull out at the last minute with a hip injury. Lancashire won the toss and chose to bat on a sun-bathed April day, with former overseas seamer Neil Wagner (3-100) in the opposing ranks.
Alex Davies (5) hit a fifty in both innings at Fenner's after a season on the sidelines with reoccurring knee troubles, but he edged a rising delivery from Jamie Porter (2-64) into the gloves of Adam Wheater.
A counter-punch to this early breakthrough came in the form of Liam Livingstone, who has continued to increase his stock over the close-season with hundreds for England Lions and impressive displays for the North Team. He hit six boundaries in a brisk innings of 28, before edging Aaron Beard (3-47) to Varun Chopra, who had to dive after Tom Westley parried his effort at first slip into the air.
Hameed and Croft excelled for the rest of the morning session, guiding Lancashire from 50/2 after Livingstone's departure to 114/2. It is fair to say lunch arrived at an unfortunate time for the Red Rose, with four wickets falling in a cluster after the break, including both overseas imports.
Croft could easily have fallen to the second ball of the afternoon session off spinner Simon Harmer, but Wheater failed to collect the ball and missed a straightforward stumping. In the next over Hameed - who hit 1, 198 runs at an average of nearly 50 last summer - shouldered arms to Porter and was bowled for 47.
Harmer had impressed before lunch without finding any reward, but he played a key hand in the next two wickets to fall, enticing the Lancashire captain to sweep straight to substitute fielder Callum Taylor, as Croft also fell short of a half-century.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul showed early promise to the short ball with his trademark side-on stance at the crease, but miscommunication meant the West-Indian was walking back to the pavilion with only 15 runs on his return to Lancashire, after his first spell in 2010. The left-hander wandered from the non-strikers end and was sent back by Vilas, but Harmer had the bails off in quick time to reduce Lancashire to 160/5.
The visitors lost their fourth wicket after lunch for 42 runs when Ryan McLaren fell first ball, edging Wagner to Westley at slip. Kolpak signing Vilas showed maturity and impressive touch to Harmer, while Clark looked to counterattack with a straight six off the young spinner.
A fifty-partnership before tea revived the innings after a middle-order blip, before Beard claimed his second scalp of the day, trapping Clark lbw for a hard-fought 24. Vilas registered a fifty in 68 balls with eight boundaries to guide Lancashire to 240/7 heading into the evening session, while Stephen Parry made able company in a rare four-day appearance.
Wagner employed his typical short-pitched approached to remove Parry (19), forcing a good diving catch from Harmer at gully. A third wicket arrived for Beard (3-47) when Vilas mistimed a drive to Wagner at mid-off, leaving Lancashire a long way short of a third batting point at 268/9.
Jarvis and Anderson dug deep to stand up against the best efforts of the Essex seamers, spearheaded by their former Kiwi teammate. A reverse-sweep from Anderson ensured Lancashire reached 300, while a drop from Essex skipper Ryan ten Doeschate allowed the tenth-wicket stand to reach 61 runs.
Wagner finished with three wickets after forcing Jarvis to edge behind to Wheater for 28, but the Zimbabwean paceman struck an early blow for the visitors in reply. Nick Browne struck four early boundaries before edging Jarvis behind to Davies in the sixth over, while nightwatchman Beard (3) fell seven balls later, with Anderson forcing the edge through to Davies on this occasion.
Essex finished on 39/2 after Westley struck three quick boundaries, reducing the deficit to 280 runs, while Chopra survived the nine-over spell from the Lancashire quicks.
No comments:
Post a Comment