Lancashire Vs. Kent LVCC Day Two

Rain reduces Lancashire’s chances for victory.

After a promising start to the second days play at Old Trafford by the home side, rain fell once again, to halt the progress of both teams. Lancashire were particularly frustrated by the delay, which saw 55 overs lost, given their impressive start to the day prior to the prolonged interruption.

The day started in a similar fashion the evening session of the first day, with England International James Anderson claiming all four of Kent’s last wickets. It took him just four balls to remove Mark Davies, who was bowled for 11, as Kent advanced to 219-9.  James Tredwell and Charlie Shreck were able to add 25 more runs for the final wicket, including a six for the latter, but Anderson finally removed the middle stump and subsequently the Kent captain who made a valiant score of 40.

Anderson finished with the best figures in the innings, as he claimed 4-57 from a late burst of success, over the course of the two of days of play. 244 was perhaps under par, particularly for the amount of time Kent took out of the game, but the real value of the time that they consumed was yet to be recognised.

Paul Horton and Luke Procter opened the response, but the presence of floodlights in the latter stages of Kent’s innings forewarned the crowd of the bad weather that was to come.

After just one over rain fell, but fortunately for no great amount of time, as play resumed at noon, with just a handful of overs lost. In hindsight this delay was minimal but demonstrated the nature of the days play, as one that was subject to mitigating factors.

Lancashire’s openers resumed with a cautious temperament, possibly suggesting that Kent’s unhurried effort with the bat was due to the tough conditions that were clearly present. The home side had hoped to reach lunch unscathed, but Procter fell with a matter of minutes to go, as he was caught by Tredwell at second slip off the bowling of Darren Stevens.

The restart was scheduled with the score at 22-1, but the second spell of rain fell before play resumed and unfortunately this delay would take a sizeable portion of the days proceedings. Finally at 5:30 the players stepped back on to the field, but with such a large amount of play lost, once again to the weather, the outlook of the entire fixture had been changed.

The likelihood of yet another rain-interrupted draw was by no means aided by the cautious approach from both teams, but conditions proved to be incredibly difficult and neither side wanted to fall under the weight of making up for lost time.

Horton, now joined by Karl Brown, continued to bat at a rate that justified Kent’s slow approach to their first innings, as Lancashire carried on slowly but surely. Horton found it hard to come by runs and was eventually bowled by the impressive Matt Coles for 15, facing 92 balls. Anderson had proved a vital inclusion in the squad with ball and when he came in as a night watchman he had another important duty to fulfill, with the home side now struggling on 36-2.

By this stage in their innings, half of Lancashire’s overs had resulted in maidens, which showed just how tough batting had been, but also just how well Kent did to perform in similar circumstances.

The last thing Lancashire needed with so little time left in the day was another wicket and the Lancashire batsmen made it their duty to see out the Kent bowling attack untroubled, as they finished the second day on 43-2, with Brown on 11 and Anderson 4.