Hampshire Vs. Lancashire LVCC Day Four.

Croft and Cross score centuries in perplexing draw.

The history between these two sides in the Championship has been far from boring and today yet another chapter was written in the bewildering encounters of Lancashire and Hampshire.

At the start of the day, all three results remained to be possible, but what we now know to be a denial to set-up a result from Jimmy Adams before the final day commenced, meant that the match became a meaningless draw.

Given the desire of both sides to return to first division cricket, the declaration offer from Lancashire seemed generous, but when Hampshire refused, it gave the players a chance to earn some valuable form.

The continuation of the fourth-wicket partnership was the highlight of the morning session, as Karl Brown and Andrea Agathangelou persisted to battle against what were in hindsight, front-line bowlers. The former reached his third fifty of the season from 114 balls and, following his score of 121 in the first innings, Agathangelou sought to replicate this feat.

Unfortunately though it was not to be, as he scored 49 runs, falling short of his fifty by the same margin that the fourth-wicket had from reaching one hundred. Nevertheless, Agathangelou’s cumulative total of 170 runs in this match has almost certainly earned him a space in the first team on a permanent basis – a position he has fully earned based on this fixture.

When Brown was dismissed for 58 shortly afterwards, Lancashire were forced to start from scratch with two fresh batsmen – thus commencing the highpoint of the final day. The arrival of the century partnership between Steven Croft and Gareth Cross was sandwiched by both men reaching welcome fifties – Croft’s coming the fastest from 78 balls, but it was Cross who reached his century first.

He reached his third Championship century from 168 deliveries, achieving his first ton in this format since April 2011 versus Sussex. Almost immediately though, he was caught by Chris Wood at square-leg, signaling tea at the Ageas bowl with the visitors in possession of a 335-run lead.

But such a number became trivial, as the evening session proved to prolong this futile encounter. Jimmy Adams, Michael Carberry and James Vince all turned their arm in the final session of the match and Chris Wood’s left-arm spin proved to provide light entertainment to the ever-decreasing population of the crowd.

With that in mind the only remaining purpose of spectatorship was to see whether or not Croft would replicate his former batting partner by reaching one hundred. Now accompanied by Wayne White (29*), Croft continued to add to his total and when he finally passed the formerly mentioned milestone from 147 balls, the game eventually came to a close at 373-6.

For a long time today the main question was why Lancashire had not declared, but in reality they were never going to. Coach Peter Moores said that “we made an offer to Hampshire, but they were not interested an that’s their decision”.

Nobody can see into the future, but it may be prudent to reflect on this fixture in September if either, or indeed both these teams have failed to achieve promotion by a finite margin.