Ashwell Prince (230) recorded the third double-century of his career and his second for Lancashire as he guided the home side to a mammoth total of 551 against Derbyshire at Southport.
This was the highest ever score at Trafalgar Road and gave Lancashire a lead of 181 runs over Derbyshire who responded brightly, finishing on 123/3 after Ben Slater (58) and Chesney Hughes (41) added 98 runs for the second-wicket.
However, the loss of both batsmen in the space of three deliveries gave Lancashire a good finish to the day as the visitors ended the third day still trailing by 58 runs.
Prince eventually fell for 230 after batting for seven hours and 40 minutes, scoring 28 fours and two sixes, sharing healthy partnerships with Jordan Clark (39) and Arron Lilley (63), who supported the South-African batsman's superb innings.
Lancashire started the day needing two more runs to achieve their fourth bonus batting point and Prince hit the second ball of the day for his 22nd boundary to take the home side to 350. Prince continued to build a strong partnership with another in-form Lancashire batsman, as he and Alex Davies added 60 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership.
The Lancashire wicketkeeper's first boundary of the day registered the fifty partnership between these two in just over 11 overs and runs continued to flow for the Red Rose as they comfortably reached 400 inside 110 overs.
Derbyshire were subjected to a torrid day in the field after Prince and Alviro Petersen built a partnership worth 258 runs on Day Two, but the visitors had the wicket of Davies in the fourth over of the day when he edged a delivery from Tom Taylor (4-113) to Hashim Amla at first slip.
The catch was not taken cleanly and the South-African Test ace palmed the ball aerial, forcing Chesney Hughes to take a reaction catch at second slip, as Davies fell for 37.
This was Taylor's tenth wicket in his last two innings against Lancashire after claiming 6-61 in the reverse fixture in the first match of the season, but Clark offered able company to Prince as the hosts went into the lead, overtaking Derbyshire's first-innings total of 370.
Derbyshire would have been fairly happy with that score, but the longer Prince continued to occupy the crease, the greater Lancashire's lead became and Clark took some of the pressure away from the 37-year-old - who turns 38 on Thursday - with an eye-catching innings of his own.
 |
| Prince celebrates reaching 200 for the second time in a Lancashire shirt. |
Clark hit six fours in his innings of 39 and hit the ball with tremendous power and conviction through the off-side, a feature of his game that seems to be improving more and more as he enters only his fifth first-class match for Lancashire.
The umpires were forced to find several replacement balls as Clark leathered the ball towards the advertising boards where, on impact, the ball would shoot up and fly over the fence and onto the railway line. Prince was no stranger to finding the rope either, hitting back-to-back fours to bring up 400 for Lancashire in the 96th over.
Prince played enterprising strokes as he and Clark achieved a fifty partnership in 11.3 overs to continue Lancashire's steady progress in the morning session. Derbyshire, meanwhile, had no luck, with Clark edging through a vacant third slip for four and Prince top-edging a reverse-sweep to first slip, but the umpire was unmoved by the desperate appeals of the Derbyshire fielders.
Prince and Clark added 78 for the sixth-wicket, but David Wainwright (1-131) eventually found a breakthrough for the visitors, trapping Clark lbw with the score at 442/6, although he had to wait a while for the umpire to raise the finger, prolonging the left-arm spinners 21-over search without a wicket.
This gave Lilley the privilege of standing at the other end as Prince went to his second double-hundred for Lancashire with his 27th boundary, reaching this coveted milestone in 291 balls. Prince is the leading run-scorer in the country and his second innings score of 230 means he has made the most runs in county cricket since the start of last season, scoring 1,907 runs since the start of 2014 for Lancashire.
Prince showed no signs of fatigue or allowing the Lancashire lower-order to outshine him, striking his second six to take the home side to 454 for the loss of six wickets, as yet another replacement ball was needed.
 |
| Arron Lilley made a career-best 63 to assist Prince. |
Lancashire entered the lunch interval on 479/6, leading by 109 runs as Prince left the field to a deafening applause from the crowd and the South-African went in search of a new career-best score after the break. Prince's 257 not out against Northamptonshire last season was a career-best, but the veteran batsman failed to match this achievement, eventually falling in tame fashion after adding a further 81 runs with Lilley for the seventh wicket.
Lilley's innings of 63 was a career-best score for the Lancashire off-spinner, who recorded a maiden first-class fifty to stake his claim for a regular spot in the first team. He clobbered a slog-sweep onto the railway line to help Lancashire reach 500 and his partnership with Prince continued to build as the sunshine occasionally came through the cloud cover at Southport.
Incredibly, Prince's innings came to and end in tame fashion when spinner, Matt Critchley, bowled a short ball which Prince looped to Scott Elstone at mid-wicket, as the South-African fell with the score at 523/7.
This was the first wicket of Critchley's first-class career - hardly a bad scalp to collect given the dominance which Prince had carried at the crease - and he continued to make inroads claiming three wickets in the space of 16 balls to mop up the Lancashire tail-end.
Lancashire's mammoth total went on to break several records, including their highest score and indeed the highest score by any team on this ground, beating the 523 made by Warwickshire in 1982. Lilley remained composed in the absence of Prince, reaching his fifty in 69 balls with five fours and one six, before Tom bailey was bowled without scoring by Critchley.
 |
| The Derbyshire players were eager to shake Prince's hand when he eventual fell for 230. |
The efforts of Prince were clear for all to see and Lancashire's lead of 181 runs gave the home side a commanding position in game that could yet see a result if the Red Rose are able to make further inroads tomorrow morning.
Ben Slater and Billy Godleman amassed a partnership of 141 runs in Derbyshire's first innings, but Lancashire continued their good progress by claiming the first wicket of their second innings with only 21 runs on the board.
Derbyshire displayed early intent, scoring 17 runs in the first two overs, but Bailey threw a spanner in the works when he encouraged Godleman to edge to Steven Croft at second slip, who took a good low catch to remove the stand-in captain for seven.
But the visitors recovered from this early wicket and played through a turgid spell to ensure that Lancashire were made to work hard for their next breakthrough. Given their early progress, the run rate had certainly come to halt as they added 11 runs in the next 13 overs before tea, but Derbyshire's approach was vital given the manner in which they fell apart in their second innings in the home fixture.
On that occasion, they were bowled out for 114 as Lancashire won by 250 runs in the first game of the season, but Slater recorded back-to-back fifties in this game, adding 98 runs before he fell in the penultimate over of the day.
Slater lead Derbyshire's resistance with an 85-ball fifty but he fell with eight balls left in the day, as Croft took a sharp catch at short-leg to give Lilley (1-15) his first wicket of the game with the score at 119/2. Two balls later, Hughes fell in identical fashion, this time to Kerrigan (1-53) as Derbyshire lost two wickets for no runs, although Hughes was aggrieved at the decision.
These late wickets may prove vital for Lancashire on a pitch that has not taken spin and deteriorated at the rate many had expected, given the inclusion of two frontline spinner in both sides, but with Amla and nightwatchman Taylor both yet to get off the mark, Lancashire will be looking to hit the ground running tomorrow morning to claim a fourth Championship win of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment