Prince reaches 1,000 runs for Lancashire against Northants

Ashwell Prince reached 18,000 first-class career runs and 1,000 runs for the 2015 season in his innings of 83 against Northamptonshire at Emirates Old Trafford.

The South-African batsman shared a 116-run partnership with Karl Brown (97) who missed out on his first century since 2011 for the second game in succession, but his efforts ensured that Lancashire closed on 257/4 by the end of Day Two.

Brown shared a 109-run stand with Alex Davies (51) earlier in the Manchester sunshine to get Lancashire off to a strong start after the early loss of Paul Horton for no score.

Lancashire needed to make a good start with the ball after Northants had posted 388/6 on the first day and they went on to claim four wickets for the addition of 50 runs, with James Faulkner collecting 4-63 – his best figures for the Red Rose thus far.

Kyle Jarvis claimed the early wicket of overnight batsman Andrew Rossington when he was trapped lbw for 89 with the score at 407/7. Wickets have tended to fall in batches in this game and Northants lost their second wicket in six deliveries when Graeme White edged a Faulkner delivery to Horton at first slip.

Olly Stone made a brisk contribution of eight runs before he feel to Jarvis, who collected figures of 3-122 to add to his tally, which currently stands at 58 wickets in Championship cricket this season.

Both sides collected maximum bonus points from the first innings of the match before Steven Crook skied a delivery from Tom Bailey (1-61) to Jordan Clark as the former Lancashire all-rounder fell for 34, giving the visitors a brilliant total of 438 all out.

Northants lost a wicket with the eleventh ball of their innings yesterday and Lancashire could only do one ball better than this as Horton was bowled comprehensively by Stone for a duck, shouldering arms to the final ball of the second over.

Lancashire responded well to this early setback as Brown and Davies added 50 runs for the second wicket in the 18th over of the innings. Brown posted his fourth consecutive half-century in 111 balls to lead Lancashire’s response, although Davies followed with a fifty of his own soon afterwards in 105 deliveries.

Brown swept White for his sixth boundary to take him to fifty and in doing so he also brought up the century partnership for the second-wicket stand. But, five balls after reaching his fifth fifty of the summer, Davies edged to Rossington down the leg-side off Keogh.

Prince came to the crease with two milestones in his sights – he needed 55 more runs to reach 18,000 first-class runs in his career and six more runs on top of that would mean that he was the first player in the country to reach 1,000 runs this summer.

The South-African veteran has scored more runs than any batsman since the start of last season and he made another effortless contribution today with his eighth half-century of the summer.

He and Brown added 50 runs in just 78 balls to consolidate Lancashire’s sturdy start, before Prince moved to his half-century in 75 deliveries, hitting seven fours and one six on his way to a milestone he has reached 89 times in first-class cricket.

Lancashire progressed to their first batting point in the 61st over with Brown approaching his first century since 2011. Brown fell for 96 against Leicestershire in the last four-day game at Old Trafford and scores of 57 and 56 against Gloucestershire before that have all-but confirmed Brown’s safety at the top of the order on a long-term basis.

But with just three more runs required for that allusive hundred, Brown edged to Stone at first slip off White (1-44) to deny the Lancashire opener a thoroughly deserved century on home soil.

Prince departed in identical fashion not long after the demise of Brown, this time edging Keogh (2-93) to Stone at slip, preventing Prince from reaching what would have been his fifth century in 14 innings this season.

Lancashire closed on 257/4 with Steven Croft (13*) and James Faulkner (5*) guiding the home side to close of play without the loss of anymore wickets, although the Red Rose will be disappointed to have lost both Brown and Prince towards the end of the day, particularly as both batsmen had centuries in their sights.