James Anderson claimed his best figures in a Lancashire shirt, collecting figures of 7-77 as he and Lancashire were able to reduce Essex to 394 on the third day of their LV=County Championship encounter at Chelmsford.
England's leading wicket-taker, who took 7-43 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2008, has taken nine five-wicket-hauls in his last 17 appearances for Lancashire and the Red Rose County were indebted to his efforts once again.
In reply to Essex's strong first-innings total, Lancashire closed on 131/2 after teenager Haseeb Hameed (63) recorded his second half-century in as many innings in the four-day campaign, while Luis Reece made an unbeaten 25 on his first appearance for Lancashire since May, but persistent rain prevented any further play after tea.
Lancashire's already distant hopes for winning the Division Two title were, however, dealt a significant blow by Surrey's incredible progress against Northamptonshire, as the second division leaders forced their opponents to follow on after reducing Northants to 110 all out at The Oval.
That, twinned with the lack of progress in their own match, means that Lancashire are all-but guaranteed to finish second in Division Two, although they will have recorded the highest number of points by any team finishing runners-up in the second division since the division system was put in place.
Essex resumed the third day of this match on 328/7 after Jesse Ryder's century spearheaded a significant recovery from the home side. Anderson took his tally for the match to five victims when he had the Essex captain James Foster (17) caught by Karl Brown at second slip, giving Anderson figures of 5-64 at the time.
Graham Napier hit the first ball of the day for four off Anderson and then the all-rounder hit the England fast bowler into the stands for six, an approach which was like a red rag to a bull for Anderson, who responded by trapping Napier lbw the very next ball for 31.
This was Anderson's sixth wicket of the innings and it gave Lancashire their full allocation of bowling bonus points with the score progressing to 374/9. The last-wicket pairing of Aron Nijjar (17*) and Jamie Porter rallied to add 20 runs at a brisk pace, but Anderson was on hand once again to halt their enthusiasm, clipping the top of the off-stump to remove Porter for seven and end the Essex innings at 394 in the 111th over.
The dependable opening combination of Karl Brown and Hameed gave Lancashire the ideal start to their first innings, after Essex had managed to escape from being reduced to 29/3 yesterday morning. The pair added 66 runs for the first wicket, with Hameed hitting back-to-back boundaries to register the fifty-partnership in the afternoon session.
Brown was on course to reach fifty for the ninth time in Championship cricket this season, as his superb form in red-ball cricket gave Lancashire yet another assured start to the innings, but the opening batsman departed for 39 when Napier encouraged a thin edge through to Foster.
Hameed progressed to his second half-century in as many innings for Lancashire in 106 deliveries, striking eight boundaries in the process. Reece was keen to make a good impact on his return to the first team after breaking his hand in May and his determination not to give his wicket away was demonstrated by his sensible approach at the crease.
He and Hameed registered a second fifty partnership in the Lancashire innings, adding these runs in 15.1 overs, but Hameed soon fell to Jesse Ryder when Alastair Cook made his first significant contribution to the game, holding on to a routine catch at first slip with the score at 122/2.
This wicket brought Ashwell Prince (2*) to the crease, possibly for the final time in his professional career, but when players left the field for bad light - signalling an early tea interval - they never returned. The rain, which eliminated the entire first day of this game, returned during the break and caused play to be abandoned with Lancashire on 131/2.
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