Lancashire promoted with draw against Kent

A superb unbeaten partnership between Steven Croft (72*) and Alex Davies (58*) secured promotion for Lancashire as they earned a tense draw against Kent at Canterbury.

Their stand worth 120 runs ensured that Lancashire would not suffer what would have been only their second Championship defeat of the season, although Surrey also secured promotion with a convincing win against Derbyshire, one which took them to the top of Division Two with a lead of five points over the Red Rose county.

It was an unenviable task for the visitors at the start of the final day, with Kent needing only eight wickets to secure a comfortable victory after making Lancashire follow on. The visitors started the day with two batsmen at two extremes of their respective careers; Haseeb Hameed was sitting his GCSE’s earlier this summer and Ashwell Prince could very well have played his penultimate game for Lancashire.

The former played a very mature innings, surviving until close of play on the third day while the more experienced Alviro Petersen lost his wicket to a rash shot with only three balls to go. Hameed continued his impressive innings alongside Prince, as the pair added 62 runs for the second-wicket stand.

It was not a case of how many runs Lancashire scored, or indeed how quickly they were accumulated, but rather how long each batsmen could survive at the crease. Hameed typified this approach in a very promising innings, one which was particularly reassuring with Paul Horton set to leave Old Trafford after 12 years at the club.

Kent started the day in the more favourable position, but when Lancashire survived the first hour without any real threat, you could sense that the home side were not so assured of victory. They were given a stroke of luck, however, when Prince (39) was judged lbw to Darren Stevens (1-57) to a delivery which seemed to not only pitch outside leg-stump, but also hit Prince particularly high on the front pad.

With Lancashire needing a minor miracle to secure promotion in this game, the loss of such an experienced campaigner was a big blow, but Hameed (44) played an innings well beyond his tender age as he and Croft steadied the ship either side of lunch.

The teenager was approaching a maiden fifty for the Lancashire first team, but he too was unfortunate to be walking back to the pavilion when he was comprehensively bowled by Calum Haggett (1-41) to a ball that kept low, leaving Lancashire on 138/4.

Croft’s innings of 85 in Lancashire’s first innings was the standout performance for the visitors and the captain played yet another responsible hand for his side with his second half-century of the game and eighth of the Championship campaign coming in 174 balls with seven fours.

Lancashire’s rearguard action had so far been relatively successful after losing only one wicket in the morning session and the same number of wickets after lunch, although Kent struggled to create any real chances as Croft and Davies continued to dig in.

The pair batted for 50 overs, adding 120 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership, eventually forcing Kent to surrender their search for what would have been a deserved victory. Davies also reached a half-century, with his seventh boundary taking him to this milestone in 136 balls and the players eventually shook hands just before 5 o’clock, securing promotion for Lancashire on a bittersweet day.

Ashley Giles’ side will be back in the first division next season, but their next four-day match at home to Surrey will be a title-deciding match after they hammered Derbyshire to go top of the second division and also secure promotion.