Kyle Jarvis backed up his exploits with the bat by claiming four wickets to keep Lancashire in control of the Roses clash against Yorkshire heading into the final day of their Specsavers County Championship match at Old Trafford.
The Zimbabwean claimed figures of 4-70 after hitting his first half-century in first-class cricket on Day Two, sharing a hundred-partnership with Jordan Clark to take Lancashire to 494. The hosts toiled away in blazing heat in Manchester, with Simon Kerrigan (3-91) also playing a key role with his leg-spin to dismiss Yorkshire for 360, handing the Red Rose a useful lead of 134 heading into their second innings.
Overnight batsmen Alex Lees (85) and Andrew Gale (83) both attempted to halt Lancashire's bid for victory, sharing a defiant partnership worth 130 runs for the third wicket, but Jarvis and Kerrigan continued to take regular wickets to give Lancashire a chance of forcing victory on the final day. Tom Smith (35*) and Haseeb Hameed (30*) then extended Lancashire's first-innings to 204 by stumps, sharing an unbroken stand worth 70 runs with a confident finish to the penultimate day of the Roses match.
Lees and Gale had already added 81 runs for the third wicket on the second evening, with their watchful approach allowing Yorkshire to recover from Lancashire's lower-order antics. The manner of their approach could certainly be described as circumspect, given that the hundred-partnership came up in 301 deliveries in the early stages of the third day.
Skipper Gale registered only his second half-century of the season in 162 balls after spending much of yesterday evening padding away to Kerrigan, adopting a edge of confidence in the morning session by advancing down the pitch to the leg-spinner to bring up the hundred-partnership with his sixth boundary.
Lees looked well set to register his second century in red-ball cricket this summer, but Jarvis struck an hour and 15 minutes into the morning session when he had Yorkshire's one-day captain trapped lbw for 85. Debutant Jake Lehmann turned a few heads on his debut for Yorkshire, playing with much the same flare and assurance that his father, Darren, used to during his long-standing association with Yorkshire.
The Australian batsman made a confident 46 from 53 deliveries, giving Yorkshire their first batting point with a nicely driven boundary off Jarvis. Both Lehmann and Gale found the ropes in the same over to bring up a brisk fifty-partnership - a run-a-ball 52 for the fourth wicket - with Gale now looking likely to reach three figures on the ground that he was handed a two-match ban in 2014 when he clashed with Ashwell Prince.
However, Kerrigan held on to a superb catch in the gully off Smith (2-38) to remove Gale for 83 - his highest score of the season so far - leaving Yorkshire with a potentially awkward spell before lunch at 243/4. Lehmann and Adil Rashid (16) survived until the interval unscathed, but Lancashire accounted for both batsmen in quick succession to regain control after the Lees and Gale rearguard.
First, Rashid fended Kerrigan to Hameed at short leg, before Jarvis forced Lehmann to chop on, denying the Australian a half-century on debut to leave Yorkshire in trouble at 272/6 after claiming two wickets in the space of four balls. Yorkshire's desire to chase 300 inside 110 overs were quashed when Jarvis had Tim Bresnan plumb lbw for 11, Lancashire's third wicket for 11 runs in four overs.
The home side were then forced to endure a frustrating eight-wicket partnership between Andrew Hodd and Steven Patterson (20), as Yorkshire took their turn to enjoy a lower-order rally. The pair added 58 runs to help take the Tykes beyond the follow-on, adding a fifty-partnership in 76 balls, before Hodd fell to a superb catch by Liam Livingstone.
Yorkshire's wicketkeeper took a chance on 43 with an attempted sweep shot, but he top-edged to Livingstone, who was forced to run from slip to take a diving catch at 341/8, giving Kerrigan his second scalp of the innings. Patterson continued to stand strong after tea, stonewalling Lancashire's best efforts in the torrid heat to survive nearly two hours at the crease, before Nathan Buck (1-65) pegged back his middle stump to claim a throughly deserved wicket after bowling consistently throughout the third day.
Ryan Sidebottom (3) then followed cheaply when Kerrigan struck his third and final breakthrough, forcing the number eleven to edge behind to Steven Croft, as Yorkshire were bowled out for 360, surrendering a 134-run deficit to Lancashire. Smith and Hameed then buffered Lancashire's already handsome lead to 204 runs by close of play, adding an unbroken partnership worth 70 runs in the evening session in the 21 overs that remained.
With the draw looking the most likely result heading into the final day, Lancashire's opening batsman were forced to play positively in the hope of setting Yorkshire an optimistic target in a fourth-innings run chase. Hameed commenced the boundary count when he steered Brooks to the cover fence in the second over of the innings, before Smith twice hit the same bowler through the covers in sumptuous fashion in his next over.
The urgency displayed by Hameed and Smith allowed Lancashire's opening stand to add fifty runs in just 86 deliveries, with both openers having five boundaries apiece by the time the lead had been extended to 200 in the closing stages of the day.
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