Date: 30th July 2010
A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.
At the Rose Bowl: Day Two of Four: Hampshire, 287 for 6, lead Lancashire, 283, by four runs
The early morning sunshine had given way to cloud and very light rain by the evening of the second day of this match, and this seemed only appropriate for a game in which neither side holds a very clear advantage. Hampshire, though, had the best of the play on Friday, taking the last two Lancashire wickets at a cost of 21 runs and then batting solidly to carve out a slender lead with four wickets in hand when bad light ended proceedings four overs early.
However, if Glen Chapple's bowlers can capture those last four wickets - or as Mark Chilton put it, "take a few tricks" - early tomorrow, the balance will shift again, especially as Hampshire have to bat last on a wicket which is already taking spin. Not many counties would fancy their chances of scoring, say, 220 on this track if Kerrigan and Keedy get it right.
This is the first Championship match in which the two spinners have operated in tandem and Keedy is already enjoying the experience. "The wicket here is just slow and getting slower and anybody who bowls straight on it can make it hard to score," he said after yesterday's play. "It's taking more turn as it goes, which can only give me and Keggsy something to bowl at. It's started turning off the straight, and Hampshire have got a load of left handers.What you get bowling with another quality spinner is serious pressure from both ends." On the other hand, if Hampshire's tail, led by the effervescent Dominic Cork, can carve out an advantage of 100 tomorrow morning, Lancashire will have to bat very well to get anything at all out of the game.
Certainly, the Hampshire top order got their heads down on Friday. Watched by a mighty gathering of former players on the top deck of the rather classy pavilion, five batsmen made significant contributions, none of them scoring less than 33, as Lancashire were made to battle for almost every breakthrough. The exception to this rule was Michael Carberry who was castled offering no shot to the third ball of the innings when he failed to take account of Chapple's prodigious late movement. Thereafter, the cricket was by no means attritional - both sets of players performed too well for that - but it was far removed from the incident-peppered fare to which some Twenty20 spectators have become accustomed.
Jimmy Adams played the best innings, facing 158 balls for his 72 before he top-edged an attempted paddle sweep off Keedy and gave Luke Sutton the easiest of catches, far simpler at any rate than the one he had dropped off Tom Smith when the opener was on only 18. This was Keedy's first County Championship wicket of the season and his return of two for 45 off 19 overs reminded visiting supporters what they had been missing. Adams shared a 117-run partnership with Michael Lumb before the Hampshire No3 attempted to control a hook off Sajid Mahmood, but only skied the ball to Simon Kerrigan at long leg.
Lancashire had to watch Lumb and Neil McKenzie add another 62 runs before Keedy struck twice in ten overs, first removing Adams, and then tempting McKenzie into another sweep which only dollied the ball to Chilton at leg-slip, "exactly as we planned it" said the former Lancashire captain. Undaunted, the very promising James Vince and Sean Ervine took the score from 179 to 255 when Vince was lbw attempting to pull the part-time off-spinner Steven Croft. Chapple struck a vital blow with the new ball 13 runs later when he had the fast scoring Ervine caught at slip for 56. The Lancashire skipper finished with two for 48 from 17 overs - another useful day at cricket's coalface
By the close Michael Bates and Dominic Cork had given their side a first innings lead but the story of this match is only half written. Cork, whose two wickets on Friday gave him figures of four for 57, would like to compose the next chapter on Saturday. Lancashire's players will want to steal his pen.
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