SMITH'S A HAPPY MAN AT AIGBURTH

Date: 31st August 2010

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

At Aigburth: First Day of Four: Lancashire, 124 for two, are 36 runs behind Hampshire,160, with eight first innings wickets in hand

If this day's play offered a foretaste of what next summer will have on offer, cricket lovers on Merseyside are in for a rare treat. Seemingly undaunted by the fact that their realistic chances of winning the County Championship disappeared at Trent Bridge last Friday, Lancashire's players made the most of winning the toss against Hampshire and go into day two of this game well placed to establish a match-winning advantage.

The last session of the first day ended with Mark Chilton and Shivnarine Chanderpaul batting with cool competence against a willing Hampshire attack. Tomorrow morning they will resume a third-wicket partnership which has so far yielded 75 runs in 25 .4 overs on a pretty blameless surface. The only serious disappointments for home supporters were the dismissals of local favourite Paul Horton, who was lbw to Dominic Cork for nought, and Karl Brown, who, having survived one chance in the slips, perished when he drove carelessly at Sean Ervine just after tea.

The remainder of the evening was taken up with Mark Chilton making his way unfussily what would be his fourth fifty in seven innings and Shivnarine Chanderpaul crafting 26 not out in the fidgety, functional fashion to which Lancashire fans have become well used. It is all looking very good for Glen Chapple's men.

However, Lancashire's batsmen were only given their chance to build a formidable total by the excellence of Chapple's seamers, who dismissed Hampshire for 160 in 47.4 overs. And for once, it was not the captain who produced the most incisive spells, but the two medium-fast bowlers, Kyle Hogg and Tom Smith. After Chapple had bowled Jimmy Adams off his pad for five, this pair cut through the cream of Cork's batsmen in twenty dramatic minutes, when they took five wickets in 16 balls for just one run to reduce the visitors to 63 for six.

Both bowlers made good use of both the bounce and the morning sap offered by the wicket, but Hampshire's collapse was caused far more by swing and accuracy than it was by excessive lateral movement. Given Liverpool's unprecedentedly high profile over the next year, it should be clearly stated that this is a pitch which is a credit to Liverpool groundsman Keith Ball, whose preparation has been hampered by wet weather.

All of which allows Hogg and Smith to claim extra credit for their efforts. True, Hogg had a little luck when he had Michael Carberry caught down the leg side for 30, but he then had Neil McKenzie lbw playing no shot for nought and completed his morning 's work when Michael Bates edged him to Tom Smith, also without scoring.

At the River End, Smith had Phillip Hughes caught by Horton at first slip when the Australian attempted a lazy cut, and he followed this next ball by having Ervine lbw, playing a little across the line.

The attempts of Hampshire's lower order batsmen to repair their side's innings were laudable but limited. Chris Wood celebrated his Championship debut by making 35 off 46 balls and Dominic Cork offered his usual resistance to add another 24 runs, but both fell to slip catches by Horton, and when James Tomlinson was lbw to Sajid Mahmood at 2.55, the innings was over. Hogg finished with a season's best four for 53 and Smith, three for 40.

"I woke up this morning thinking that I enjoy bowling at Liverpool, and especially at that top end," said Smith. "It's a ground where I've always done pretty well with the ball. You have these grounds, of which you have fond memories and you always seem to play well at those grounds.

"My kind of bowling suits this wicket, so when we heard that we were playing four or five games here next year, I thought it was good news. But it''s also good because we'll get a lot of results here and be able to push for a lot of victories, and hopefully that will stand us in good stead for the title."

Looking forward to winning the championship in a year's time may be a little optimistic, but Smith is right about games at Aigburth producing postive results. Eight of the last nine encounters have done so and this contest looks set to maintain the trend.