Had the scene been quiet, there would have been no bowlers. Spectators in camping chairs unfolded and stretched across green benches as the Liverpool sun set on its 7.13 p.m. nightfall, but no one was leaving early. Mohammad Abbas and Keith Barker were pawing the ground, desperate to put hampshire Back in the game after being dismissed for 143.
Barker, trousers paused to reveal his patterned socks, a giant of a man, rising from the end of the river. Abbas, modest as a sycamore seed, skin covered from wrist to ankle, gliding from the pavilion end, smiling assassin with effortless action. Laughing between balls, the pair of them took advice. it felt like a stretch lancashire To last 20 overs till stumps. He was.
First Alex Davies, before proceeding in his innings for Lancashire warwickshire On a three-year deal, was bowled in Abbas’s third over. Luke Wells was then lbw for a duck to Barker, who appealed enthusiastically.
When George Balderson, who had bowled so well for Lancashire earlier in the day and had done well to survive Hampshire’s opening openers, overtook Abbas and was snatched by Alsop behind the stumps, Lancashire took three wickets. But was reduced to 15. Jack Blatherwick was cast as the nightwatchman, and he and Josh Bohannon fought, surviving various close shaves, plenty of team-building encouragement from an outspoken Hampshireman, and an over of spin from Liam Dawson to inches. lancashire Three more close for 25.
It was the final act of the first day in this last and crucial championship game of the season, with only six and a half points to separate the four potential winners: Hampshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. It also put the game in limbo after Lancashire dominated the first two seasons.
Dan Vilas had won the toss in the morning of Eggbarth hampshire On a pitch with a touch of spite. The visitors immediately struggled against Lancashire’s precise bowling.
Ian Holland was the first to fall for a loud Tom Bailey, who galloped across the pitch with the excitement of the end of school. Then only 20-year-old Balderson, who made his Bob Willis Trophy debut last year, found himself bowling to a potential champion. With fire in his stomach, he persuaded Tom Alsop, a careful 24K curator, to deliver a juicy catch at second slip. Nick Gubbins (for a duck) went off in the same over and Joe Weatherly soon followed.
A promising partnership began to develop between Dawson and James Vince, before another double strike, when the unlucky Dawson was run out after Bailey deflected a classy straight drive over the non-striker’s stump. Such was Vince’s hip-on-hip disbelief that he waffled ineffectively after four balls and was caught by Davis to leave Hampshire 71 for 71.
Felix Organ and Mason Crane wriggled tail towards a total that Hampshire could bear to look at in the mirror, before Vilas called on Matt Parkinson, who sent 11 chirpy overs, taking three for nine. Balderson took three wickets for 21 runs in which two catches were missed. Lancashire scored three bowling points and Hampshire one bat.
So one day that began with the thought that the last time Lancashire won a title in a home match was at Blackpool in 1930, and Hampshire’s last title came in 1973 when they formed the opening partnership of Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge, Which ended with eyes. Towards Edgbaston, where the Warwickshire batsmen were progressing without a crash.
Much depends on what happens in the first session and whether Lancashire can escape the clutches of Hampshire’s fiery bowlers. In the words of Mason Crane, speaking closely: “A club ground in September is never going to be easy and we recognized long ago that it wasn’t going to be a big score, but we went over and ended. We fought till the end and the way we bowled in the end was fantastic.
“We are very confident that, if we get a few wickets in the morning, we can look at an edge and we are very happy with the position we are in.” The weather has stretched into yet another day.
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