Day Three

Hampshire’s cricketers enjoyed a Saturday to remember at Emirates Old Trafford when they defeated Lancashire by an innings and 37 runs with a day to spare in their Vitality County Championship match.

Having dismissed Lancashire for 200 in their first innings and enforced the follow-on, the visitors bowled Keaton Jennings’ side out a second time for 152. Liam Dawson took five for 52 to finish with match figures of 10 for 99 and Muhammad Abbas bagged three for 18. Luke Wells offered the only significant resistance for the home side with 53.

Hampshire gain 22 points whereas Lancashire collect just three. 

The victory is only Hampshire’s third by an innings in 158 matches against Lancashire, the complete sequence of games stretching back to 1870. The other two hammerings were achieved at Bournemouth in 1922 and Southport in 1973.

And following their loss at The Oval last week, this defeat marks the first time since 1907 that Lancashire have lost successive County Championship matches by an innings. 

More seriously for the Old Trafford side’s immediate future, the home defeat leaves them still ninth out of the ten teams in Division One and plainly in danger of being relegated to the second tier of English domestic cricket.

At the start of the day, it had taken Hampshire’s bowlers just nine balls to claim Lancashire’s last two first-innings wickets. George Bell was caught behind by Ben Brown off John Turner for 35 and Tom Aspinwall was leg before to Dawson for a five-ball duck, leaving the slow left-armer with season-best figures of five for 47 from 28.3 overs. 

Empowered by their 189-run first-innings lead and with thunderstorms possible on Sunday, Hampshire opted to enforce the follow-on and were almost immediately rewarded with two prime wickets.

Having been deterred from coming down the wicket by Brown standing up to the stumps, Jennings was pinned on the crease by Abbas and was lbw for one. Three overs later, Josh Bohannon was lbw to John Turner for a 12-ball nought and Lancashire were 12 for two.

Wells and Rocky Flintoff shepherded Lancashire to 34 for two after 25 overs at lunch, only for the home side to lose two wickets in just over half an hour of the afternoon session. Flintoff, having resisted for all but an hour, was caught by Brown off Abbas for eight, and five overs later Matty Hurst swiped at Dawson and was bowled for a 19-ball duck.

Bell and Wells then settled for the attritional approach, adding 44 runs and thereby doubling the score in 20 overs of dogged resistance before Bell was caught at short leg by Fletcha Middleton off James Fuller for 21 and Wells was bowled for 53, five balls after reaching his half-century, when he played a slower ball from Dawson down and into the stumps. 

George Balderson and Venkatesh Iyer adopted a more attacking approach either side of tea but Dawson struck back on the resumption when he dismissed Iyer for 36, the Indian chopping the ball into his stumps.

Next over, Balderson was caught at slip by Tom Prest off Abbas for seven and seven overs later Tom Hartley was bowled by Liam Dawson for 10. The match ended when Bailey skied Dawson to Abbott at midwicket to complete a remarkable game for the all-rounder, who had taken ten wicket and also scored a century, a feat he also achieved only last season against Middlesex.

Day Two

A superb display by all-rounder Liam Dawson has left Hampshire in a dominant position after two days of their Vitality County Championship match against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

After making an unbeaten 104, his second century of the season, and putting on 71 for the last wicket with Muhammad Abbas, Dawson bowled 28 overs unchanged from the James Anderson End, taking four for 46 as the home side replied to Hampshire’s 389 with 193 for eight.

The opening 75 minutes of the day were filled with frustration for Lancashire’s cricketers as they watched Dawson and Abbas add a further 59 runs in 18 overs, thereby extending their last-wicket stand and changing the balance of the contest.

Dawson reached his fifty in the second over of the morning and went on to reach his century off 125 balls, having hit eight fours and five sixes, four of the maximums being struck during a session in which he had farmed the bowling shrewdly and tormented Lancashire in the process.

Having made one run off 32 balls in 89 minutes, Abbas was eventually caught at backward point by George Balderson off Luke Wells, leaving Dawson undefeated on an outstanding 104.

Lancashire then lost Wells, bowled off the inside edge by Kyle Abbott for six, in the half hour’s play that was possible prior to lunch, but Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon survived until the break and prospered in the afternoon session, putting on 90 for the second wicket before Jennings was leg before wicket to Dawson for 56.

Four overs later, the slow left-armer struck again when Rocky Flintoff tried to mow the spinner across the line but only skied a catch to substitute fielder Felix Organ at midwicket and departed for a ten-ball nought.

Lancashire came into tea on 108 for three and their decline accelerated on the resumption.

In the second over of the evening session, Matt Hurst became Dawson’s third wicket when he was caught off inside edge and pad by Fletcha Middleton for four.

In the next over, Bohannon, having made 43 in 167 minutes chipped John Turner straight to Tom Prest, who had been precisely placed at short midwicket.

And Turner had more success in his next over when George Balderson groped at a swinging delivery and nicked a catch to second slip where Toby Albert completed a fine diving catch.

Bell and Iyer prevented complete collapse with a stand of 48 but James Fuller’s diving catch to his right at cover off Abbott’s bowling removed Iyer for 27.

Tom Hartley then became Dawson’s fourth victim when he holed out to James Vince at mid-off for two but George Bell ended the day unbeaten on 33 after two hours in which his judgement and shot-selection had perhaps been an example to some of his colleagues.

Day One

Hampshire’s Fletcha Middleton made his second century of the season but his team could do no better that share the spoils with relegation-threatened Lancashire on the first day of their Vitality County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford.

Middleton made 109 and shared a second-wicket partnership of 151 with Nick Gubbins, only for the home side to take six wickets in the evening session and leave the visitors on 330 for nine at the close.

However, having asked Hampshire to bat first and using a Kookaburra ball on a pitch offering them little obvious help, Lancashire’s bowlers will surely be pleased to have fought back against opponents who had been 158 for one in mid-afternoon.

Tom Aspinwall was the most successful of the quicker bowlers with three for 96, but leg-spinner Luke Wells matched his contribution with three for 69 from 19 overs.  

Opener Toby Albert was caught by George Bell off Aspinwall for six in the fourth over of the day but Hampshire’s second-wicket pair dominated the rest of the first session and came into lunch on 80 for one after 30 overs.

Middleton and Gubbins continued to milk the Lancashire attack in the afternoon session. Gubbins reached his fifty off 122 balls with seven fours and Middleton the same landmark off 96 but with two fewer boundaries.

Indeed, the pair looked set to threaten the second-wicket records for matches between these counties when Gubbins was caught at the wicket off Wells for 75 to end his stand with Middleton on 151.

Hampshire skipper James Vince cover-drove his first ball for four but came yards down the wicket to Tom Hartley in the next over and skied a catch to Josh Bohannon at short-extra cover.

Vince’s dismissal for five left the visitors on 165 for three and it was left to Middleton and Ben Brown to guide their side to 203 without further loss at tea.

Middleton hit two fours in the space of four balls off Aspinwall and then tucked the next delivery from the Lancashire seamer backward of square for a single to reach his century off 173 balls with 13 fours.

A quarter of an hour later, though, he inside-edged an attempted drive off Wells into his stumps and that began a poor half-hour for Hampshire, who lost three wickets for 14 runs in nine overs.

Lancashire took the new ball as soon as it became available and Aspinwall struck twice in successive overs with it.

Having made 40, Brown pulled the 20-year-old straight to Wells at square-leg and Tom Prest lasted nine balls before he was caught by Venkatesh Iyer at backward point for one.

Three overs from the close, James Fuller was caught behind off George Balderson for 23 and Kyle Abbott was then leg before wicket for a three-ball duck in the same over.

And next over there was even more success for Lancashire when John Turner was leg before to his first ball, thus giving Wells his third wicket of the day.

Liam Dawson hit Wells for a six and a four off the last two balls of the day to finish on 46 not out.