UNITED Lancashire are making waves by the seaside
A stirring fightback from Lancashire’s tail-enders and three wickets for slow left-armer Stephen Parry have put the Red Rose in pole position for victory over Middlesex going into the final day of their Specsavers County Championship clash at Southport.
The defending champions, who haven’t lost in 21 Championship matches, will resume on 156-6, a lead of just 27 runs after a stunning day for the Red Rose.
After the early loss of Shiv Chanderpaul, who failed to add to his overnight score of 32 when he edged Tim Murtagh to Sam Robson at first slip, Lancashire were soon 136-6 as Dane Villas also fell to Murtagh.
But with Lancashire rocking as they replied to Middlesex’s first innings 180, a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Ryan McLaren and Jordan Clark saw the Red Rose eke out a first innings lead before James Harris trapped Clark lbw 38 and then dismissed Parry, caught at second slip by Dawid Malan.
Tom Bailey then shared an even more productive partnership with McLaren as the pair put on 87 for the ninth wicket, extending the total to 291 before the South African was bowled by Murtagh, who picked up 6-63 off his 28 overs, for 75.
Bailey, determined to go down all guns blazing, hit two consecutive sixes before holing out to Stevie Eskinazi on a career best 58.
A lead of 129 looked incredibly useful and was made to look even better when Nick Gubbins was adjudged to have edged Saqib Mahmood behind for one.
Robson and Eskinazi looked to rebuild the innings from 5-1 and they had reached 64 when the latter was beaten by a fine delivery from Parry and bowled for 42.
Seven overs later Robson joined him in the dressing room after he played a loose to shot to a wide one from McLaren and was pouched by a leaping Steven Croft at backward point.
Parry then claimed two wickets in four balls as Paul Stirling was trapped in front for 12 before wicketkeeper John Simpson was caught at short leg by a diving Vilas for a duck to leave the Middlesex innings in tatters at 99-5.
Lancashire’s day was topped off when Mahmood bowled skipper James Franklin without scoring with an excellent yorker to leave Malan (45no) and Harris (15no).
“It’s been a very good day,” said McLaren.
“The aim was to get close to their first innings score and when we’d got there, to get as many as possible. So to have 129 as a lead was a great position.
“From a batting position you never felt in on the wicket. You just have to graft and get as many as you can. To get them six down at the close, we are very happy with that.
“In this situation, any lead we could have got was important. At one stage we looked at 50 and to just chip away and get as close as possible to 100.
“Tom Bailey played a serious knock and played really good cricket shots which is positive from a guy coming in at ten. It’s still difficult to bat on, there’s enough to keep any seamer interested.”