Lancs frustrated by Lawrence’s century
DAN Lawrence made exactly 100 not out and Nick Browne 71 as Essex shared the spoils with Lancashire on the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division One match at Emirates Old Trafford.
Lawrence reached his century in the penultimate over of the day but the Red Rose took four wickets in the final hour or so to leave the visitors on 280-7.
In the first session, Browne and Tom Westley enabled Essex to recover after the loss of Alastair Cook for only two. The former England captain was caught behind by Phil Salt when Tom Bailey got a ball to straighten sufficiently to take a thin edge.
However the secondwicket pair coped with Lancashire’s four seamers in relative comfort before lunch and increased the scoring rate increased after the resumption.
However, just as Essex seemed set to take the initiative, Westley tried to slogsweep a ball from Matt Parkinson that was far too wide outside the off-stump for the shot and merely top-edged a simple catch to Salt.
Undeterred by the loss of his skipper for 30, Browne continued to bat well and the batter’s obduracy prompted James Anderson to bowl a succession of bouncers. This tactic hardly unsettled his target but the England seamer still dismissed the opener when a firm back-foot drive hit Dane Vilas at silly point, only for the Lancashire captain to clutch the ball and leave Essex on 134-3.
The balance of the day changed markedly when Lancashire took the new ball. In the second over of his final spell Bailey bowled Walter between bat and pad for 34 and then had Matt Critchley caught behind by Salt for a four-ball duck.
Anderson induced an edge from Lawrence on 71 but the ball flew at catching height between Luke Wells and Keaton Jennings in the slips. He then had a very tough chance off Adam Rossington put down by Steven Croft at fourth slip before the same batter had another let-off on five when Jennings dropped a more straightforward catch off Anderson.
Lancashire’s attack in the final few overs was entrusted to Luke Wood and Hassan Ali, the latter having been awarded his county cap before the final match of his seven-week stay with the club. Lawrence, however, continued to bat coolly until, on 99, he played the ball to substitute fielder George Balderson at mid-off and called Rossington for an absurd single. The non-striker was easily run out.