Northants lost their last five wickets for 40 runs and may rue their decision, writes Paul Edwards.
Two of the five wickets had fallen to tailenders, but the overall feeling was that a chance had been squandered. Lancashire’s batsmen have not been as extravagant.
Northamptonshire 342 (Gay 144, Procter 75, Balderson 3-44, Morley 3-87) trail Lancashire 121 for 1 (Wells 61*, Jennings 55) by 221 runs.
Fans frequently believe that clubs get relegated as a result of shocking collapses or humiliating defeats. Maybe they’re right. However, the source of poor seasons can be found on rain-shortened days like this, with Northamptonshire players sitting in the away dressing room, wondering how a morning that began with their star in the ascendant has seemingly ended with Lancashire’s top order playing competently on a pitch that still looks like it will rag every which way come Friday afternoon.
Luke Procter’s squad has yet to lose this game, and it is possible that they will draw it while sipping a martini and listening to a Tony Bennett CD. They have, however, given the opportunity to dominate proceedings to Luke Wells, who is 61 and not out, and the rest of his colleagues. They may look back in late September, and their reflections will be filled with regret.
To some extent, the morning’s action typified the issues that have plagued Northamptonshire’s Championship cricket this season. They resumed on 302 for 5, with a superb platform from which to create an imposing first-innings score of more than 400, but they lost their last five wickets for 40 runs. What would have worried their head coach, John Sadler, was that only James Sales, who was bowled by a brilliant ball from Jack Morley, appeared unable to prevent his fate. The other four hitters were also culpable for their failures.
The spinners took the final four wickets in the space of 28 balls for a total of 13 runs. After slog-sweeping Morley for a fine six, Lewis McManus stuck one up the chimney off Tom Hartley, and Tom Bailey ran round to take a fine catch. The innings ended when Jack White attempted a reverse sweep off Hartley but only gloved a catch to Salt.
Two of the five wickets had fallen to tailenders, but the overall feeling was that a chance had been squandered. Lancashire’s batsmen have not been as extravagant.
“Yesterday was such a good day, but it only counted if we followed it up today,” said Sadler. “It’s a little frustrating that we’ve gone from 266 for 3 to 342 all out.” “We should have 400 on the board by now.” We could have kept catchers in for a little longer, the spinners could have had an extra man around the bat, and we could have been a little more attacking if we had done that. So, even though 342 is a wonderful score, we should be sitting here with a four in front of it, not a three.”
But these are also trying times in Lancashire. Failure to make the Vitality Blast Finals Day and settling for a mid-table position in Division One were clearly not what the coaching staff had in mind when they planned the season. Furthermore, three locally developed players, Matthew Parkinson, Danny Lamb, and Rob Jones, have chosen to join other counties in the last month or so, leaving club detractors bemoaning the loss of cricketers with whom they had an abiding relationship.
So, in these gloomy times and this dreary late afternoon, perhaps it would be a useful corrective to recognize the contribution of two players who joined the club from other counties and have been so successfully integrated into the highly professional ethos at Emirates Old Trafford that their own careers have flourished, albeit a little late in their careers. They certainly demonstrated their abilities this afternoon, putting up 114 for Lancashire’s first wicket in response to Northamptonshire’s disappointing 342 all out. These are beautiful days and seasons for Keaton, Jennings, and Wells.
To some extent, the openers are like peas in a pod; however, given that both are 6 feet 4 inches tall, perhaps ripe runner beans would be a better metaphor. Both strike it square of the wicket on both the off and on sides, and both thump it down the ground. Their opening combination of 114 is nothing like their best for Lancashire (they blasted Somerset’s attack for 154 in 36.1 overs in April), but it shifted the flow of the game in their favor. Northamptonshire’s woes were exacerbated when they dropped Jennings on 17, with Justin Broad dropping him at the third slip off Jack White.
Jennings is generally ruthless in taking advantage of such reprieves, but he was caught behind for 55 when attempting to reverse-sweep Saif Zaib’s third delivery of the inning. Four overs later, rain began to fall from the west and did not stop.
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