Nottinghamshire Secure Draw Despite Anderson Rolling Back The Years
A battling performance from Nottinghamshire resulted in a draw from the latest fixture in the County Championship despite England legend Jimmy Anderson rolling back the years with a fine bowling performance for rivals Lancashire.
Nottinghamshire headed for Southport after a high-scoring draw with fellow Vertu Motors-backed side Somerset in the previous game, where Ben Slater had smashed an unbeaten 168 in the second innings.
In front of a bumper crowd, Haseeb Hameed won the toss and elected to put Lancashire in to bat, and it didn’t take long for the first wicket to fall when Dane Paterson was able to bowl Luke Wells for just seven.
However, whilst wickets would fall at one end, with Josh Bohannon, George Bell and Matty Hurst scoring just 35 between them, Keaton Jennings was started to build an impressive innings at the other and he helped to steer the home side beyond 200 in partnership with George Balderson, before he was removed by Paterson for 41.
Having reached a century, Jennings would quickly race to 150 and was an impressive 183 not out when the day drew to a close with Lancashire having reached 344-8.
Lydon James had grabbed three wickets, but it would be the third morning before he was able to grab a fourth just before Lancashire declared on 353-9 – with the whole of day two having been lost to rain.
Nottinghamshire went in to bat, but in the final County Championship game before his final Test appearance for England, it was Anderson who grabbed the headlines.
Ripping through the top order, Anderson took the opening six wickets to leave Nottinghamshire in trouble at 40-6, with Ben Slater the only one of the top six to reach double figures as he looked to try and hold the innings together.
A stand of 41 with Calvin Harrison took the score beyond 80 but Harrison and Olly Stone were then out to consecutive balls from Tom Bailey before Anderson grabbed his seventh wicket in the next over to leave the visitors on 84-9.
A knock of 19 from Paterson before he was run out helped Nottinghamshire to reach three figures, with Slater carrying his bat for an unbeaten 64 when the innings closed on 126 all out.
Keen to try and force a result, Lancashire enforced the follow-on and Slater and Hameed both fell before the close of play to leave Notts on 84-2 and still trailing by 143 runs going into the final day.
Slater had been the 800th first class wicket for Lyon, but it was Anderson who took the early breakthrough on the final day when he took his eighth wicket of the match to remove Wil Young for 17.
Chris Green than had Jack Haynes caught for 21 with Lancashire still ahead, but Joe Clark and James dug in during the afternoon – which featured a stoppage for rain – to steer Nottinghamshire to 270-4 and a draw, with Clarke unbeaten on 115 for his fourth century of the season.
The draw leaves Nottinghamshire sixth in the Division One table.
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