8:21pm Thursday 2nd July 2009
By Graham Hardcastle
Lancashire’s batsmen will have to fight hard today to prevent a third consecutive County Championship defeat.
Nottinghamshire took complete control at Trent Bridge yesterday afternoon thanks to Mark Wagh’s stylish 131 off 177 balls and David Hussey’s attacking 74 off 78.
The pair shared 141 in 24 overs for the fourth wicket either side of the tea break to push their side towards a second innings total of 289-7 declared, setting Lancashire an unlikely 393 to win.
“The way the game is set up, we won’t be thinking about defeat,” said left-arm spinner Gary Keedy, who saw his side reach 22-1 after six overs in reply. “We are going to go out there from ball one to be positive.”
The visitors were bowled out for 285 in their first innings yesterday morning, with Glen Chapple hitting 55 and Mark Ealham taking 5-31 from his 18 overs.
Lancashire claimed two batting bonus points, and they have now only claimed the maximum five once in their last 27 LV Division One match dating back to August, 2007.
Facing a first innings deficit of 103, the Red Rose fought back well with the ball to reduce Notts to 79-3 thanks to a wicket each for Oliver Newby, Keedy (2-98 from 27 overs) and Kyle Hogg.
But Wagh and Hussey cut loose in their attempts to take the game away from Lancashire.
Wagh reached his hundred off 131 balls, including eight fours and three sixes, with a pulled maximum off Keedy. Hussey, a centurion in the first innings, reached his half-century in the next over off 68 balls.
Four wickets subsequent shared between Chapple, Hogg and Keedy at least slowed the scoring rate somewhat, and minimised the amount of time their side had to bat last night Home captain Chris Read declared, and left Lancashire six overs to face. Paul Horton was inexplicably run out third ball after being sent back by partner Karl Brown. Brown and night-watchman Kyle Hogg batted through the remaining 5.3 overs to leave Lancashire needing another 371 to win.
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