LANCASHIRE will surely be enfolded in the welcoming arms of First Division safety early in this morning’s play at Taunton.
The Old Trafford side have all their wickets in hand and need just 60 more runs on what is now an easy-paced surface to reach the target of 182 needed to beat Somerset. They would thereby put their relegation fears to rest.
Stuart Law’s players deserve to survive though. Over the last eight days they have fought with impressive determination and no little skill, first to beat Kent and then to outplay Somerset for almost all of this match. They were required to scrap and they did so.
And so nothing could have been less typical of the county’s recent displays than the gorgeous ease with which Paul Horton and Mark Chilton batted during their first wicket partnership yesterday.
Very few of Law’s batsmen, including the captain himself, have found their best form this year and none will reach the benchmark of 1,000 Championship runs. The return to form of Mal Loye, and also Chilton, who will resume today needing just 24 for his second century in just over a month, have been triumphs of naked resolve and technique.
Yet the openers played with untroubled ease in the evening sunshine, treating each of Somerset’s five bowlers with due respect while still milking them for 122 runs in 30 overs, thus making their first-wicket stand Lancashire’s best of the season.
With the Quantocks shimmering in a blue haze and Lancashire’s openers serenely taking their side to victory, there was a calmness about the cricket which, for visiting supporters, was entirely at variance with the travails of the past two months.
For home fans, though, drifting away from the newly-named Marcus Trescothick Stand well before the close of play, there was only disappointment. Founded in 1875, Somerset have never won the County Championship and won’t do so this year. Red Rose loyalists could empathise.
The groundwork for Lancashire’s late dominance was done in the first two sessions and at its heart was the bowling of Oliver Newby and Gary Keedy. The Blackburn-born seamer got the ball to reverse swing and the wickets of Ian Blackwell and Craig Kieswetter gave him a career-best seven for 127 from his 37 overs.
Keedy’s bowling, on a wicket offering him no more than moderate turn, was even better. The slow left-armer has been content with his performances this year but unhappy that his figures haven’t reflected his merit. Yesterday brought the spinner his reward. Flighting the ball intelligently, he first tempted Zander de Bruyn into a loose forward push and had the South African caught by Luke Sutton, one of the wicketkeeper’s eight victims in the game.
Two runs later, Keedy claimed the scalp of Peter Trego, whose attempted loft over long-on into Taunton’s wonderful Old Pavilion only succeeded in giving a straightforward catch to Newby at deepish mid off. Added to the wicket of James Hildreth, trapped on the crease by Glen Chapple in the ninth over of the morning, Somerset were 130 for five at lunch.
More patience was needed in the afternoon as Ian Blackwell struck six fours in a half-century which brought up his 1,000 Championship runs for the season and Charl Willoughby heaved Keedy for a huge six into the building site just beyond the boundary.
But it takes more than losing the ball in a cement-mixer to disturb the Lancashire spinner and he completed his first five-wicket haul of 2008 with the wicket of Alfonso Thomas.
