Essex v Lancashire: James Anderson helps visitors take control at Chelmsford

James Anderson took his haul of first-class wickets for his native Lancashire to 279 - within 13 of 800 first-class career victims overall

England's all-time leading wicket-taker James Anderson claimed three scalps for Lancashire as the visitors took control against newly-promoted Essex.

Ravi Bopara made 46 but Anderson (3-56) and Stephen Parry (3-28) bowled out Essex for 159, a deficit of 160.

After taking an early tea, Lancashire opted not to enforce the follow-on.

England's Haseeb Hameed was out for 45 after an opening stand of 83 with Alex Davies (50 not out) before the visitors closed on 114-1 at Chelmsford.

Lancashire have a 274-run lead with nine wickets remaining, as they go into day three closing in on a first Championship win in 12 games.

Spinner Parry was making his first Championship appearance since August 2014 having become labelled as a white-ball specialist.

And he broke the back of the Essex batting with two wickets in six balls either side of lunch, removing potential dangermen Dan Lawrence and Adam Wheater.

Anderson and fellow pace bowler Kyle Jarvis had kept the visitors on top from the start of the day, making it difficult for Essex to score as they added just 58 runs off 30 overs in the morning session.

When Steven Croft's side chose to bat again, Essex, who were without injured England captain Alastair Cook, did themselves no favours.

They dropped Davies twice when he was on 10 and 26, both off ex-Lancashire seamer Neil Wagner.

Essex head coach Chris Silverwood told BBC Radio Essex:

"It is a bit of a wake-up call but you have to live experiences and go through them.

"You can talk all you want but until you are out there facing Anderson and the rest of the bowlers, or have the ball in your hand and Hameed is out facing you, an England opening batsman, you've got to live it to learn.

"The important thing for me is we take the lessons and learn quickly.

"There are a lot of positives going on but we need to string them all together now."

Lancashire's Stephen Parry told BBC Radio Manchester:

"I might not be here tomorrow, I might swell up from an allergic reaction from playing in whites again. I've been waiting for a long time and I really enjoyed it.

"The lads set the tone this morning. The way Jimmy and Jarv bowled up front created a lot of pressure and put them on the back foot.

"Then there's probably more pressure on you because you're thinking, 'they've gone for one an over, I've got to start my spell now'.

"I managed to get the nod ahead of Keggsy [Simon Kerrigan]. I'd imagine he'll be trying to get back in and that's really healthy because I've been trying to get in for years."