Bob Willis Trophy: Lancashire struggle after Ben Slater's century helps Notts make 472
- Published
Bob Willis Trophy, Trent Bridge (day three): |
Nottinghamshire 472: Slater 142, Duckett 116, Mullaney 67, Clarke 57 |
Lancashire 129-6: Croft 37*; Chappell 3-38, Trego 2-32 |
Lancashire (1 pt) trail Nottinghamshire (7 pts) by 343 runs with four wickets remaining |
Nottinghamshire completely dominated day three after piling up 472 against Lancashire at Trent Bridge.
But, although they reduced Lancashire to 129-6, they must still take 14 wickets on the last day if they are to record their first victory in a four-day county match since 2018.
After Zak Chappell took three wickets in a long evening session, Lancs still need 144 to avoid the follow-on.
Earlier, Notts' overnight centurion Ben Slater was finally out for 142.
He was well caught low down in the gully after making his highest score for Notts in a 409-minute innings that began on Saturday morning before Sunday's total wash-out.
After Joe Clarke was out for 57, Lancashire took five further wickets in the session but since they all fell after the 110th over, they did not earn any more bonus points .
Notts skipper Steven Mullaney (67) helped steer the side past the 400-run landmark to claim all five batting points.
The visitors' reply began badly when Keaton Jennings edged Chappell to Lancs old boy Haseeb Hameed at third slip before Alex Davies and Josh Bohannon followed in the space of four balls.
When Liam Livingstone drove loosely at Mullaney and was bowled for 14 Lancashire were 59-4 and there was at least another 90 minutes left to play.
Dane Vilas and Steven Croft combined to put on 50 for the fifth wicket but Chappell returned to claim the vital wicket of Vilas, who was caught behind for 26.
George Balderson was then caught at point off Peter Trego, leaving Croft unbeaten on 37 at the close.
Nottinghamshire captain Steven Mullaney:
"I was going to bowl if I'd won the toss on Saturday and it took two very special performances from Ben Duckett and Ben Slater to apply the pressure. I'm very happy with where we're at.
"It's been a long couple of days but we've backed up the work done by the two Bens. It would have been easy to think the job was done but we wanted to get five batting points, then put Lancashire under pressure.
"I wanted to get as many as we could and now they need 273 to avoid the follow-on, and enforcing the follow-on is going to be our best chance of winning."
Lancashire batsman Steven Croft:
"We controlled the run rate in the morning and the attitude we showed was brilliant but then we're disappointed with the way things went.
"Winning was out of the question this morning and so we were always fighting to save the game.
"But we let ourselves down a bit when it was our turn to bat. It's been a long day and we're disappointed with where we are."
Match report supplied by PA Media.
- Published15 August 2020
- Published16 August 2020