Bob Willis Trophy final: Will Rhodes & Rob Yates hit tons as Warwickshire make Lancashire suffer
- Published
Warwickshire's Will Rhodes (left) has now played three first-class innings at Lord's - and got centuries in two of them
Bob Willis Trophy final, Lord's (day two of five): |
Lancashire 78: Wood 46*; Miles 5-28, Johal 3-29, Norwell 2-9 |
Warwickshire 464-7: Rhodes 151*, Yates 113, Sibley 57, Hain 55; Parkinson 3-71 |
Warwickshire lead Lancashire by 386 runs with three wickets remaining |
Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes and opener Rob Yates led the way with centuries as the Bears continued to dominate the Bob Willis Trophy final.
Having resumed on 120-0 at Lord's after bowling out Lancashire for only 78, the Bears batted all day to reach 464-7.
Despite Dom Sibley's early loss for 57, Rhodes (151*) and Yates (113) added a further 110 for the second wicket.
Sam Hain (55) and Michael Burgess (44) also starred as the county champions cashed in on a tiring Red Rose attack.
In contrast to the previous morning when they themselves were reduced to 12-6 inside the first hour, Lancashire took only seven wickets all day.
After making all his first five first-class tons at Edgbaston, Rob Yates chose Lord's to hit his first outside Birmingham
The back-to-form Sibley, 49 overnight, reached his third successive fifty with the first of two boundaries before succumbing leg before to Tom Bailey.
Yates, 69 overnight, went on to reach his sixth first-class century, fifth of the summer, second in successive innings and first away from Edgbaston.
He then became the first of three victims for leg-spinner Matt Parkinson. But Rhodes put on a further 97 with Hain, who was the first victim of a mini post-tea burst of wickets for Lancashire.
Jack Blatherwick produced a snorter to clip Hain's off stump before Luke Wells also delivered a beauty with a leg break that clipped Matt Lamb's off bail.
But calm was restored by the Bears when Rhodes added 84 with wicketkeeper Burgess to help the Bears go past 400 for the first time in over two years, since Sibley hit a double century against Notts at Trent Bridge in September 2019.
Burgess then became the first of two more victims in quick succession for Parkinson, which took the England white-ball international past 100 first-class wickets, in his 33rd game.
A fifth wicket of the day went to leg spin when Wells removed Danny Briggs, but Craig Miles (12 not out) came in to help Rhodes add a further 22 before bad light brought a slightly early end for the second day running.
Assuming the St John's Wood weather allows it on Thursday, Warwickshire will resume with a 386-run lead. And Rhodes, whose first century of the summer is already his second-biggest score, is 56 short of his career-best 207, against Worcestershire at New Road in last year's Bob Willis Trophy.
Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes:
"It's been unbelievable. If you could write two days on a script and how you want them to go that would be pretty close to it. I'm a very happy captain.
"It was quite well documented that we didn't get 400 throughout the season, so we came here to Lord's and wanted to put that right and put on a show.
"It's always nice to come here and score runs. I said before that the game that I hadn't got a hundred all year and I wanted to finish the season strong. I feel like I'm hitting the ball really nicely so it's nice to tick that one off. It's a shame it's not four months ago."
Lancashire and England leg-spinner Matt Parkinson told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I thought I might just fall short of 100 wickets. My brother Callum got to a hundred a couple of weeks ago. He texted me and said: 'You do not want to be stranded on 98.' So to get to a hundred was pleasing.
"We've had fairly similar seasons. He's done very well for Leicestershire and for him to be on 103, and me on 101, I'm going to try and chase him."
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