County Championship: Kasey Aldridge helps Somerset hold out for draw with Lancashire

Somerset's Kasey Aldridge, playing in his 10th first-class match, had a previous best top score of 41

Somerset all-rounder Kasey Aldridge hit his maiden first class half-century to help bat his side out of trouble to earn a County Championship Division One draw with Lancashire at Taunton.

The home side looked in danger of defeat when Lancashire paceman Tom Bailey took three of the wickets as they slumped from 41-0 overnight to 169-6, a lead of only 56.

But 22-year-old Aldridge, making his first appearance of the season, displayed a calm temperament to score 58 not out in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 87 with Lewis Gregory (34).

Lancashire were left to count the cost of too many dropped catches after having the better of the four-day contest.

Somerset began the day needing 72 more runs to make Lancashire bat again and soon their suspect top order was proving fragile again.

Tom Lammonby, Sean Dickson and Cameron Bancroft fell for the addition of only 12 runs.

Lammonby, on 23, started the slide by edging Bailey to second slip where Colin de Grandhomme took a sharp catch moving to his right.

Dickson's miserable start to the season following his move from Durham continued when he fell lbw to James Anderson moving across his stumps.

Bancroft, who has also struggled to make an impact at his new county, soon followed, caught behind pushing forward to Bailey.

From 53-3, skipper Tom Abell and Tom Kohler-Cadmore took the score to 91.

But, although Kohler-Cadmore departed for 16 to another De Grandhomme catch at second slip off George Balderson, first-innings centurions Abell and James Rew again proved more resolute, in a stand of 66.

At lunch, Somerset were 121-4, a lead of eight runs, followed by Anderson inexplicably spilling a top-edged sweep from Rew at backward square leg off Tom Hartley.

Rew went on the attack, hitting a six and two fours off a Hartley over to take the total to 157-4, when Abell was bowled by a full delivery from Bailey.

Rew's luck ran out when he attempted to drive left-arm spinner Hartley through the covers and edged to Luke Wells at slip.

But Aldridge, tested by a series of short-pitched balls from Saqib Mahmood, and Gregory took the total to 197-6 at tea, a lead of 84, with the second new ball just eight overs away.

But Aldridge passed his previous best first-class score of 41, made against Yorkshire at Taunton last season, as he and Gregory put together a match-saving half-century stand before hands were finally shaken.

Both sides now have an 11-day break before their next game on 4 May, when Lancashire go to Trent Bridge to face Nottinghamshire and Somerset host Northamptonshire.

Somerset half-centurion Kasey Aldridge:

"I have been working very hard on my batting during the winter. Although I have been seen mainly as a bowler, I am very keen to become regarded as a genuine all-rounder.

"I just tried to give myself time because there was plenty of it and there was no rush. But it was still important to get runs if we were to come out with a draw.

"Lewis Gregory is always there for me. We chat about cricket a lot. He was giving me advice between overs. One tip was to not try and sweep every ball from the spinners, but in the end that seemed be what I was doing anyway."

Lancashire fast bowler Tom Bailey:

"It was such a flat wicket. The boys bowled really well to even give us a chance of winning. To get them six down was a great effort.

"We knew we could trouble them when the ball was hard, but it went soft. We came here looking to win and I think Somerset were always happy with a draw, having prepared that sort of wicket.

"After going hard for three games, I am looking forward to a rest. We will have some training days during the break from matches. But we were pretty dominant for most of this game, which is something to take forward into our next match against Notts."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network