Lancs' Hartley hits maiden hundred in Glos game

Tom Hartley's previous highest first-class score was 73

Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Cheltenham (day two)

Lancashire 557: Green 160, Hartley 130, Hurst 106; Akhter 4-85

Gloucestershire 179-1: Charlesworth 104*, Phillips 60*; Anderson 1-27

Glos (2pts) trail Lancs (3pts) by 378 runs with nine first-innings wickets remaining

Match scorecard

Chris Green and Tom Hartley produced career-best performances with the bat as Lancashire assumed the upper hand on day two of the County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire in Cheltenham.

Both made their highest individual first-class scores, Green a superb 160 from 199 balls, and Hartley 130 off 153 deliveries as the Red Rose posted a formidable 557 in their first innings.

Together, the pair staged Lancashire's biggest ever ninth-wicket partnership of 212, eclipsing a long-standing record set way back in 1907.

Opening-day centurion Matty Hurst made a career-best 106, while Gloucestershire seamer Zaman Akhter and spinner Graeme van Buuren claimed figures of 4-85 and 3-117 respectively on an essentially sound, if slow, Festival pitch.

In reply, Ben Charlesworth and Joe Phillips launched a spirited counter-attack, staging an impressive unbroken alliance of 159 in 43.3 overs as Gloucestershire reached the close on 179-1, trailing by 378 runs.

Charlesworth produced a dazzling display of stroke-play to finish on 104 not out, while Phillips played the supporting role to perfection, posting a stubborn 60 from 135 balls.

Again without the services of injured paceman Marchant de Lange, Gloucestershire deployed four spinners, van Buuren taking two wickets in four balls to check northern progress after Lancashire resumed on 290-6.

Matty Hurst had added just one run to his overnight career-best 105 when he pursued a wide delivery and sliced to Akhter at backward point, while Jack Blatherwick mis-timed a drive and skied to mid-off as the visitors slipped to 302-8.

That was as good as it got for Gloucestershire. Pulling and driving with growing confidence, Green raised 50 from 87 balls and, together with Hartley, helped secure a third batting bonus point.

The eighth wicket alliance realised 50 inside 12 overs and Green raised the hundred partnership in 151 balls with an imposing six over square leg off Ajeet Singh Dale as Lancashire went past 400.

Hartley brought up his 50 via 78 balls with a single on the leg side off Singh Dale as Lancashire reached lunch on 415-8.

Green went to his hundred from 156 balls in the first over after the break, the Australian driving Todd Murphy through the off-side for the ninth four of an increasingly authoritative innings.

When Hartley nudged a single from Murphy into the covers to move the score onto 445-8, he and Green had established a new Lancashire record ninth wicket partnership.

Green then plundered a further two sixes off Murphy to establish his highest first- class score, surpassing the 121 made against Derbyshire at Chesterfield last month.

Not to be upstaged, Hartley posted a career-best score of his own moments later, eclipsing the 73 not out made against Essex at Chelmsford in 2023.

Green's sixth six at the expense of Murphy carried him to a maiden 150 and, six runs later, he claimed the highest score by a Lancashire number eight, beating the 155 shared by Wasim Akram and Glen Chapple made in 1998 and 2001 respectively.

Charlesworth bowled Green, before Hartley drove the same bowler to the long-off boundary to register his maiden hundred from 145 balls.

The England spinner then smashed a further 29 runs in eight balls, including a quartet of sixes, before hoisting Charlesworth to long-off.

Gloucestershire's suffering continued as Cameron Bancroft shuffled in front of a straight delivery from Jimmy Anderson as the home side lost their first wicket with 20 on the board.

But Charlesworth and Phillips mustered stubborn resistance thereafter, with Charlesworth going to a 54-ball half-century in style, straight-driving Hartley for six.

Phillips offered staunch support, compiling steadily as the Kookaburra ball softened.

The century partnership occupied 161 balls, after which Charlesworth allowed his natural attacking instincts to take over, the 24-year-old left-hander going to his fourth career first-class hundred from just 123 balls with 16 fours and a six.

Rather more sedate in his approach, Phillips raised a chanceless 50 from 111 deliveries.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay