Lancs on top against Middlesex but rain ruins day
Luke Wells has scored 975 Championship runs in 2025 at an average of 44.31
- Published
Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Emirates Old Trafford (day three)
Middlesex 211: de Caires 52, Geddes 52; Aspinwall 4-62, Bailey 4-68
Lancashire 105-0: Wells 60*, Jennings 36*
Lancashire (3 pts) trail Middlesex (0 pts) by 106 runs
Lancashire dominated the cricket that was played on another rain-affected day of their County Championship Division Two match with Middlesex.
Heavy rain overnight and in the morning had delayed the third day's play at Emirates Old Trafford until 15:00 BST.
Tom Aspinwall claimed the final two wickets as Middlesex went from their overnight 189-8 to 211 all out to finish with 4-62.
Lancashire openers Luke Wells and Keaton Jennings then put on an unbroken 105 in 25 overs, with Wells an impressive 60 not out and the Red Rose county only 106 runs behind.
But bad light brought a premature finish to proceedings with only 31.4 overs possible and a total of 210 overs lost so far across the match, rendering the chances of a victory for either side almost impossible and ending Middlesex's remote hopes of promotion back to Division One.
Anyone waking up in Manchester on Wednesday would have found the prospect of play highly unlikely, given the volume of rain.
But once it brightened up, impressive work from the groundstaff enabled play to finally begin in mid-afternoon, although Lancashire captain Sir James Anderson was absent from the field, awaiting the result of a scan on a side issue.
Zafar Gofar had added nine to his overnight 16 when he became Aspinwall's third victim, well caught at deep square leg by substitute Will Williams.
His fourth wicket finished the innings with last man Henry Brookes caught behind for two as Middlesex failed to pick up any batting points.
Wells and Jennings survived a few nervy moments early on from Ryan Higgins and Toby Roland-Jones but grew in fluency as the innings progressed, especially Wells.
He went to a third fifty of the summer off 71 balls in a knock which included five fours and three sixes, the highlight of which was a straight one he launched off the spin of Gohar.
Jennings was happy to play second fiddle in a century partnership brought up in 99 minutes from 137 balls.
Both he and his partner will hope to push on during the final day with each in sight of the personal milestone of 1,000 Championship runs this summer.
But for either side to win, it would take some work to set up a run-chase, a prospect that does not feel likely.
