LV= County Championship Division One, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester (day four)
Gloucestershire 252 & 247: Lace 71, Hammond 50; Hassan 3-49, Parkinson 3-79, Anderson 2-25
Lancashire 556-7 dec: Bohannon 231, Vilas 109; Zafar 4-135
Lancashire (22 pts) beat Gloucestershire (3 pts) by an innings and 57 runs
Hasan Ali’s 6 Wickets restricted Gloucestershire at 252 runs on 1st Innings
Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bat first against Lancashire. During their first innings, Gloucestershire just score 252 by losing all their wickets. Only three players survived to score fifty plus runs. Marcus Harris 67, Chris Dent 52 and Ryan Higgins 51 (not out). Hasan Ali made a huge impact and didn’t allow the Gloucestershire to built any partnership.
Hasan Ali – 1st Innings Bowling figure
17 – Overs
6 – Maiden
47 – Runs
6 – Wickets
2.76 – Economy
Josh Bohannon & Dane Vilas(c) helped Lancashire to sit on the top
Lancashire’s first innings was greatly managed by Josh Bohannon (scored 231 runs in 467 balls) and Dane Vilas (scored 109 runs in 147 balls). After set the fighting score on the board – 556-7, Lancashire declared their first innings. Zafar Gohar from Gloucestershire was with the maximum of 4 wickets and he has bowled 65 overs on this innings. Gloucestershire’s this act was considered to drop all the pressure and dependency on Zafar Gohar while other bowlers maximum bowled overs were 20 and 25.
Needing 237 more runs to make the hosts bat again, Gloucestershire were reduced to 116-5 by Matt Parkinson (3-79). James Anderson (2-25) soon removed Miles Hammond (50) but Tom Lace (71), Josh Shaw (29) and Jared Warner (10) took the game deep into the final hour.
The ninth-wicket pair’s resistance stretched deep into the evening session and a few Gloucestershire supporters, watching on the live stream, probably dared to hope this great thing could be done. Three overs before the last hour was due to start, Mahmood bowled a wideish ball outside the off stump to Lace, who edged it, hard and chest-high, to Steven Croft at second slip and Croft dropped the thing.
Lace finally fell to Saqib Mahmood and, with just 17 balls remaining, Hassan Ali removed Warner to seal victory. Gloucestershire’s remarkable resistance set up a thrilling conclusion to what had looked for much of two sessions to be heading towards a routine Lancashire win.
However, a terrific delivery from Mahmood feathered Lace’s stumps to end his 266-minute stay and, with tension mounting, Hassan found Warner’s edge to end his 119-ball innings – and Gloucestershire’s hopes.
The only things that matter to Lancashire’s captain and his joyous, beer-swigging colleagues on this Sunday evening are Warner’s thin edge and the points it brought them. What matters to the rest of us, even more powerfully perhaps, is that our ration of these matches is not reduced. Professional cricketers deserve nothing less.
