Phil Salt thrashes 74-ball ton as Lancashire run amok

Lancashire 498 for 7 (Bohannon 128, Wells 119, Salt 105, White 3-69) lead Northamptonshire 342 by 156 runs

If something is to assist this recreation reverse up Stalemate Close, it’s in all probability the black saucers of earth that lie at every finish of the pitch. Batters regard them with suspicion whereas spin bowlers, of which Lancashire have two specialists, view them with delight. If solely our prime order can construct a lead, they thought this morning, we may frolic within the footmarks on Friday. So as anticipated, when play started at Emirates Old Trafford on this third day, three hours late and with 29 overs snipped from our ration, Lancashire put the hammer down on an assault missing Ben Sanderson, Tom Taylor and Rob Keogh.

That stated, Northamptonshire’s injured bowlers have taken 39 of their facet’s 108 Championship wickets in 2023 and this present day’s two periods confirmed how sorely they’re missed. To a level, it additionally revived reminiscences of the night’s cricket at Blackpool simply over a fortnight in the past, when Lancashire’s assault was shredded by Dan Lawrence and Doug Bracewell. This time, nevertheless, it was Keaton Jennings’ batters who did the shredding, scoring 377 runs in 67 overs and ending the day with a lead of 156 runs and energy so as to add on the morrow.

Even within the current period, such fast-forward cricket lent the night unreality. The achievement of bonus factors each 50 runs, vital partnerships and the batter’s particular person landmarks blurred into one another and handed with notebook-defeating pace. Rounds of applause blended into one another, for there at all times appeared one thing for house supporters to clap. Wells reached his first century of the season off 171 balls, Bohannon his second off 143 balls and Salt additionally made his second three-figure rating of the marketing campaign, reaching that landmark off 74 balls along with his third straight six so as to add to his 11 fours. So sure, there have been loads of large photographs however what was most noticeable, notably throughout Bohannon’s 126-run stand for the third wicket in 19 overs with Salt, was the whippet-speed of the operating between the wickets as ones turned twos if the fielder needed to make any floor in direction of the ball.

And as so typically on such events, catches went down, some extra culpably than others. White had little alternative however to throw his catch at deep sq. leg again contained in the boundary as he toppled over the rope, thus giving Wells a life on 78, however shortly afterwards Lewis McManus had no such excuse when he spilled a really easy probability off Dominic Leech. McManus was standing again, Leech was standing aghast and Wells was nonetheless standing on 85 not out.

The one Northamptonshire fielder to emerge from the bloodbath with any credit score was Ricardo Vasconcelos, who took an unremarkable catch to dismiss Wells off White for 119 after which a really outstanding, one-handed, diving effort off the identical bowler to take away Bohannon for 128. But the lack of these wickets was acceptable collateral harm for Lancashire, though the identical may hardly be stated when Croft obtained a box-splintering blow within the knackers from White and fell to earth like a light-weight on the top of a haymaker.

Salt’s dismissal, caught at deep sq. leg off White for a 77-ball 105 introduced the curtain down on chaos. Nine overs from the shut, Bell was caught on the deep sq. leg boundary by Vasconcelos for 15 and Croft and Tom Bailey later fell to Luke Procter, who, together with White, was the one Northamptonshire bowler who will want to seek the advice of his bowling figures this night. But these late successes appeared taken from one other recreation, one far indifferent from the mayhem of a post-tea session during which 222 runs had been scored in 35 overs, and one even additional faraway from the sight of Salt hitting fours and sixes that astounded even his batting accomplice.