England’s Jimmy Anderson took 7-35 as his side forced the visiting Nottinghamshire to follow on in a scintillating day of cricket in Southport.
Lancashire 353 for 9 dec (Jennings 187, James 4-61) lead Nottinghamshire 126 and 84 for 2 following on (Hameed 41, Lyon 2-23) by 143 runs
It was the Jimmy Anderson show today, after a disappointing day prior which saw no play due to rain, the England legend trounced through the Nottinghamshire top and middle-order leaving the visitors 40/6 at one point in their first innings.
With an unlikely ally in Nathan Lyon alongside him at the top of his mark, Jimmy took a couple of overs to get into his stride but eventually had Nottinghamshire captain and former England teammate Haseeb Hameed bowled, marking the beginning of a special spell.
The soon-to-be-retired swing bowling legend looked in the form of his life as the Southport pitch offered up some extra bounce and supplied Anderson with the perfect conditions of overhead cloud cover to take second-best bowling figures in his 297-game first-class career.
The local crowd gathered round in awe, sat on the exam-hall style chairs dotted around the boundary as the bonafide legend had the visitors nicking off to slip five times, boasting figures of 5-13 at one point.
With all the madness going on with Anderson, it was hard to stay fixated on the match situation. It looked certain that Lancashire would have Nottinghamshire out before they hit 100 but after Jimmy’s second spell, which lasted six overs, the tenth wicket partnership of Paterson and Slater started to hit out.
Posting a partnership of 42 the two limited the depth of the hole their team were in all while losing a ball in a neighbouring garden after Nottinghamshire’s number 11 hit a six off George Balderson.
The innings ended thanks to an impressive direct hit run out from Nathan Lyon, which left the visitors trailing by 227 and following on.
Onto the second innings where the two Trent Bridge-based openers returned to the crease and calmly put a partnership together in the face of tiring bowlers. These included Lancashire’s Tom Bailey, the only other wicket taker in the first innings, taking two in two of Nottinghamshire’s tail.
After tea Lancashire came out on a mission to find some wickets and it was the Aussie Nathan Lyon, in his last game for the club, who got the seemingly immovable object of Ben Slater out LBW just as the opening pairing had got going.
“He’s class, he’s world class”
It was the Jimmy morning and it was the Gary evening: Nathan Lyon took both of Lancashire’s wickets in the evening session getting the captain Hameed who looked set on 41, caught behind.
Speaking after the game, Lyon said: “Doing what [Jimmy] did this morning was pretty amazing to witness, I’ve obviously seen it on the other side where I’m not standing there saying ‘Go on Jimmy’, so that was amazing to be a part of”
“Being able to come over here and play with arguably one of the greatest ever fast-bowlers to play the game, it was pretty special”
“I’m very much surprised that England have tapped him on the shoulder and said that ‘You’ve got one more test and that’s it’, he’s class, he’s world class”
Going into a likely weather-affected final day tomorrow, Nottinghamshire trail by 143 with Lancashire looking for eight more wickets to seal victory in Southport.
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