Lancashire bat out day to draw with Somerset
08th May 2010
Somerset fast bowler Alfonso Thomas took a season's best 4-33 but could not stop Lancashire batting out the day to avoid defeat at Old Trafford. After the home side resumed on 32-0, still 59 in arrears, Thomas (4-33) took the first four wickets as Lancashire slumped to 145-6, only 54 in front.
But Steven Croft (66no) and skipper Glen Chapple (30no) then came together to remove any threat of defeat.
They put on an unbroken 76 for the seventh wicket to ensure the draw.
After winning their opening two matches, Lancashire's second successive draw means that they drop to third, having now been overtaken by Nottinghamshire, but they remain within 23 points of early leaders Yorkshire.
As for Somerset, runners-up last September, they remain winless from their opening four matches under Marcus Trescothick.
Only briefly did they look to have a chance of winning this game when Thomas took three wickets in a 15-ball spell either side of lunch to finish with a season's best.
The South African had already uprooted first innings centurion Luke Sutton's middle stump in the 10th over of the day for 38.
But he then bowled Paul Horton and forced Stephen Moore (31) to chop on in consecutive overs. And he would have had his fourth before the break, his compatriot Ashwell Prince, had skipper Trescothick not spilled a chance at first slip.
As it was, the Somerset vice captain did not have to wait too much longer because he snared Prince with the first ball of the afternoon session, having him caught behind.
Leg-spinner Michael Munday then took a wicket with his first ball of the innings, removing Mark Chilton caught at slip by Trescothick, before Damien Wright forced Kyle Hogg into a loose push to Nick Compton in the gully
At that stage, Lancashire were six down with 43 overs still left in the match. But the in-form Croft, who reached his sixth half-century in seven Championship innings, and Chapple dug in to make the game safe.
While Lancashire have a week off after Sunday's 40-over match at Hove, Somerset must travel to The Rose Bowl to face Hampshire in the Championship after their 40-over meeting with the Unicorns at Taunton.
Source: BBC News - Manchester
