Sean Abbott took four wickets and two catches as Surrey strengthened their grip on this LV= Insurance County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford and the visitors will go into the second half of the game with every chance of forcing a fine victory
Replying to Surrey’s 442, in which Cam Steel made an unbeaten 141, Abbott and his colleagues had reduced Lancashire to 233 for eight at the close and the option of enforcing the follow-on might well be available to Rory Burns on the third morning.
Abbott finished with four for 42 but each of Surrey’s bowlers took at least one wicket on a day when the champions’ determination to retain their title was very apparent.
The undoubted highlight of the morning session was Steel scoring a first-class century for the first time since September 2018 , when he was a Durham cricketer. The particular moment, which came with a clip off the legs to the backward square-leg boundary was warmly applauded from both the away balcony and the pavilion, a reaction that recognised the hard work taken to achieve it.
Steel had batted 189 minutes and faced 152 balls for his hundred and his innings took its proper place within his team’s fine recovery. Having lost their first five wickets for 164, Surrey’s later batsmen had added 278 for the next five, with three stands putting on at least 50 runs.
The only significant consolation available to Lancashire’s bowlers was the dismissal of Kemar Roach, who was caught behind by George Bell off Luke Wood’s final ball of the 110th over, a success that gave Wood’s team a third bonus point in the nick of time. Otherwise, it was nothing but hard pounding for Jennings’ attack, although Tom Bailey’s removal of Sean Abbott left him with respectable figures of four for 86.
Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells steered their side safely to 28 without loss at lunch but Surrey were to have the best of the afternoon session, claiming three prime wickets at Lancashire progressed to 157 for three.
Arguably, all of Lancashire’s wounds were self-inflicted. In the fourth over after lunch Wells drove at a wideish one from Abbott and was superbly caught by Ollie Pope, who dived to his left to take a two-handed catch at second slip.
Josh Bohannon then batted beautifully for an hour and had hit six fours in his 32 when he slapped a full-length leg-spinner from Steel straight to Abbott at shortish cover. Worse was to follow for Lancashire when Steven Croft holed out at long leg for 11, Roach taking the chest-high catch off Abbott, but ex-skipper Dane Vilas kept his successor company until tea, by which time Jennings was unbeaten on 71.
After tea, Lancashire’s decline turned into a full-scale collapse as they lost five wickets for 38 runs in 13 overs. Having made 12, Vilas bottom-edged Dan Worrall into his stumps when attempting a pull and the vital wicket of Jennings was taken by Jordan Clark, who bowled the Lancashire skipper off his pads for 76.
Three more wickets fell for one run as Abbott removed Bell for 20 and Wood for a four-ball nought before taking his second catch of the innings when Bailey chipped his first delivery straight to him at midwicket.
At that point it seemed possible that Lancashire would be batting for a second time on Friday evening but debutant Colin de Grandhomme and Will Williams batted with great good sense to put on an unbroken 36 in the final hour of the day.
