| Specsavers County Championship Division Two, Sedbergh School (day one): |
| Lancashire 275-5: Vilas 67*, Jones 52, Davies 38; Rushworth 2-50 |
| Durham: Yet to bat |
| Lancashire 2 pts, Durham 1 pt |
| Scorecard |
Lancashire captain Dane Vilas hit his fourth half-century of the season to help his side bat through the day against Durham at Sedbergh School.
Vilas finished the day unbeaten on 67, out of 275-5, having so far shared an unbroken 47-run stand with former Lancs skipper Steven Croft, who is on 29.
All the home batsmen got starts – and Rob Jones was a key contributor, with 52 in three and a quarter hours.
Chris Rushworth spearheaded the Durham attack with 2-50 from 21 overs.
Rushworth should have had a third victim too, but Croft was put down by Alex Lees at first slip.
Bryson Carse, Nathan Rimmington and last week’s matchwinner Ben Raine all weighed in with a wicket each as the visiting bowlers generally did a good job on the first day of first-class cricket at this spectacular setting in the Cumbrian fells.
After being put in by Durham, Lancashire will be happy at having only lost five wickets. But their scoring rate was kept down all day by the Durham bowlers, who limited them to just two batting points.
With 14 overs left in the morning, Lancs will be eyeing a third, possibly even a fourth batting point, while Durham are just one wicket away from a second bowling point.
Lancashire batsman Rob Jones:
“We would have taken that. Hopefully we can capitalise after the hard work we put in. It was set up by Haseeb Hameed and Alex Davies early doors because it was quite tough on that wicket.
“I don’t think it’s going to get any better. It’s only going to get worse with a bit of variable bounce so hopefully we can put a big score on. 350 would be a good score and 400 would be brilliant.
“My focus is to contribute to what the team needs and building partnerships is key. As long as we can do that it will put us in a great position to win the game.”
Durham fast bowler Chris Rushworth:
“It is a glorious place and it’s very nice to play here. Everyone loves playing at out grounds and when you come somewhere as picturesque as this it’s quite hard not to enjoy it.
“It’s been an interesting day – the overhead conditions looked like it would be perfect to bowl this morning but the wicket probably didn’t do as much as we thought it would.
“We’ve done a decent job. Equally, Lancashire will be quite pleased how they’ve gone. If we’re being picky though, if you choose to bowl first, you’re probably looking at having them more than five down.”
