By Neil Hallam at Trent Bridge
If any ground can claim to be the natural habitat of the swing bowler, then it is probably Trent Bridge, where the new stands often create the sappy atmosphere in which England’s supreme wobbler James Anderson plunged Pakistan to defeat with 11 wickets here earlier this month.
When Notts needed the ball to move around to disturb Lancashire’s mostly serene progress, however, it rarely did any such thing, enabling the top four batsmen to pass 50 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to fall only eight runs short of a third century in five championship games wearing the Red Rose.
With a blustery wind keeping the air moving, there was little to encourage Notts’ seamers and when Andre Adams induced a couple of false strokes, openers Paul Horton and Tom Smith were both spilled at first slip, ironically by their former team-mate Steve Mullaney.
A well-grassed pitch did offer some extra bounce and Horton was scuttled on the back foot by one that kept low but otherwise there was little to discomfort the wary as Lancashire combined hard graft and selectivity to construct a promising platform from which to challenge the leaders.
Smith fell cutting but they do not come much warier than Chilton, who took 76 balls to reach 20 while Chanderpaul routinely picked off the loose stuff in an unbroken third-wicket stand of 151 in 50 overs, Lancashire’s highest for any wicket this season.
Sidebottom at last produced a modicum of swing with the new ball, pinning Chanderpaul on the back foot and having Steven Croft held at third slip, but with Chilton grinding on to 61 not out from 190 balls, the late loss of three wickets in eight balls still left Lancashire with the upper hand.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk