Lancashire prosper before rain arrives

Lancashire have strengthened their position on Day two of the LVCC Division one match at Guildford, ending on 425-7, on a rain affected day.

Surrey started the morning knowing that early wickets were vital to stop Lancashire from getting away from them. Surprisingly, Batty didn't take the new ball straight away, but we did get an early wicket, when Prince struck Kartik straight down the throat of de Bruyn at deep midwicket. A brainless shot from the South African.

Tom Smith was the next man to go, when he set off for a single, but de Bruyn picked up and threw down the stumps brilliantly to run him out. A fine first hour was completed when Gareth Cross pulled Meaker to Ansari at square leg. Lancashire 298-6.

However, Meaker was expensive and was sharply whipped out of the attack, as Croft was joined by his skipper Glenn Chapple. The pair frustrated the Surrey bowlers and took their side to lunch on 356-6, with an unbeaten partnership of 58. 

The pair started to up the rate after the break, as Gareth Batty struggled to find a combination of bowlers who could apply pressure to the batsman. The 100 partnership was swiftly brought up, as the visitors also went past 400, and there was barely any alarms for them on a slow pitch.

Croft did what all good batsman who got dropped early in their innings aim to do, when he drove Meaker through the covers to bring up a superb hundred. In the very next over, Lewis had a much deserved wicket when he trapped Chapple LBW. The partnership had been worth 119, and had seemingly put Surrey out of the game.

The rain then arrived and didn't stop as an early close was announced, and almost half of the overs had been lost. Overall a dissappointing day for us, but we started well, picking up 3 inside the first hour, but the partnership between Chapple and Croft has already taken the game away from us.

With more rain forecast over the next two days, you would think that Lancashire would declare, and try and roll over an out of form Surrey batting line up. Let's hope our batsman can perform, and if they can't, let's hope the weather can do us a favour for once.