Yorkshire have been forced onto the back foot in the Roses clash at Emirates Old Trafford after a quick-fire day three century from Lancashire opener Luke Wells fashioned a victory chance.
Wells raced to three figures off only 65 balls either side of tea as the LV= Insurance County Championship title chasing hosts built on a first-innings lead of 21 in dynamic fashion.
In 33 overs before close – 16 were lost to bad light and rain – Lancashire posted 203-3, which represents a lead of 224.
Wells made 124 off 82 balls and Keaton Jennings added 68, the openers sharing 186 inside 28 overs.
The latter was caught at short third on the reverse sweep against Jonny Tattersall’s leg-spin, the captain bringing himself on in a bid to increase a slow over-rate.
Remarkably, in the previous over, when Tattersall gave the gloves to Tom Kohler-Cadmore, the replacement keeper snared a stumping after just four balls as Dom Bess ousted Josh Bohannon.
Lancashire’s productive day started with them striking five times with the ball during the morning as Yorkshire, having resumed on 130-4 in reply to a first-innings 276, slipped from 154-4 to 219-9.
Kohler-Cadmore’s 51 represented an innings top-score, following opener Fin Bean’s 41, in the county’s 255 all out. But a trio of lower order contributions were key to ensuring the visitors gained all but parity.
Bess added a useful 27 during a morning which saw 40 overs bowled before Ben Coad (26) and Patterson (14 not out) came together shortly before the lunch break.
Bailey struck three times, including twice with the new ball, while fellow seamer Will Williams also added a wicket alongside leg-spinner Matt Parkinson.
Jonny Tattersall and Matthew Waite were both caught behind, off Bailey and Williams respectively, as the score fell to 159-6 in the 61st over.
The double spin of Parkinson and left-armer Tom Hartley tied Yorkshire down through the middle of the morning on an attritional pitch, with Kohler-Cadmore miscueing a slog sweep off Parkinson out to Hartley at deep square-leg shortly after reaching a 121-ball fifty.
That left Yorkshire at 199-7 in the 78th before Jordan Thompson miscued a pull at Bailey to mid-on shortly afterwards.
Bailey then secured his milestone wicket when Bess miscued a pull to square-leg as the score fell to 219-9 in the 85th over.
Coad and Patterson have often batted with a flourish during many a key tail-end contribution down the years. But there was none of that today as they eked out the runs.
Time out of the game was also vitally important, the pair uniting for the best part of 22 overs before Coad sliced Parkinson to point to wrap up the innings.
Wells then returned the day’s standout performance as the left-handed opener crashed four sixes in a 29-ball fifty before tea, where Lancashire reached at 80-0 in only 12 overs.
Wells continued his aggressive approach into the evening, hitting the first two balls of the session for four, before bringing up his ton off 65 balls – the second fastest conventional first-class century in Roses history.
Ian Austin hit one off 61 balls against Yorkshire at Scarborough in 1991, while there have been quicker centuries scored against declaration bowling.
Wells then holed out to deep mid-wicket off Bess as the opening partnership was broken.
Then came Tattersall’s unexpected intervention, owing much to the fact that Yorkshire were two overs behind on the over-rate.
Kohler-Cadmore stumped an advancing Josh Bohannon off Bess – 196-2 in the 32nd over – before Tattersall had Jennings caught in the next. Play was almost immediately cut short for bad light at 5.20pm.
