Tom Hartley produced another stellar performance to put the skids under Gloucestershire as Lancashire made the running on day three of the County Championship match at the College Ground, Cheltenham.
Having posted a career-best innings of 130 with the bat on day two, the England slow left armer returned notable figures of 6-116 – his best for Lancashire – to again steal the show. Replying to Lancashire’s mammoth 557, the home side were dismissed for 381, conceding a first-innings deficit of 176.
Ben Charlesworth staged an outstanding season’s-best knock of 160 and Joe Phillips weighed in with 64 as Gloucestershire advanced confidently to 296-3. But Hartley then induced a collapse which saw the hosts lose their last seven wickets for 85 runs in 26 overs.
Lancashire captain Jimmy Anderson enforced the follow-on and Gloucestershire made a better fist of things second time around, Cameron Bancroft and Ben Charlesworth safely negotiating 30 overs to stage an unbroken opening stand of 98.
Gloucestershire still trail by 78 runs and Bancroft (35*) and Charlesworth (61*) will be called upon to muster further resistance on a pitch offering some assistance to spin when they return in the morning.
The day had begun full of hope for Gloucestershire. Resuming on 179-1, Charlesworth and Phillips set a new county record partnership for the second wicket in matches against Lancashire, eclipsing the 160 registered by Bill Athey and Paul Romaines at Bristol in 1984.
Phillips perished soon afterwards, superbly held at short square leg by Keaton Jennings off the bowling of Chris Green as Lancashire effected an early breakthrough and terminated a profitable alliance of 171 in 47.3 overs.
Charlesworth and Ollie Price applied themselves diligently to the task of cussed defiance and, in between performing the hard yards, these two took advantage of sufficient poor balls to post a half century stand from 104 balls.
Desperate to make something happen, Lancashire were indebted to Hartley, who persuaded Price to slice a cut shot to Luke Wells at backward point in the 72nd over.
Price had contributed 31 to a stand of 58 for the third wicket, and Gloucestershire were 249-3, still 308 runs behind and with further graft required. Charlesworth was joined by Cheltenham-born Miles Hammond and these two advanced the score to 259-3 by lunch.
With the new ball available upon the resumption, Anderson returned at the Chapel End, only for Hammond to greet him with an off-driven four and another boundary behind square. Charlesworth then crunched the former England man through the covers off the back foot to bring up his 150 from 233 balls with his 20th four.
But Charlesworth’s resistance ended soon afterwards, the 24-year-old left hander inexplicably advancing down the pitch to Hartley and being stumped by Phil Salt with the score 296-4. His dismissal sparked an alarming collapse in which the home side lost six wickets for the addition of 62 runs in 21.1 overs
Hammond had traded almost exclusively in boundaries, his brisk 36 including six fours and a six, when he miscued an attempted drive and offered a return catch to Hartley. On a roll by now, Hartley struck again in his next over, dismissing Graeme van Buuren lbw without scoring, before persuading James Bracey to pop a catch up to short square leg to complete a remarkable five-wicket haul.
Having seen their middle order blown away by Hartley, Gloucestershire’s tail end fared no better against Lancashire’s back-up spinners. Zaman Akhter fell lbw to Green and Ajeet Singh Dale succumbed in near-identical fashion to Wells’ leg breaks.
Hindered by a hamstring strain, Marchant de Lange emerged with Phillips as a runner and the big man suggested a possible escape route for Gloucestershire by smiting two huge sixes. But Hartley returned to have the South African held in the deep, leaving Todd Murphy high and dry on 22 not out, as the hosts fell 27 short of saving the follow on.
Bancroft and Charlesworth restored calm during a final session that, in stark contrast to what had gone before, failed to yield a single dismissal.
Watchful in the face of a new-ball examination at the hands of Anderson, Gloucestershire’s openers initially focused their efforts on occupying the crease and taking up time. But as Lancashire’s bowlers began to tire, so the opening partnership flourished.
Picking up where he left off in the first innings, Charlesworth went to 50 from 64 balls with seven fours and a six, his antics causing the threat of further collapse to recede into the distance.
His captain proved rock-solid, Bancroft chiselling an unbeaten 35 from 86 balls to serve notice that Gloucestershire remain in the fight.