da betsul： Tom Smith, fresh from a 44-ball hundred, showed his more patient side as he fought to stave off the threat of relegation for Lancashire
Myles Hodgson at Aigburth28-Aug-2012
ScorecardTom Smith, seen here earlier this season, played a few more forward defensives as he fought to keep Lancashire in Division One•Getty Images
The patience and determination displayed by Tom Smith against Durham will not capture as many headlines as his innings just 24 hours previously, but it may prove more influential to Lancashire’s fortunes for the remainder of the season. Scoring a 44-ball hundred in a washedout one-day game was spectacular, but his four-hour championshipinnings prevented the type of collapse few teams recover from quickly.Arriving at the crease with Lancashire reeling on 11 for 4 after taking the gamble to bat first in damp conditions, Smith knew how important his innings was in a game Lancashire dare not lose if they are to have a chance of avoiding relegation from Division One. By the time an absorbing first day at Aigburth was over, he had faced 177 balls, hit his highest first-class score since last year and guided Lancashire in sight of a second batting point.The contrast between the two innings could not have been starker. The pyrotechnics of his century at New Road gave way to a vastly different approach in difficult conditions. Facing Graham Onions, an international class bowler in nearly any other Test-playing nation, in damp conditions that led play to be delayed until after lunch, he had no choice but to choose survival over spectacular.In the same number of balls in which he reached his hundred on Monday, he hadscored 18. When batting was at its most difficult he was content toface 38 deliveries without scoring and allowed Gareth Cross todominate a 72-run sixth wicket stand.By the close, however, he hadalso scored 86 priceless runs, and shared an unbroken 91-runpartnership with Kyle Hogg that had shifted the momentum remarkablyback in Lancashire’s favour.”When I went out to join Ashwell Prince we said it was one of thosedays when you had to dig deep,” Smith explained. “There were timeswhen you were going to play and miss, which I did a few times duringthe day, and there were a few rushes of blood to the head, but as theday wore on it got easier to bat as the ball got older.”Monday was a great day for myself, but it was nice to get some runsin what is a crucial Championship game. You can’t really compare thetwo knocks, but walking out at 11 for 4, it was tough, so that knock is upthere with one of my best.”We showed today we are not just going to let the season go. We wantto stay in the First Division so we want to get a positive resulthere, and one at Middlesex next week, so hopefully going into the lastgame we will already be safe.”Smith seemed an unlikely hero when play began after a delayed startwith Onions setting the tone by knocking back Paul Horton’s off-stumpwhen he offered no shot to an in-swinger. By the time Steven Croft wasbowled with a full-length ball that kept low, Onions had claimed threewickets in 18 balls and Lancashire, champions just 12 months ago,looked every inch a relegated side.Their prospects could have been even worse had Ben Stokes, standing atthird slip, clung on to a difficult catch after Prince edged Onionswith Lancashire standing on 28 for 4.It was not a costly drop interms of runs, with Prince adding only 17 more runs to his totalbefore holing out to the deep trying to pull a short ball from Stokes,but importantly he batted for a further 12 overs and allowed theconditions to ease.It was still far from easy when Cross joined Smith, although the newbatsman quickly accelerated past Smith, but as the ball grew older, sothe batting conditions eased.”My game plan is pretty simple – let thebowler bowl at me, anything outside I leave,” Smith revealed. “Onionsis an international-class bowler and he was at my end for quite awhile and didn’t give me anything to hit.”Crossy was scoring at the other so I didn’t really have to, it wasall about building a partnership. There were one or two shots I playedout of frustration, but the speed of the runs didn’t really matter.”Even after Cross gave Stokes a second wicket, bowled playing around astraight ball after scoring only his second championship half-centuryof the summer, Durham were unable to bowl the same menace as theafternoon progressed and Hogg teamed up with Smith and expertly guidedLancashire to the close without further loss.