Citizen Sport
Ervine frustrates Lancashire
3:03pm Friday 9th September 2011
Sean Ervine's first century of the LV= County Championship season frustrated title-hopefuls Lancashire as bottom club Hampshire kept themselves in contention at Aigburth.
Having made 388 batting first, the Red Rose were hoping to take early wickets and forge a useful lead.
But Hampshire, restarting on 229 for five, offered stiff resistance in the form of Ervine's 105 not out and Michael Bates' 43.
Gary Keedy eventually removed the latter, as well as Chris Wood, to complete his five-wicket haul, while Simon Kerrigan removed Dimitri Mascarenhas.
That left Hampshire 323 for eight, 65 runs behind at lunch.
Warwickshire, who like Lancashire are looking for the victory that would take them above current leaders Durham, were making steady progress against Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston.
The Bears posted a huge total of 574 for seven declared and took three wickets in the morning session to bring Nottinghamshire to 184 for four.
Alex Hales added 21 to his overnight score of 51 before becoming Chris Woakes' second victim of the innings.
West Indies batsman Darren Bravo batted through the session to reach 63no but Riki Wessels (nought) and Steven Mullaney (12) both failed to hang around with him.