Gloucs’ Ollie Price hits unbeaten 253 at Lancs

Emirates Old Trafford, Division Two, Rothesay County Championship (day three)

Lancashire 450: Harris 167, Singh Dale 3-67

Gloucestershire 589-8: O Price 253*, Hammond 97, Bailey 2-67

By 139 runs, Gloucestershire (5 pts) surpassed Lancashire (4 pts) by 5 runs.

Ollie Price added a career-best 253 runs before the county championship match at Old Trafford, making him the third Gloucestershire batsman in history to score a double-century against Lancashire.

The visitors finished with a score of 450, which is the highest level in first-class matches between these two teams, and they were 589-8 at the final whistle.

However, the game looks very likely to end in a draw shortly after tea on Monday, excluding collapses on this flat pitch.

None of which should diminish Price’s accomplishments, who reached his 200th wicket 40 minutes into the evening session off John Turner and was congratulated by his older brother Tom, who matched him with 72 for the seventh wicket.

Ollie Price made a double-century against Lancashire after facing 358 balls and hitting 28 fours. He follows in the footsteps of Charlie Barnett and Wally Hammond.

In 1938, Hammond was the last to surpass Hammond in this feat, and he also recorded two more double hundreds in opposition to the Red Rose.

However, Lancashire’s bowlers had a difficult day in the dirt. Tom Hartley finished with 2-149 from 44 overs, Tom Bailey took two wickets, George Balderson took his second wicket of the day, and Tom Bailey took two more.

Miles Hammond lost his middle stump to Bailey when he was three runs short of his century in the morning session, scoring 112 runs in 29 overs for Gloucestershire.

With a single off Bailey, Hammond’s 203-run partnership with Ollie Price, who had already reached three figures two overs prior, was ended by that dismissal.

On the way to his century, Price faced 208 balls and hit 14 fours while being 114 not out at lunch, Gloucestershire were 296-3.

Lancashire took three more wickets in the afternoon, but they were unable to stop their rivals, who had only allowed 17 runs in arrears at the start of the session.

Cameron Green was bowled by a good ball from Bailey for eight, James Bracey was squandered by Keaton Jennings for 44, and Marcus Harris was squirted off Balderson for 13 by a diving Marcus Harris.

After a 35-over session in which Lancashire used seven bowlers, Price was unbeaten on 181 at tea.

Ollie Price, who had a double century in the evening session, was the star, but Turner eventually dismissed his brother Tom after he could only glove a skillfully angled bouncer into Jennings’ slip.

In the closing moments of the day, Price, Zaman Akhter, and Price flogged the exhausted bowlers in total, with Akhter scoring 25 before Hartley bowled him.

With over 490 pitches in their first innings this season, Gloucestershire has allowed all three visiting teams to bat once more, with no need to bat a second time.