Another cold day, this time at Fenner's again for the 2nd day of Cambridge MCCU vs Lancashire. Lancashire resumed on 277-5 and were quickly moving as Steven Croft and Gareth Cross looked to add quick runs. Croft only added 3 to his score when he sliced Peter Turnbull to Craig Park at slip to pick up his 5th wicket. Sajid Mahmood had a quick hit until being caught low down at cover by Zafar Ansari off Turnbull for 14. 313-7 represented a reasonable performance from the students and although Cross (49*) and Kyle Hogg (12*) took this to 348-7 before the declaration, Turnbull's 6-108 stood out as an excellent performance against the county champions.
Mahmood then struck in the third over having Ben Ackland caught behind by Cross attempting a hook for a duck, Ackland's body language implied hat he didn't hit it, but that was to prove a small worry for Cambridge as the day wore on. Cambridge then played out the remaining overs to be only one down at lunch, but then the the superior opposition began to assert their dominance. Luke Procter, when he wasn't bowling one of his 12 no-balls in 7 overs, bowled James Johnson (20) and had Akbar Ansari (11) LBW in the first 35 minutes of the session. Inbetween Tom Smith had Park caught by Cross for 1, meaning Cambridge were now 74-4. Zafar Ansari then edged Smith behind to fall for a top scoring 25. Smith then caught Rob Woolley in the next over to give Procter his 3rd wicket, making it 86-6.
Dean Bell and Paul Best then brought up the 100, but the return of Mahmood signalled the beginning of the end as Best gave Smith his 2nd catch at slip on 18, and Turnbull was yorked first ball to put Mahmood on a hat trick. Matt Salisbury avoided the hat-trick ball, but Bell was then LBW to Hogg playing across the line for 9.
Mahmood then cleaned up having Patrick Sadler easily caught by Paul Horton at slip for 2, leaving Cambridge all out for 123, Salisbury being 1*. Mahmood finishing with 4-38, Procter 3-52 and Smith 2-12 with extras (35) being top scorer!
Lancashire began their 2nd innings with a "handy" lead of 225 but Steven Moore fell in the 3rd over for one, mistiming a flick off Turnbull to Sadler at mid-on, 5-1. Horton and Tom Smith then ground down the bowling, easily picking runs off the loose bowling before Smith decided to cut loose against Zafar Ansari, playing attacking strokes all round the wicket, reaching his 50 with one of a number of reverse sweeps for four. He celebrated by coming down the pitch and thumping the only six of the day off Ansari over long off. Smith looked like he'd reach his hundred before close but, in the cold and dark, he appeared to have some discomfort in his hamstring, or an immense case of boredom, because he promptly retired hurt on 83 off 70 (1x6, 12x4) with the score on 128. Horton batted in a more circumspect manner, scoring 48* off 112 balls but still with eight fours, picking off the bad balls with relative ease given the conditions.
Horton and Karl Brown (0 not out) batted out the last 5 overs to finish the day 134-1, 359 ahead and looking likely to declare early and have some more bowling practice. Turnbull finished with 1-14 from 7 overs.
