LV= County Championship Division One, Trafalgar Road, Southport (day three)
Somerset 446: Goldsworthy 130, Rew 70; Williams 3-85
Lancashire 624-9: Jennings 318, Wells 109, Bohannon 91; Van der Merwe 5-174, Renshaw 3-29
Lancashire (7 pts) lead Somerset (3 pts) by 178 runs
Match scorecard

Keaton Jennings’ career-best first class score of 318 – the highest home score ever made by a Lancashire player – helped set up a potentially thrilling final day as Lancashire push for victory against Somerset at Southport.

Aided by 91 from Josh Bohannon, they dominated the visitors’ increasingly ragged bowling to post 624-9, an overnight lead of 178.

Becoming only Lancashire’s sixth triple centurion in their history, Jennings’ 318 was the fourth highest by any Lancashire player in their history, and matched the highest score in English cricket since Sean Dickson also hit 318 for Kent against Northants in July 2017.

Surpassing Jason Gallian’s 312 against Derbyshire at Old Trafford in 1996 as the previous best home score in the county, it was the highest score by any Lancashire player since Neal Fairbrother’s 366 against Surrey at The Oval in 1990.

Wells celebrated reaching his second century of the season as early as the first over of the day but he was soon returning to the pavilion after edging Jack Brooks through to wicketkeeper Steven Davies.

Bohannon has had a lean time of late but he proved a superb in a second-wicket partnership of 211 – a record in itself at Trafalgar Road – before being bowled nine short of his century by Roelof van der Merwe.

Steven Croft ran a boundary-less 25 before being caught by Brooks off Van der Merwe then skipper Dane Vilas came and went cheaply after playing on to the Somerset spinner.

But Rob Jones then offered further support to Jennings in a fifth-wicket stand worth 113 before being well caught by a tumbling Amar Virdi on the long leg boundary off the part time off-spin of Matt Renshaw for 38.

Renshaw then claiming the wickets of George Balderson and Tom Bailey either side of Van der Merwe bowling Luke Wood as the hosts began to hit out before Jennings’ long innings ended after 426 balls and 582 minutes when he holed out to Siddle at long off, to earn Van der Merwe an expensive ‘five-for’.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters’ Network.

Lancashire triple centurion Keaton Jennings:

“I’ve had some pretty low times in my career that have been fairly well documented so this is a special day – it’s a day I’ll hopefully smile about with my grand kids one day.

“And a really good day for the team. We shared a beer in the dressing room and that was really special It’s one of those days you can look back on at the end of your career.

“As a young lad you read about guys getting a 300. I never thought I’d ever get there. But, at the moment, it hasn’t quite sunk in and it just feels like a day in the dirt.

“It’s every boy’s dream to play for England. I’ve played for England and I didn’t play well enough and that’s a fact. But, at the moment, I’m loving my cricket and all I can do is score runs for Lancashire.”

Somerset’s Matt Renshaw:

“The way we fought back and took those wickets in the final session makes me feel that’s the sign of a team that’s fighting. To get them nine down after where we were was a good session.

“It could be one of those days that sets up for the rest of the season if we manage to get a draw. I’m really confident we’ll do it. It’ll be great to build some confidence in the batting group before the Yorkshire game.

“Keaton’s innings was pretty good – he just went about things they way he does. He’s very strong against spin. I was talking to a few of the boys about how far away he is from England selection and they said there were a few guys ahead of him. I was surprised – it was a great day for him.”