The Australia limited-overs specialist James Faulkner has come to Lancashire in a bid to boost his hopes of adding to his solitary Test cap, so claiming a hat-trick on his home Championship debut is not a bad way to go about attracting the attention of his national selectors.
The left-arm seamer, 25, contributed significantly to Lancashire’s dominant performance during this heavily weather-affected opening day, with Kyle Jarvis claiming his 50th championship wicket of the season and Tom Bailey also impressing with four for 69 from 20 overs. Jarvis matched Faulkner’s three-for.
Faulkner, who missed out on a hat-trick in the one-day World Cup semi-final against India and has already played two four-day away matches for his county, had Ben Raine caught low down at point with the last ball of his 12th over, the 43rd of the innings, and Jigar Naik and Charlie Shreck lbw with the first two balls of his next to finish with three for 53 from 15.
He became the 29th Lancashire player to claim a first-class hat-trick and the first since Jimmy Anderson achieved that feat against Essex here in 2003, but he is not the first Australian to take a hat-trick for the Red Rose. His fellow Tasmanian seamer Ted McDonald took the last of his three for the county in 1930.
In fact, another Tasmania player, Jack Simmons, is also on the list. “Flat Jack” played 19 first-class matches for the state between 1972 and 1979.
Although Lancashire ended on top at the end of a day when 44 overs were lost to weather, it could have been better after they reduced Leicestershire to 78 for five before lunch, with Bailey taking three, including the key pair Umar Akmal (13) and Mark Cosgrove (26), and Jarvis removing both openers.
The former Lancashire batsman Andrea Agathangelou was determined to prove a point, having been released from Old Trafford at the end of last season after four years with the club. Agathangelou, a South African-born Cypriot, struggled to hold down a first-team place with his first county. He scored only two 50s and one century in 21 first-class matches, and it says a lot that this composed 54 off 66 balls was his first county 50 on this ground.
He shared 87 inside 21 overs for the sixth wicket with Raine, who made 26, either side of lunch to take the score to 165 for five before edging Bailey behind for his fourth wicket.
Play is scheduled to start 90 minutes later each day of this match as Lancashire attempt to attract more spectators into the ground for the final session. There was always a fear that light could be an issue on overcast days such as this, and bad light accounted for 42 of the 44 lost overs.
