The phrase "avoid an innings" is not correct and does not convey a clear meaning in written English.
It may be intended to refer to avoiding a situation or event, but the term "innings" is specific to cricket and does not fit well in other contexts.
Example: "To ensure we stay on schedule, we need to avoid an innings of delays."
Alternatives: "prevent a setback" or "steer clear of a delay".
Having been put back in to bat needing 270 to avoid an innings defeat, Surrey will resume on the final still needing a further 159 to make Worcestershire bat again.
Sam Hain (34 not out) led a mini-recovery but Warwickshire need 79 more runs to merely avoid an innings defeat as Kent - stunned by a Somerset fightback in last week's season opener - closed in on a first Championship Division One win since 2010.
Here they will need to bat out of their skins even to avoid an innings trouncing.
Only two teams – Pakistan at Bridgetown in 1958, when, thanks to Hanif Mohammad's 16-hour 337, they wiped out a West Indies lead of 473; and South Africa against Australia at Sydney in 2002, when the lead was 400 – has a side following-on overcome a first-innings deficit more than the 397 that Sri Lanka needed here to avoid an innings defeat.
The hosts resumed day four on 47-0, needing 236 to avoid an innings defeat.
They still need 61 runs to avoid an innings defeat with two wickets left.
Following on, the hosts progressed from 77-1 to 162-2 - 49 short of avoiding an innings defeat - in the 35 overs possible at the Basin Reserve.
Duckett was left as Northants' last hope of avoiding an innings defeat, but after collecting nine fours in his first half-century of the summer, he was caught by Ravi Patel as Roland-Jones equalled his best single-innings return.
They were still 151 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat with only three wickets remaining, facing the prospect of a third innings defeat in a series.
New Zealand, 77 for one overnight, had advanced to 153 for two at lunch and within 58 of their first task of avoiding an innings defeat.
At stumps on day two of a helter-skelter match, a shell-shocked England – whose bowlers had earlier leaked runs at quicker than four an over as the tourists racked up 445 – had been reduced to 82 for five, still 261 adrift of avoiding an innings defeat.
