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Lancs back from the dead

Chris Ostick
29/ 9/2008

SOMEBODY once said football was a funny old game - well they mustn't have watched much County Championship cricket.

Just 12 days ago, Lancashire's hopes of avoiding relegation to Division Two looked doomed having been bowled out for just 107 by Kent at Liverpool.

And with the visitors, having humiliated Lancashire just weeks earlier at Canterbury with a crushing 211-run victory, coasting on 133-3, Kent even had the Championship title on their radar.

But Oliver Newby, who has been a revelation in the final two games of the campaign, bowled Darren Stevens to set off a collapse which saw Kent lose their last seven wickets for 100 runs.

Lancs went on to wrap up a stunning 70-run win, and followed that with an impressive eight-wicket triumph at Somerset on Saturday leaving them fifth in the final table and only 20 points behind champions Durham.

Instead it is Kent who have joined Surrey in Division Two after they were rolled over by Durham!

Rightly or wrongly, Lancashire have been accused of choking when it matters in recent seasons.

Well the players have shown in the last two weeks that they are full of character and just don't know when they are beaten.

To come back from that opening day at Liverpool was amazing, but then to back that up by outplaying Somerset, who were chasing their first title, at Taunton with their First Division lives still in the balance showed real guts.

And they did it in adversity. They were without their England duo Jimmy Anderson and Andrew Flintoff, who were told to rest by Peter Moores, while Steve Harmison was bowling Durham to the title.

Career

Sajid Mahmood was out with a side strain, while cricket manager Mike Watkinson made the brave choice of ending Dominic Cork's Old Trafford career two games early.

Brave, because if it had gone wrong and Lancashire had gone down, it could have cost him his job. But in came life-buoys Tom Smith and Newby to keep Lancashire afloat.

Watkinson also left out overseas player Lou Vincent, who has been out of form, opting instead for 20-year-old Boltonian Karl Brown who delivered with 40 valuable runs against Kent.

Lancashire were also without the solid Francois du Plessis, who had returned to his South African club Nashua Titans.

And that on the back of Iain Sutcliffe's shock retirement with just five games to go and the loss of overseas player Brad Hodge just weeks into the campaign.

Thankfully for Lancashire, two of the club's senior players came good when it most mattered.

Former skipper Mark Chilton spent most of the summer in the seconds, but made a century in the defeat by Kent at Canterbury on his return and backed that up with 97 to see off Somerset.

And Mal Loye, who remarkably averaged just eight in the Championship and has spent the last few weeks in the seconds, overcame his demons and made a crucial half-century in the first innings at Taunton.

But the galling thing for Lancashire and their fans is that you can't help but think they have let a golden opportunity to end the 74-year Championship drought slip through their fingers.

Basically, Lancashire failed with the bat. They won just 24 batting bonus points, by far the least in the division, and too often they have had too many players out of form at the same time.

Having given new deals to 10 young Lancastrians, the club will sort out the contracts of the senior players in the next few weeks.

The first decision will be regarding skipper Stuart Law, who hit the winning runs on Saturday.

Law, who turns 40 next month, is now out of contract and flies out to join his Indian Cricket League side the Chennei Superstars this week not knowing if he has played his last game for Lancashire or not.

Who should be made skipper for next season? Have your say.

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