Cricket: Lancashire looking like the champions

Sep 14 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

LANCASHIRE’S players showed the ruthlessness of champions in crushing Warwickshire by nine wickets with a day and a half to spare at Old Trafford yesterday.

And manager Mike Watkinson believes the same intensity of focus could help his team secure the title at the Oval next week.

“We just have to think about our game,” said Watkinson ahead of next Wednesday’s crucial match against Surrey, “It’d be nice if we could just play a good, controlled game of cricket and let the rest sort itself out.”

Red Rose supporters will echo Watkinson’s words but most of them will also know that a Surrey side which has not lost since June 2 is almost certain to provide vastly stiffer opposition than Tim Ambrose’s bedraggled outfit offered up.

From the moment Glen Chapple brought one back off the seam to have Jonathan Trott leg before wicket in the fifth over of yesterday morning’s play, Mark Chilton’s men went about their work with a purpose and self-belief that can only encourage their supporters, some of whom must have thought that they would never see their beloved team win the biggest prize in English domestic cricket.

Starting the day on 125 for two and therefore needing another 80 runs to make Lancashire bat again, Warwickshire took their total to 272 with Alex Loudon’s 80 providing the toughest resistance.

But the Edgbaston side’s hopes of putting pressure on Mark Chilton’s batsmen had disappeared long before Sajid Mahmood removed the former Kent batsman’s middle and off stumps with the new ball and a target of 68 to win was reached in a little more than 22 tranquil overs for the loss of only Paul Horton’s wicket.

And all the time Watkinson’s players were progressing serenely towards the 20 points that puts them top of the table this morning, Sussex were sliding to the nine-wicket defeat against Durham which leaves Lancashire’s fate securely in the players’ own hands though five counties can still win the title.

Six weeks ago today the Old Trafford side lay 37 points behind Sussex after losing to Chris Adams’ team at Liverpool. Since that defeat they have beaten both Yorkshire and Durham and yesterday’s victory provided ample evidence their four-man seam bowling unit is in top form.

Glen Chapple finished with three for 71 while Sajid Mahmood and Dominic Cork provided excellent support.