Cricket: Lancs face massive target for victory

Sep 22 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

FAR from looking like championship challengers Lancashire’s cricketers were forced to play bit-part roles in another Mark Ramprakash command-performance at the Oval yesterday and Mark Chilton’s team must now score more to win a game in the fourth innings than they have ever managed before if they are to carry off the biggest prize in English game.

The Old Trafford side go into the final day of their season on 27 for no wicket and they therefore need a further 462 runs in 96 overs to reach their distant target of 489.

Durham’s win at Kent and Sussex’s probable triumph over Worcester mean that only victory will be enough to secure the title for Lancashire.

The small band of travelling fans will hope that Law, Laxman et al are up for one helluva fight but the simple truth is that Chilton’s men have been outplayed for three days in this match and it will be one of the greatest run-chases in the 107-year history of the championship if they win this game.

If Lancashire fail, at least their players can reflect that their title dreams were shattered by two innings of unarguable brilliance.

For the second time in 48 hours Ramprakash batted with an authority fit to break Lancastrian hearts and the memory of his two centuries in this match should be cherished by cricket-lovers quite regardless of their county allegiance.

The figures are impressive too. The 38-year-old’s second century of the game – his 10th first-class hundred of the summer and the 97th of his career – brought his aggregate of runs for 2007 to 2,026 and he ends the season with an average of 101.3.

His match total of 326 runs is the highest ever achieved against Lancashire.

But while statistics often reveal something about a player’s performance, they do nothing at all to convey the majesty of Ramprakash’s sweeps, pulls and cover drives or the breathtaking audacity of his straight six, hit on the up if you please, off Oliver Newby.

As for Mark Chilton’s bowlers, they laboured honestly but in vain to contain a player who bristled with form and confidence.

Newby was the most successful member of the attack, taking two for 65 from his 15 overs, but as the autumn afternoon drifted away it seemed that almost all the Lancashire seamers’ best efforts did little more than provide deliveries for which the batsman was already well prepared.

Only when he under-edged a pull just short of Luke Sutton did Ramprakash look like being dismissed and his partners were unsurprisingly content to play second-fiddle to him.

While Jeremy Batty and Mark Butcher both made useful 40s and played their parts in Surrey total’s of 295 for 5 declared, it is only Ramprakash that the spectators will remember when they reflect on the penultimate day of the 2007 County Championship at the Oval.

And at the end of the day there was something for visiting supporters to celebrate too when Paul Horton reached 1,000 championship runs for the first time in his career.

This is of course a major achievement for the 25-year-old but it will be almost forgotten if Lancastrians are celebrating victory – and winning the Championship – tonight.