Horton and Vincent provide solid foundation for Lancs

Jul 23 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

A DAY’S cricket often played out under leaden skies and interrupted by persistent drizzle for nearly two hours in mid-afternoon still provided plenty of entertainment for supporters of both teams yesterday, but left Stuart Law’s Lancashire reasonably placed to build a formidable first innings total in the LV Division One.

Home fans certainly relished a season’s best first-wicket partnership of 110 between Paul Horton and Lou Vincent and could also be encouraged by Francois du Plessis’s presence on 37 not out at the close.

Hampshire could take comfort from the performance of their new overseas player Imran Tahir who made good use of a bouncy wicket to take four for 80 in 31 impressive overs and ended the day by bowling Steven Croft with a magnificent flipper.

The 29-year-old Pakistani leg-spinner had also supplied Hampshire’s only breakthrough of the morning when he had Vincent caught at short fine-leg for a 69-ball 58 in the 23rd over.

Before that the New Zealander Vincent dominated the partnership, hooking Tremlett for six in the third over, and lifting Dimitiri Mascarenhas over long-off for another maximum ten minutes later.

But for all Vincent’s flamboyant strokeplay, Horton was not overshadowed by his partner. Batting with an authority which Old Trafford fans have come to expect, the Sefton Park batsman hit twelve boundaries in his 66 and treated James Tomlinson’s half-volleys with particular contempt. Not for the first time in 2008, the 25-year-old looked England Lions material. Horton’s dismissal, caught at short-leg off Tahir’s googly in the first over after lunch, was a surprise fit only to rank with Stuart Law’s departure, caught at mid-wicket off David Balcombe when he skied a pull shot just one ball after reaching his own fifty.