Lancashire recharge batteries to spark title push

Jul 28 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

LANCASHIRE manager Mike Watkinson admitted his players were looking forward to a few days off after their hard-fought Division One match against Hampshire ended in a draw on Friday.

The Old Trafford side have only Wednesday’s game against Bangladesh A at Alderley Edge and a Pro40 game at the Rose Bowl on their agenda before the County Championship resumes with the Yorkshire match a week tomorrow and Watkinson reckons the squad will appreciate the break.

“Our schedule in August and September is rammed with cricket,” he said. “If we have a day off, we’re likely to be travelling somewhere on a coach, so the next week or so will enable us to get people back to full fitness after what was a real tough battle against Hampshire.”

A glance at the fixture list confirms Watkinson’s view. Lancashire are due to play on 19 of the 25 days between August 6 and 30, a programme which includes a quartet of Championship games. The chance to get key bowlers like Glen Chapple fully fit will clearly be welcomed by the Old Trafford medical staff.

“Chappy’s all right. He’s just got seven little niggles instead of six. He’s spot on,” said Watkinson drily after Friday’s gripping encounter from which Lancashire earned 11 points. This was enough to move Stuart Law’s team up to second in the table, but that’s a position they are almost certain to lose after this week’s matches involving Durham, Kent and Somerset.

“A win would have been nice but it was hard cricket and a real tough battle out there,” said Watkinson as he reviewed the Hampshire game. “I think we could have got more runs in the first-innings.

“We had four half-centuries and we should have got at least one century.

“We had one or two soft dismissals when the wicket was at its best and in the second innings we repeated a couple of errors.”

Lancashire’s batting frailties meant that they could set Nic Pothas’ side only 225 to win, a situation which, the Old Trafford manager believes, dictated bowling tactics.

“It was old fashioned cat and mouse cricket with only a few runs to play around with,” he said after the visitors finshed 10 runs short with three wickets in hand. “Tactically it was an interesting game and you could see the fans were enthralled as to what the outcome was going to be.”