Match report day 1: Lancs v Worcs in Championship 2004 by Neil Adams

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Scorecard:

Lancashire v Worcestershire

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Summary for Day 1

The Lancashire members have been starved of any County Championship cricket at Old Trafford until the arrival of Worcester for the first day of this match (May 12th). If every day is as eventful as this one, then the home supporters will have very little to complain about come September. For the third time in four matches, Warren Hegg won the toss. He elected to bat under heavy cloud cover, and must have considered bowling first. Perhaps the thought of batting last on the wicket just helped Hegg make his final choice.

 

Throughout the day, wickets tumbled at a steady pace. Sutcliffe chipped tamely to Moore at cover point to open up proceedings in the seventh over (15-1). Steven Rhodes failed to hold an edge from Mal Loye in the same over. Three overs later, Loye was forced to retire hurt due to back spasms brought on when turning for a third run. Stuart Law hit two crisp boundaries before driving a wide ball from Mason straight into Kadeer Ali's hands at gully (44-2). In Mason's following over, Carl Hooper edged tamely to Peters at third slip. He survived just four balls and managed just one run - an improvement on Lords! At lunch, Lancashire were 83 for 4. Mark Chilton being the other batsman dismissed for 28.

 

The afternoon session started where the morning one had finished. In Bichel's first over, Chapple offered a simple catch to Hall at first slip (87-5). Cork and Hegg added 30 runs in 13 overs. Very few boundaries were struck probably due to the very slow outfield. Cork played on with the score on 117. This led to two further quick wickets in the following over - Hegg 15, and Martin 0 (Second ball) - 119 for 8. By this time Mal Loye had returned to the crease with Mark Chilton acting as his runner. He was clearly in pain every time the ball hit his bat. Quite incredibly, Loye managed to hit 7 x 4 and 1 x 6. Together with Keedy, the ninth wicket added 60 crucial runs before the left hander pushed a simple catch to Ben Smith fielding in close on the off side (179-9). Anderson offered a repeat stroke 2 overs later and the home side fell 13 runs short of a batting point. Loye remained unbeaten on 59.

 

Peter Martin and James Anderson shared the new ball. Moore was bowled for 8 in the sixth over by Anderson to leave the visitors on 18 for 1. Graeme Hick followed suit 8 overs later for just 3 (36-2), the ball keeping a touch low. Stephen Peters and Ben Smith batted without any problems with the sun finally shining brightly. Gary Keedy entered the bowling attack in the 30th over and made an immediate impact by extracting extravagant sideways movement. Smith was caught by Law at slip for 23 (76-3). Nadeem Malik was promoted to number 5 acting as night watchman. In the penultimate over, Peters (41) edged Keedy to Hegg to leave Worcestershire on 77 for 4 overnight.

 

This is almost certainly a result match and a low scoring game. Thanks to Mal Loye, Lancashire have an excellent chance of being the victor.

 

Key Notes of the Day

• Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat
• Sutcliffe caught Moore bowled Bichel 9 - 15 for 1 in the 7th over - Chilton 5*
• Loye 0 dropped by Rhodes - 15 for 1 in the 7th over - Chilton 5*
• Loye 4 retired hurt (Back spasms) - 23 for 1 in the 10th over - Chilton 9*
• Law caught Kadeer Ali bowled Mason 8 (Gully) - 44 for 2 in the 16th over - Chilton 18*
• Hooper caught Peters bowled Mason 1 (3rd slip - 4th ball) - 46 for 3 in the 18th over - Chilton 18*
• 53 for 3 in the 22nd over - Chilton 22* Chapple 3*
• Chilton caught Hick bowled Hall 28 (2nd slip) - 63 for 4 in the 24th over - Chapple 7*
• Lunch - 83 for 4 from 33 overs - Chapple 19* Cork 2* - Over rate level
• Chapple caught Hall bowled Bichel 21 (1st slip) - 87 for 5 in the 35th over - Cork 4*
• 101 for 5 in the 42nd over - Cork 11* Hegg 7*
• Cork bowled Hall 15 - 117 for 6 in the 48th over - Hegg 15*
• Hegg caught Hick bowled Malik 15 (2nd slip) - 119 for 7 in the 49th over - Loye 4*
• Martin caught Hick bowled Malik 0 (2nd slip - 2nd ball) - 119 for 8 in the 49th over - Loye 4*
• 150 for 8 in the 58th over - Loye 30* Keedy 3* - Over rate minus 1
• 50 partnership - 171 for 8 in the 64th over - Loye 43* Keedy 7*
• 50 Loye from 71 balls (4 x 5 & 1 x 6) - 179 for 8 in the 66th over - Keedy 7*
• Keedy caught Smith bowled Batty 7 (Close on off-side) - 179 for 9 in the 67th over - Loye 51*
• Anderson caught Smith bowled Batty 0 - 187 all out from 69 overs - Loye 59* - Tea taken

• Moore bowled Anderson 8 - 18 for 1 in the 6th over - Peters 10*
• Hick bowled Anderson 3 - 36 for 2 in the 14th over - Peters 25*
• 50 for 2 in the 20th over - Peters 32* Smith 6*
• Smith caught Law bowled Keedy 23 - 76 for 3 in the 32nd over - Peters 40*
• Peters caught Law bowled Keedy 41 - 77 for 4 in the 34th over - Malik (Night watchman) 0*
• Close of play - 77 for 4 from 35 overs - Malik 0* Kadeer Ali 0*
• Lancashire 1 point, Worcestershire 3 points

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Neil Adams http://www.cricketimages.co.uk/adams-report/intro.html)