Lancashire v Sussex Sedburgh 23/7/2021

[lancsdes]

What an excellent cricketer Danny Lamb has become. Having said that, Scott Read was saying when he was in with Hurt that Lamb was the danger man. Liam Hurt is well capable of hitting a ball as well as anyone.

I was too busy in work to watch much of it but the ground looked what it is; the most beautiful in the world in my biased opinion. Still not sure that we should be playing there.

[Admin]

Sussex view

Danny Lamb’s career best 86 not out from 69 balls helped Lancashire beat a young Sussex side in our opening Royal London Cup match at the picturesque Sedbergh School.

Lancashire, fielding only two List A debutants to our nine in this Group A opener, slipped to 115 for seven chasing 271 before Lamb and Tom Bailey shared a stand of 112 in 18 overs for the eighth wicket to turn the game on its head.

Bailey made 45 off 53 before falling as one of four wickets to leg-spinner Archie Lenham, 17 today, as the score slipped to 227 for eight in the 46th over. But 25-year-old Lamb, guided his side home in front of a captivated crowd.

While Lancashire will breathe a huge sigh of relief as they head home from the Cumbrian countryside, our young Sussex side can leave with a lot of positives to take into our next match against Durham at Hove on Sunday.

Australian Travis Head and wicketkeeper Oli Carter made 56 and 55 respectively as we posted 270 for nine from our 50 overs. While Danial Ibrahim made a similarly measured 46 not out and Will Beer a brisk 40.

Head and captain Tom Haines, who elected to bat and made 38, shared 74 for the third wicket and Ibrahim and Beer shared 72 for the seventh.

We started brightly with the ball reducing Lancashire to 19 for three inside six overs of the chase on a true surface.

Joe Sarro struck twice with the new ball, including getting Josh Bohannon caught behind with a beauty that nipped away, while Henry Crocombe had former Sussex left-hander Luke Wells caught at slip.

Lancashire fell further into trouble mid-way through their innings as birthday boy Lenham excelled. He had Steven Croft caught at slip and struck twice in the 28th over, his fifth, when he had George Lavelle stumped and Rob Jones lbw for 35.

From there, Lancashire’s task was not quite as tall as the surrounding Howgill Fells, though not far off. However, all-rounder Lamb and seamer Bailey set about a brilliant escape act.

Lenham ended the match with figures of four for 59 and was the pick of our bowlers.

After the match captain Tom Haines spoke to Adrian Harms of BBC Sussex.

“That’s a tough one to take from the position we were in. We expected to win that game. We have to come back on Sunday (against Durham) and realise what we did well. There were little things we could have done better and been clearer with, but batters are allowed to bat well. Danny Lamb played out of his skin. We can’t be too harsh on what was a young bowling attack.”

[exile]

Haines is right to be proud of his young side.  It's a pity, therefore, that he allows his disappointment to show in his final comment.  As for Lancs, some humility is called for.  By all means praise Lamb and Bailey for having finally steamrollered a young attack who, until the last ten overs, had shown their elders and betters how they should have bowled but perhaps also admit that the team was guilty of carelessness and complacency in their overall approach.

[alanw]

Would George Lavelle played if Alex Davies wasn't leaving?

[werneth]

Jul 24, 2021 15:37:27 GMT alanw said:

Would George Lavelle played if Alex Davies wasn't leaving?

Davies is playing in the Blundred for the Southampton Softies or whatever they're called, so is not available. 

But I'd have liked to have seen one or two more of Lancashire's young players get a chance in this competition. Watching some of the talented Sussex youngsters yesterday, I wondered where ours were. I felt Lavelle and Morley were only there by default and wondered when Balderson for instance, who made an impact last year, would get another place in the team. If we're having to sign less than top-notch players such as Wells and Blatherwick to fill gaps, it raises questions about what our academy development is up to.

[redandrosy]

You look at Durham with two overseas players and Essex losing only 2 players to the other thing it will be hard to win this thing.

End the end of the month Sussex will have learnt alot about some talented young lads. What are we learning about Croft apart from he is in serious decline? We are going in with 4 proper bowlers so he can give us the extra runs he got in those two games. Does Chilton really feel Balderson couldn't bat as well? Chapple was an ultra Conservative captain but so was Chilton and he seems to be part of the problem. I hope we can have more positive team selection going forward in this competition.

[exile]

Not sure what is the right approach for this competition.  Do we try to win it or do we regard it as a chance to give a go to some younger players?  Sussex went with a lot of teenagers who almost pulled off a famous victory but they clearly aren't serious about winning the competition.

Chilton should never have been captain.  A cricket captain needs to be able to do at least two of the following:

i. Lead by example - Chilton couldn't do this as a batsman because he never learned to play with "soft hands" so was always nicking off.

ii.  Manage and motivate players on the field - Chilton couldn't begin to deal with the massive egos of Dominic Cork, Stuart Law and Iain Sutcliffe, who just ignored him.

iii.  Make the right tactical decisions - these were all made off-field by Watkinson, with disastrous results.  

I suppose Chilton has his reward for unswerving loyalty...

[chris]

Jul 24, 2021 18:12:58 GMT exile said:

Not sure what is the right approach for this competition.  Do we try to win it or do we regard it as a chance to give a go to some younger players?  Sussex went with a lot of teenagers who almost pulled off a famous victory but they clearly aren't serious about winning the competition.

Sussex side had players similar to those selected in this year in both the championship and the T20.  The only difference being that all their youngsters played at the same time:

Ward in 2021: 1 County Championship match and 5 Vitality T20 games
Clark in 2021: 7 championship
Haines: 9 championship
Head: 6 championship & 9 T20 matches
Coles: 1 championship
Carter: 2 championship & 2 T20 matches
Ibrahim: 3 championship
Beer: 1 championship  & 11 T20 matches
Crocombe: 5 championship & 1 T20 match
Lenham: 9 T20 matches
Sarro: 1 championship


They were of course without Archer (managed return by ECB), Rashid Khan, Salt, Jordan, Mills, Rawlins, Garton, Wright, Bopara and Robinson (ECB experiment).  That’s would be a full side with Travis Head.  I would suggest they fielded their strongest available XI with the exception of Ben Brown (their County Captain), and possibly Meaker and Claydon.  Hunt (19), Atkins (19), Orr (20) or Thomason (24) may have been options but they would not have increased the experience greatly.  Carson was with the County Select XI but is equally young at 20.  Those others not selected may have injury doubts.  But it’s probably unfair to say they aren’t taking it serious.  All XI had first team experience this year, and some probably only making List A debuts as there was no competition last year.