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Post by Admin on Apr 23, 2022 20:00:13 GMT
Apparently when Hasan was leaving the ground had to phone someone as they had locked virtually all the gates |
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2022 6:30:55 GMT
Suspect Bohannon will disappear to the Test squad along with Jimmy, Saq and Parky, need to get the points on te board as soon as possible, below the word of Ken
A career-best double century by Josh Bohannon along with a scintillating century by Dane Vilas helped put Lancashire in complete control of this LV= Insurance County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Emirates Old Trafford.
Bohannon and Vilas dominated this third day with their 203-run partnership closing Gloucestershire out of the game during the first two sessions before the Red Rose bowlers ripped out three top order wickets during the final session to close in on a second consecutive victory of the season.
Resuming on 289-3 in windy, chilly conditions in reply to Gloucestershire’s 252 all out, Vilas wasted little time before clipping Ryan Higgins through midwicket for four to bring up his fifty (off 51 balls).
The well-wrapped up spectators were soon able to warm their hands and show their appreciation when Bohannon reached his third score of 150 and the Lancashire pair settled into a continuation of the excellent form of the previous day, defending when necessary and taking advantage of any poor deliveries.
They comfortably steered Lancashire to 323-3 after 110 overs - and a third batting point - and then set about building a big total to heap the pressure on the visitors.
Bohannon drove gloriously through extra cover off Jared Warner after an hour’s play on his way to passing his previous best of 174 made against Derbyshire three years ago.
His double century never looked in doubt and Bohannon reached the landmark on the stroke of lunch to great acclaim, quickly followed by Vilas who moments later posted a second consecutive century following his 124 against Kent last week.
That meant, somewhat quirkily, no wickets had fallen in any of three morning sessions of this match when the rested bowlers are normally at their most effective – a fairly rare occurrence.
Wickets did fall in the afternoon however.
Vilas was the first to go when the Lancashire skipper tried to loft Josh Shaw over point but was caught by Miles Hammond over his head at that position for 109 to end an outstanding partnership of 203 with Bohannon that had put Lancashire well into the ascendancy.
Phil Salt helped Bohannon pile on the runs with a 49-run partnership, Bohannon hitting Graeme van Buuren for a straight six, before both fell at the same score of 486.
Salt was stumped for 21 after going down the wicket to hit spinner Zafar.
Then Bohannon’s epic 9 and a quarter hour effort came to an end at 231 – the highest innings for Lancashire against Gloucestershire - when he gloved a sweep off spinner Graeme van Buuren that popped up to wicketkeeper James Bracey.
Bohannon departed to another well-deserved ovation for a very fine innings.
Danny Lamb took up the attack with an unbeaten 41 off 46 balls including two sixes, one of them a reverse pull off Jared Warner, while Hassan Ali also unfurled a reverse sweep for six in his 11.
Lamb and Saqib Mahmood punished the tiring visitors’ attack further with an unbeaten alliance of 55 before Vilas called a halt at tea with Lancashire’s 556-7 declared their highest-ever total against Gloucestershire.
Left arm spinner Zafar was the pick of the visiting attack, bowling a marathon 65 overs - the most by a Gloucestershire bowler equalling Tom Goddard’s record from 1938 - and picking up 4-135.
Trailing by 304 runs going into their second innings, Gloucestershire lost both openers to catches behind the wicket with just 36 runs on the board.
James Anderson produced some extra bounce to find the edge of Marcus Harris’ bat while Chris Dent, having cut Mahmood for four, edged another attempted cut with Salt taking a good, leaping catch.
And with 7 overs left Hassan Ali produced the ultimate fast yorker that smashed James Bracey’s middle stump into two pieces to leave Gloucestershire struggling to save the game on 61-3.
Hammond (26 not out) and van Buuren (3 not out) survived to reach the close with Gloucestershire 67-3 and still 237 runs behind going into the final day.
Dane Vilas was delighted with the performances from all the team this season. .
"Personally I've hit the ground running,” he said, “but then I think everyone has. Everyone is playing well.
"Josh (Bohannon) has been batting incredibly well for the last few seasons. Everything is clicking for him and every day he is learning his game and improving in every game he plays.
"His hunger for runs is brilliant to see. He has taken a big step forwards for us and a key position in any team is the number three batsman and he wants to bat there. I'm really proud of him.
"With his technique he can handle anything whether he's batting at three or four and it's really good to see. I know he's worked a lot in the off season trying to tweak some improvements from last season and he really wants to do better which is a huge plus for us and him.
And Vilas isn’t underestimating the task ahead tomorrow.
“It’s a really good wicket but there’s a bit more rough out there for the spinners,” he said. “They’ve got some good players who can handle the pressure situations so it’s going to be a tough ask. But saying that, the way we bowled in the first innings was excellent.
And those three wickets tonight were three big wickets and something for us to build on tomorrow. They’ve still got some good players to come but hopefully we can put seven really good balls in the right area.
“We know that things can speed up on day four. That cliché of if you get one wicket you can get two quickly (does apply). We’ll be pushing for that. The way we’ve played this game so far, and bowling Gloucester out first day, has bought us a lot of time in the game, and we can use that tomorrow.”
Ken Grime
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2022 10:35:52 GMT
Interesting stat from this game, as yet no wicket has fallen in the first session on any of the three days
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2022 16:56:34 GMT
Win with 23 balls to go
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Post by exile on Apr 24, 2022 17:59:23 GMT
A second big win and an excellent start to the season but a match almost ruined by a typically lifeless OT pitch.
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2022 18:01:34 GMT
A second big win and an excellent start to the season but a match almost ruined by a typically lifeless OT pitch. Also thought they could have declared slightly earlier as for the pitch the ECB will think it’s perfect |
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Post by man in the stand on Apr 24, 2022 19:29:37 GMT
A second big win and an excellent start to the season but a match almost ruined by a typically lifeless OT pitch. Yes a batman's pitch and against stronger opposition would have likely been a draw. Nevertheless we had the stronger bowling attack to overcome it. Not sure what was going on with Lace's wicket. He seemed to think he'd been caught off his arm and wasn't out but then the scoreboard said bowled? As for last wicket one of umpires seems to be querying the decision. Maybe he thought Salt had grounded the ball? In the battle for the England bowling spot I think Mahmood maybe ahead of Jimmy. Like the way Hassan applauded the crowd at the end....he looks like a good signing.... |
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2022 5:57:07 GMT
Lancashire’s excellent start to the season continued with a pulsating second victory in the LV= County Championship by an innings and 57 runs against Gloucestershire at Emirates Old Trafford.
There were just 24 balls left in the match when Gloucestershire last man Jared Warner feathered an edge off Hassan Ali to wicketkeeper Phil Salt to spark great scenes of jubilation led by Hassan’s trademark fist-pumping celebration.
It was a dramatic finale after Gloucestershire’s remaining batsman had battled valiantly throughout the day and came very close to achieving an improbable draw.
But with overs running out and two wickets needed, Dane Vilas turned to Hassan and Saqib Mahmood and it was Mahmood who ended 27 overs worth of resistance when he bowled Tom Lace for the 9th Gloucestershire wicket before Hassan applied the finish.
This final day had many twists and turns, starting with Matt Parkinson who led the way with three wickets and he was instrumental in making the breakthrough after Gloucestershire pair Miles Hammond and skipper Graeme van Buuren had put up one hour of resistance at the start of the day.
Just as we were wondering if the fourth morning was going to be as barren - as far as wickets falling - as the previous three morning sessions, Parkinson emphasized just what a dangerous bowler he can be with two wickets in two balls.
The leg spinner found some nice drift and turn to find the edge of van Buuren's bat, caught at slip by Luke Wells for 15, before completely bamboozling Ryan Higgins with his next delivery that pitched in line with leg stump but turned to hit off stump.
And Parkinson nearly had a third when Tom Lace – on a pair – drove to mid-off where a diving Dane Vilas just failed to pull off a great catch.
Hammond and Lace reached lunch on 116-5 with Hammond going to his fifty soon after play resumed (from 147 balls) before becoming Anderson’s second victim of the innings.
We had the sight of Anderson bowling to an unusual field containing a cordon of short mid-off, short extra cover, short cover, short point and one wide slip (positioned about the third slip area).
Whether the ploy worked only the batsman will know, but Hammond was then late on his shot to an Anderson seamer that nipped back onto his pads to be lbw for 50.
Parkinson backed that up with his third wicket three overs later, Zafar Gohar deceived by a floated delivery that gripped and turned into the batsman's leg stump to have the visitors 127-7 and with just under 60 overs still to be bowled the game looked destined to head Lancashire’s way.
Lace and Josh Shaw had other ideas, showing some good fight with a 79-run partnership with Lace reaching his half century off 130 balls when driving George Balderson through the covers for his sixth boundary.
But Hassan (3-49) returned to bowl a hostile over at Shaw; consecutive bouncers followed by a searing delivery that hit middle and off stumps with the batsman stuck on the back foot and out after making 29.
That breakthrough seemed to have finally swung things back Lancashire’s way but Lace found a strong ally in Warner and the pair defended stoutly for 27 overs to take the match well into the final hour although Lace had earlier been the recipient of a fortunate escape on 65 (with 18 overs left) when his attempted cut off Saqib Mahmood flew quickly to second slip where Steven Croft couldn’t cling on to the chance.
But Lace’s fine effort finally ended after 266 minutes on 71 with 10 overs left after Mahmood clipped the off stump just enough to bizarrely dislodge the leg side bail with umpire Richard Illingworth confirming the decision.
There was still further drama however as Warner and Dale batted out a further six overs before Hassan’s coup de grâce arrived to seal a very hard won victory.
Lancashire take 22 points from the game and Gloucestershire 3.
A delighted Head Coach Glen Chapple reflected on a “tough day”
“We were in a great position and played superb cricket throughout the game,” he said, “on a really good surface that was fairly flat but was like a Test pitch.
"I'm pleased that we dominated the game and played really good cricket all the way through but even with the unbelievable bowling attack we've got it was hard work and Gloucestershire played well, made it difficult and at one point a draw looked favourite.”
And Chapple is happy with the type of pitches at Emirates Old Trafford, adding:
"We'd prefer good surfaces like that because the best team has the best chance to win and at the moment we have a strong team. We didn't ever take a backward step and the effort was great - if we can find a way to keep our foot on the gas all the way through it would be great but the efforts of the team after tea were amazing. “
Josh Bohannon’s double-century was one of many highlights to take away from this game and Chapple said: “During his career to date, Josh (Bohannon) has not had a bad spell and we know now that he is a proven, quality player.
“He has been determined this winter to work on how he can make sure that he can bat long and make really big, telling scores. He richly deserves his first double hundred and everyone is delighted for him."
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2022 6:05:40 GMT
Surrey 56
Hants 49
Lancs 46
Yorks 35
Warwick 35
Essex 33
North 25
Kent 19
Gloucs 18
Somer 10
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Post by sillypoint on Apr 25, 2022 9:34:46 GMT
Credit to Gloucestershire who fought really hard. Yes the pitch was lifeless, but it's good for the competition that teams are not capitulating. Northants held out well at Yorkshire as well. Take note England's batsmen.
Didn't think Mahmood seemed entirely focused early on but he got better as the day wore on. I've seen Parky bowl better. He seemed to want to bowl too many quick short ones, particularly against Lace for some reason. Whenever he gave it more air and pitched it up he was probably our most dangerous bowler but didn't do it often enough for my liking. The coaches were in almost constant communication with him on the boundary.
Hassan Ali looks like a good signing with a great attitude. Shaw made the huge mistake of winding him up with inevitable consequences. The umpires had words with him for his celebration which was certainly directed at Shaw, but I thought the batsman had asked for it and that it stayed within bounds. I like to see some controlled aggression on the pitch. None of this coming off the pitch after his spell for him either, he stayed on all day.
The fields were a bit too funky for my liking. Lots of fielders at short mid-wicket and short cover, who never came remotely near to getting a catch, rather than behind the wicket. A second slip for Parky would have got Lace out early on, and a third slip for Mahmood would have got Shaw(?) out earlier.
We've probably played two of the weaker teams, so sterner tests await.
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Post by exile on Apr 25, 2022 18:49:58 GMT
Yes, the next match will provide a much sterner test. We probably have the best bowling attack in the competition at the moment but will struggle to defeat stronger sides on pitches like the one we've just played on. Chapple described it as "a test match pitch" but the actual test strip at OT is in a different class and doesn't produce the kind of grinding attritional cricket that people had to watch for most of this match. I'm against pitches that turn medium pace trundlers into reincarnations of Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose but this one went to the other extreme.
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