Kent Canterbury 4 days 23/6/24

[MickeyG]

Finally got Parkinson.

[alanw]

Worcestershire also 8 down.

[MickeyG]

Surely won't be long now.

[MickeyG]

There it is. Missed all 3 of the last wickets. Damn work.

[MickeyG]

Worcester all done too. Guess I'll watch Warks.

[GarethPlatt]

Good win albeit against a significantly weakened Kent side. Not sure how much you can read into that, other than that our young players are significantly better than theirs!

I think we'll stay up now. The kids are getting experience all the time and hopefully we'll get a couple of wins from the remaining six.

Notts will be tough, hopefully Anderson and Lyon can do the business between them. Any kind of win will do.

Hopefully we'll get another gun overseas player to take us through the final few matches too. We're seriously in debt, but squad wages must be low given our average age is about 15!

[Admin]

ESPN take on late day

ancashire 549 for 9 dec (Bohannon 205, Hurst 50, Garrett 3-89) beat Kent 244 and 222 (Stobo 64, Williams 3-26, Bailey 3-36) by an innings and 83 runs

Lancashire have routed Kent by an innings and 83 runs in their Vitality County Championship showdown at Canterbury.

The visitors bowled Kent out for 222 in their second innings, Will Williams taking three for 26 and Tom Bailey three for 36. Charlie Stobo hit his highest first-class score of 64 but the hosts were all out after 30.2 overs on day four.

The result, against the only side who were below them in Division One before this round of fixtures, drastically increases Lancashire's chances of avoiding the drop, while Kent remain anchored to the foot of the table.

It was an outcome that had looked almost inevitable ever since Kent lost a cluster of wickets midway through day one. The hosts were a shadow of the side who won convincingly at Old Trafford earlier this season, with six of the players who pulled off what remains their only red ball win of the season injured or unavailable.

They resumed on 143 for six and with a deficit of 162 not many observers were expecting them to take the game deep into the fourth day. Beyers Swanepoel, batting with Tawanda Muyeye as his runner, was the first man to fall, cutting Bailey to Jack Blatherwick for 26 in the fourth over of the morning, but Stobo and Matt Parkinson responded with an obdurate stand that took out 18.3 overs.

The sparse crowd meant the on-field chatter was amplified, especially, it seemed, when George Balderson bowled. During one over Lancashire's fielders shouted: "Go on Baldie!" or variations thereof, a staggering 37 times, including 10 after a single delivery. No other bowler received this level of encouragement: Nathan Lyon's next over was greeted with near silence.

The partnership broke when Parkinson, who'd joked on Tuesday night that he planned to block for 96 overs, abandoned his previous discipline. He tried an ill-advised pull shot against Lyon and although that was spilled by Bailey at backward square leg, he was out to the next ball he faced.

Stobo brought up his second first-class fifty in the next over when he drove Luke Wells for four, but after taking a single Parkinson was left with the strike and Wells pinned him lbw for seven.

Wells then had George Garrett caught at first slip by Keaton Jennings at first slip for five and the victory was sealed when Williams used the new ball to send Stobo's off stump cartwheeling.

[Dave Towers]

Well Kent only won one of the ten sessions and we'll certainly settle for that.

Our record thus far is almost identical to that of last season, when we had three points more. Kent themselves stayed up in 2023 with just the two wins, so if we can manage one more we should be alright. I note though that with the imbalance of fixtures we only have one more. (Worcestershire) against the two teams which haven't managed a victory so far.

[John W]

Jun 25, 2024 15:12:51 GMT Admin said:

Hot news apparently after an overseas pace bowler

On X (or Twitter) a source is saying the quickie is from Pakistan...I don't think it's Wasim!

[Dave Towers]

Jun 26, 2024 21:04:42 GMT John W said:

Jun 25, 2024 15:12:51 GMT Admin said:

Hot news apparently after an overseas pace bowler

On X (or Twitter) a source is saying the quickie is from Pakistan...I don't think it's Wasim!

But will he be an adequate replacement for Blathers?

[John W]

The skippers thoughts. Jimmy to play at Southport. Bruce having a couple of weeks off then he'll be fighting to get his place back.

x.com/BBCLancsCricket/status/1805967059819327839

[John W]

Thoughts/observations on 4 days at Canterbury -

The ground - It may need a lick of paint here or there but the focus is on a county welcoming spectators with open arms. As you have your ticket scanned there is a genuine warmth coming from the stewards, no bag search just a smile from the steward hoping you enjoy your day. Area's where you can bring your own chair round the boundary edge, also a grass embankment where quite a few families set their stall for the day. Members stands that have been there since the year dot. My wife and I wanted to sit in the upper tier Frank Wooley stand but had forgot our members cards, we explained this to the steward at the bottom of the stairs and he accepted our word with a smile and allowed us to sit in the upper tier - would this happen at Lancashire? As hariseldon has previously posted this was festival week and there was something for everyone whether a toddler or a grumpy old member. CAMRA had a tent which did a roaring trade all day even though you can bring your own alcohol into the ground. Spectators welcomed onto the pitch every lunchtime, on the first day Jimmy drew a massive audience when practising. On the final day with Kent 6 wickets down it was free admission, the hierarchy obviously using a bit of common sense and realising that a few extra spectators might spend a bit of money having a bite to eat or a drink. It was a county championship match but you could see that Kent were really trying, they put a lot of effort into promoting the festival and the game, which was so refreshing to see. Of course the brilliant weather made all the difference but Kent were rewarded for all their efforts and well done to them...How come every away game I attend I come away really enjoying my time?

The match - The toss, debatable. With the green tinge to the track I could see why Jennings opted to bowl but was unsure if we had the seam bowlers to make it pay. Bailey's first spell was awful and the Kent batsmen didn't look in any trouble whatsoever. At lunch with Kent 100+ with only 2 down I was pretty despondent, it looked like we had dropped a real ricket. Somehow we turned it round but I'm not entirely sure how! This was a track that you expected to help the seamers yet spin got 5 wickets. Balderson was the pick of our 3 seamers by a long way (I'm not bothering counting Blatherwick because we might as well be taking the field with 10 men plus a sub fielder). If you take Crawley, Leaning and Denly out of the top 6 plus Billings only playing white ball cricket that is a sizeable hole and it showed, only Compton, Muyeye and Stobo showed anything. The crucial moment for me was when Lyon got Stobo just before tea, he and Muyeye had put on 72 and Lancashire had run out of ideas, both players were taking a liking to Lyon and Jennings resorted to Blatherwick playing the enforcer with a heavy leg side field - that option sank without trace. With that wicket Kent folded and for once we cleared up the tail pretty rapidly. The question now was could we go unscathed through to the close of play but when Jennings went for a duck I feared the worst. Fortunately I watched 2 players who had been badly out of form get their heads down and battle, nothing skittish which has been the case this season from Bohannon. Once again the 2nd morning saw both batsmen playing each ball on its merit, it looks to me that there has been a bit of conversation in the dressing room of how they are going about their batting. By mid-day bat had control of ball and once Wells and Bohannon sensed this they took complete control, it was baking hot, the bowlers were offering very little, there was nothing at all in the wicket and the only question was whether either batsman would get himself out, they both knew a big score was there for the taking and made sure they took advantage. Lavelle must have been cursing his luck, I said to my wife ideally he wants to come in 10 overs before the new ball or 15 overs after it has been taken, he came in with the new ball only 3 overs old and was done by a good delivery, it happens and he was unlucky but the pressure will be on him when he bats at Southport. After that Bohannon and Hurst got their heads down (new approach?) making sure we didn't lose any more wickets. On the forum it was mentioned that on the 3rd morning we only scored 97 runs for 2 wickets yet post tea on the 2nd day we only scored 97 runs for 3 wickets in 32 overs. With Blatherwick coming in at number 8 Lancs chose a more conservative approach, it allowed out of form players to hit form, also I'm sure the very hot weather came into play, Lancs didn't want to be in the field longer than needed and the more time Kent spent in the field the more they wilted. Accumulation of runs was better than trying to score quick runs, on the 4th morning I could see that Bohannon and Hurst both natural stroke makers were not completely timing the ball even though they were both well set. The last 4 wickets all perished trying to hit out but by then Kent were on their knees and going in for a second time their batsmen had neither the heart or the application for a salvage job.

Overall an excellent win but it has to be slightly tempered with caution because Kent are at the bottom for a reason, they are the weakest county side I've seen for quite a while and they were without quite a few first teamers.

Finally a couple of negatives - 1. No balls, 30 runs conceded across 2 innings, it didn't matter on this occasion but a closer match can mean the difference between a win and a defeat.
2. Dropped catches. 5 put down of which 4 should have been taken.

I can't be too picky though...apologies for the long post, I wanted to comment each night but just didn't have the time, too many decent ales to sample!

[Admin]

Thanks for that John W, great post

[MickeyG]

Yep, great post John.

Its interesting the comments about run scoring vs quick runs. I felt in recent years Lancs let teams off the hook by not scoring quick enough. They were hard to beat, but had too many draws that cost potential championship wins. Maybe the poor batting this year was down to trying to force things, and in this match decided to go back to the basics of red ball cricket and it paid dividends.

[sillypoint]

Thanks for the great post John.

How did you think Parky bowled compared to Lyon & Wells. He's taken quite a few wickets for them, but they've been expensive. Been good for them in the T20s though.