Lightning crash out in semi final of CB40.
Lancashire have fallen in the penultimate fixture of this years CB40 campaign, loosing comfortably to a very strong Warwickshire side. After an unbeaten run of form this year at home, Lancashire will feel disappointed to have chosen the semi final to face defeat for the first time at Old Trafford. After qualifying as the strongest side from all three groups, it is also frustrating to lose to the side who qualified as the weakest of the four semi finalists.
Having won the toss, Warwickshire aimed to set Lancashire a challenging total with what was viewed as a formidable batting line-up. Opening with Will Porterfield and Varun Chopra, Warwickshire achieved a steady power play score of 33-0, which was by no means a daunting score for the home side. However, the openers advanced on the foundations they'd built, with Warwickshire reaching 101-0 after 18 overs and not even looking like loosing a wicket. Porterfield the first to reach his 50 from 46 balls with Chopra soon following from 66 balls. It took Lancashire 22 overs to make the first breakthrough when Stephen Moore took a catch at mid wicket off Gary Keedy to dismiss Porterfield for 67.
After the amount of time the Lightning waited for the first wicket, the next seemed to fall in a shirt space of time, with captain Jim Troughton repeating the fate of opener Will Porterfiled for 11. At 150-2, Warwickshire were still in an incredibly strong position, going into the remaining 13 overs with 8 wickets in hand. Darren Maddy struggled at the crease and was forced to chip the ball to Karl Brown off Ajmal Shahzad for 18. Rikki Clarke played a cameo, scoring 17 off 9 balls, hitting 2 fours and 1 six in the process. In attempt to score more runs, Clarke skied the ball and Stephen Moore made up a lot of ground, taking a superb diving catch off Tom Smith.
Chopra soon reached his 100 from 119 balls, in what would prove to be a match winning innings. Warwickshire's endeavours to score more runs resulted in the loss of 2 wickets on 240. Chris Woakes attempted to scoop Shahzad over the top of keeper, Gareth Cross, but was unable to add to his score of 8. In the next over star batsmen, Varun Chopra, gave Shahzad his third wicket, smashing the ball out to Steven Croft at long on for 110. Paul Best (8*) and Ian Blackwell (2) collected 10 from the final over, as Lancashire were set a formidable target of 251.
The target was by no means out of Lancashire's reach, with even higher targets being chased down earlier in the season and Lancashire scoring an impressive 324-4 from just 37 overs against Worcestershire in their last group game. Stephen Moore and Tom Smith, who both scored centuries against Worcester, would prove to make an unsuccessful start to an already difficult run chase. Smith chipped the ball straight to Jim Troughton off Neil Carter, scoring just 6 after his record breaking century on Monday. Moore (17) was soon caught behind by Richard Johnson (also off Carter) as the absence of Tim Ambrose was not proving to hinder the visitors chances in the slightest.
At 29-2, Lancashire were struggling and in need of a big partnership, similar to the one achieved by Chopra and Portferfield in the Bears' innings. Steven Croft and Ashwell Prince have performed consistently all season for Lancashire, but were only able to reach 50 before the former played on to his own stumps off Chris Wright, making a modest score of 18. Prince was joined by Karl Brown (9), who has also had a promising season with the bat, but the pressure appeared too much, causing Brown to edge to Maddy, giving Wright his second wicket. Prince (26) had batted comfortably but was scoring much slower than was required of him and with Lancashire losing 4 wickets, he was forced in to a big shot off Ian Blackwell, which was subsequently caught by Troughton.
Now 90-5, Paul Horton and Gareth Cross were facing everest, still needing 161 runs with little confidence to take them forward. A steady partnership appeared to regain a shred of hope to Lancashire's case before Cross was given out LBW off Blackwell, on what appeared to be at the very least a dubious decision from Jeremy Lloyds. Horton was joined by Shahzad, who was the pick of Lancashire's bowlers, taking 3-52. But as a tail end batsmen, he struggled with the unreasonable run rate required of him and was out playing a reverse sweep to Ian Blackwell off Paul Best for 10.
Horton remained to be the only hope that Lancashire had in their now futile effort to reach 251, but he certainly got the crowds attention going to 50 from 47 balls and hitting boundaries for fun. An entertaining partnership of 37 runs came to an end when Glen Chapple (13) gave Troughton his third catch of the innings, with Carter claiming another wicket. Lancashire required 60 from the final 5 overs, which may well have been possible had Lancashire had more than 2 wickets left. The hosts battled on, with Parry joining in with some boundaries of his own, but the run rate was too much and when Horton drove Carter to mid off fielder (Troughton) for 78, the game was all but over, with Carter finishing on 4-38.
Parry and Gary Keedy scorecard further 9 runs, before Parry was caught by Best off Wright as Lancashire were bowled out for 227. Lancashire will be disappointed to have lost their first match of the CB40 campaign in the semi final, after qualifying as the strongest side from all divisions and losing to Warwickshire who qualified after finishing second in their group.
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