Lancs seal win over Northants.

Kerrigan claimed both of the outstanding wickets
this morning to earn Lancs a vital win.

Lancashire claimed an emphatic win over Northamptonshire to earn only their second win of the Championship campaign by an innings and 200 runs, completing the double over the visitors. 

The hosts needed just two more wickets to seal what had seemed like an inevitable victory after Steven Croft and Ashwell Prince led Lancashire to an insurmountable first innings score of 650-6 and it took just seven balls to make the first breakthrough.

Greame White (6) missed a straight delivery from Simon Kerrigan (4-76) and was trapped lbw with the score at 236-9 and with Northants trailing by 234 runs, they were unable to avoid an innings defeat after Kerrigan ended a late surge from Muhammad Azharullah.

Andrew Hall had made 45 not out in the visitors first innings and made an uneaten half-century in 93 balls. His measured innings was contrasted with Azharullah's brutal approach, as the number-eleven batsman smashed successive sixes off Kerrigan on his way to a quickfire 24 from 20 balls.

It had been the perfect match for Lancashire, one which they needed to win in order to give them a realistic chance of avoiding relegation this season and the game ended when Azharullah top-edged another swipe off Kerrigan, forcing Paul Horton to run backwards from first-slip to take a smart catch, as the visitors were bowled out for 270.

Championship points: Lancashire 24, Northants 1.

Man of the match: Ashwell Prince's unbeaten 257 in Lancashire's first and only innings stood out amongst a series of top quality performances, but after the hosts had fallen to 33-3 on the first day, it was his stand with Steven Croft which not only recovered the innings, but launched it into realms which Lancashire have not seen in a long time.

In a match where Croft made a new career-best score and Glen Chapple claimed his 900th Championship wicket, Lancashire could not have asked for a better performance and this victory gives them the confidence required to defeat somebody other than Northants, who have become whipping boys in Division One after suffering their seventh loss of the season and their fifth by an innings.