Jordan Clark took five wickets on the second and final day of Lancashire's two-day friendly against UAE in Dubai, as the Red Rose ended their pre-season tour with a dominant performance.
Clark (5-35) rattled through the UAE top order in the morning session, as the home side made 179/9 in their first innings, losing one of their opening batsmen to an elbow injury. UAE managed to face only 48.2 overs before their innings came to a close, which forced the two teams to contest a practice session of 12 overs in which Lancashire's spinners enjoyed further practice in the Dubai heat.
Lancashire declared overnight on 319/7 with Karl Brown, Steven Croft and Liam Livingstone all hitting half-centuries yesterday for the tourists. After enjoying a strong day with the bat against the UAE national side, the Red Rose turned their attention to bowling in Dubai, with Clark's morning spell of 4-23 from seven overs leaving the home side facing an uphill struggle for the rest of the second day.
Sreesanth Laxman, who made fifty when the sides met in the Twenty20 Airline Tournament last week, made just eight runs on this occasion, edging to Livingstone in the slips to give Clark the first of four wickets in the morning session. UAE's other opening batsman, Babar Husain, had made it to 12 before taking a nasty blow to the elbow from Clark's bowling, forcing him to retire hurt with the score now at 26/1.
Clark continued to make an impact with the ball, claiming his second wicket and the first of a spell of three wickets in as many overs when he encouraged a thin edge behind to Alex Davies, removing Mohammad Qasim for no score. The bustling all rounder bowled a tight and hostile line all morning and continued to create chances for the Lancashire slip cordon, with Livingstone once again in action, clinging on to an edge from the bat of Shaiman Anwar (13) at third slip.
Livingstone and Clark combined again to remove Shabbir Ahmed (9) before Luke Procter (1-30) had Rameez Shahzad caught behind by Davies for a duck, with the UAE national side stumbling to 58/5 on the second morning. They recovered to 95/5 by lunch, with Mohammad Usman and Rohan Mustafa adding 92 runs for the sixth wicket either side of lunch to help the hosts reach a respectable but albeit underwhelming total.
Usman went on to make 59 from 74 balls, while Mustafa fell short of a half-century, reaching 47 from 52 balls before he fell to Luis Reece's first ball of the game. Reece forced Mustafa to top edge his shot behind to Davies, as UAE recovered to 150/6 in the afternoon session.
Reece went on to claim both of the big wickets in the UAE innings, removing Usman for 59 with Davies once again taking the catch behind the stumps, by which time it became apparent that Husain would not return to bat after being hit on the elbow by Clark.
Clark returned in the afternoon session, vying for a five-wicket-haul which he managed to acquire when Khalid was caught by Rob Jones at mid wicket for five, leaving UAE struggling once again on 178/8.
Spinner Matthew Parkinson (1-29) claimed his first wicket for Lancashire when he removed his own teammate's middle stump, leaving Simon Kerrigan (0) stranded halfway down the wicket as he looked back despondently at the wickets.
With no more UAE batsmen available, the sides agreed to play a 12-over practice session, allowing Parkinson and Stephen Parry to acquire further practice after Lancashire had blasted their way through the home side's batting line up. During the short practice session, Parkinson took two more wickets and Parry claimed one, although no official score was kept.
Attention now turns to the first pre-season friendly on home soil, as Lancashire travel to Taunton for a three-day friendly against Somerset, with the game starting on Monday 4th April. The Red Rose then head to Fenners a week later for another three-day friendly against Cambridge MCCU.
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