Footitt best helps Surrey secure emphatic win over Lancashire

Surrey wrapped up a resounding victory on the final day at The Oval, chasing a nominal target of 38 to beat Lancashire by ten wickets and move up to second in the Division One table.

It took the hosts just under ten overs to claim Lancashire’s last two wickets, with the Red Rose slumping to 230 all out after Mark Footitt accounted for both wickets to walk away with career-best figures of 7-62.

Rory Burns (28*) and Dominic Sibley (11*) completed the Surrey victory in just 55 deliveries, as Lancashire extended their winless run in the County Championship to eight matches with their fourth defeat of the season.

Lancashire started the fourth and final day staring at a certain defeat on 203/8 with a marginal lead of 10 runs, with overnight batsmen Kyle Jarvis (14) and Nathan Buck (11) both falling to left-arm seamer Footitt, who reached 300 first-class wickets in the process of decimating Lancashire in their second innings.

The visitors found themselves in this position after a disastrous evening-session spell saw them slump from 167/2 to 193/8, with six wickets falling for 26 runs in the space of 14 overs. Footitt played a key role in this downturn of fortune for Lancashire, securing a five-wicket haul before the close to set up a certain victory for his side.

Having just hit Footitt for a cover-driven boundary, Buck fell in the fourth over of the day when he edged a drive to Burns at second slip at 211/9, before Jarvis and Simon Kerrigan (12*) added 19 runs for the last wicket to set Surrey a straightforward task.

Jarvis was the last man to fall, tamely chipping a drive to Stuart Meaker at mid-off, as Lancashire were bowled out for 230, courtesy of a rampant performance from former Derbyshire fast bowler Footitt.

Burns, who made 88 in the first innings on his way to reaching 1,000 runs for the season, led Surrey’s pursuit for victory with a swept boundary off Arron Lilley in the early stages of the run-chase, one of four boundaries hit by the opening batsman during his brief innings of 28 not out off 32 balls.

He then secured a 23-point victory for the hosts when he reverse-swept Kerrigan to the fence, with Sibley unbeaten on 11 by the time Surrey had achieved a ten-wicket win and their third victory in four attempts in red-ball cricket to send them into second place.

Lancashire, meanwhile, are likely to slip from fourth to sixth in Division One after Somerset and Warwickshire finish their respective matches against Hampshire and Durham. Ashley Giles’ side will now have to pick themselves up in time for the four-day match against Somerset starting on Wednesday at Old Trafford, with a relegation battle firmly on the cards for a number of teams in the first division.