We were well-beaten tonight by a Lancashire side that seems to have the measure of us in one-day cricket, at least for now.
There was a fine effort from Tony Palladino with the ball, but the injury sustained by Tom Taylor left us a few overs short. Alex Hughes bowled tidily, but four fifties in the visitors innings left us with a big chase, one that looked a little too much at an early juncture.
The loss of Wes Durston was the key moment, so often an early innings catalyst for a good batting display. Scott Elstone hasn't enjoyed the best of competitions and the loss of Billy Godleman left us in parlous straits at 66-3, much depending on Marcus North and the skipper.
It wasn't to be the Aussie's day either and when the skipper went for a rare 'failure' on 49, we had nowhere to go. Alex Hughes did well for a while, but there wasn't a stage where we looked to threaten a professional Lancashire effort, with Wayne White enjoying figures of 4-33.
The run had to end somewhere and it is important that we regroup quickly for the visit of Essex on Sunday. The section is wide open at this stage and a first half finish is within our grasp.
It does appear that there might be a couple of changes for Sunday though, unless Taylor's injury recovers in time and Scott Elstone finds his mojo in the nets. As a brilliant fielder and fast scorer there's a lot of merit in his place at number three, but he's in a bad trot just now, like all cricketers experience from time to time.
Down but not disheartened, then.
But with much work to do.
A really bad night this, not least because tom Taylor sustained what looked a really bad injury. He was in obvious agony coming off and had his left foot in a plastic boot later on, so I doubt he'll be back for a while. Wainwright continues to drag too many balls down, and the comparison with Kerrigan wasn't favourable in this game, and durston and north both felt the effect of the rule changes only allowing 4 men out.
ReplyDeleteTo keep sides down in 50 over cricket, you have to take wickets in the middle, something we didn't do. If a side is only 2 or 3 down with 20 overs to go, they will go on to get a big score with batsmen in, as we did against Hampshire ourselves. The loss of Taylor meant footitt had to be saved for the power play, which cost us a burst from him in the middle, but alex Hughes and wainwright could do with a more aggressive wicket taking mentality. All the batsmen bar godleman bowl, we have enough back up if it goes wrong!
Losing durston early in the reply didn't help, and scott elstone looks out of his depth at 3. I like the idea of madsen and north at 4 and 5 as an experienced middle order, but I think slater or Cheney Hughes would do better than elstone in the same role. Another option would be to move alex Hughes to 3 and bring in knight at 6. I also fail to see why elstone doesn't bowl at the moment? I hope he isn't carrying an injury.
North continues to fail to deliver with the bat. He may as well play but if we are to qualify he needs to start scoring some runs sharpish.
Overall it was a disappointing result. Collapsing to a second string Lancashire bowling attack for less than 200 is a real concern, albeit not helped by being too defensive with the ball and conceding about 25 too many at the end