Royal London Cup Yorkshire v Lancashire August 4th

Neil Whitaker reports

IF it’s Lancashire Lightning v Yorkshire Vikings in a list A game it must be a Lancashire victory and if the match is played in Yorkshire it must be a Lancashire victory and that’s what happened at Clifton Park as the Lightning beat the Vikings by  seven wickets with nine overs to spare.


It was Lancashire’s 35 list A victory against Yorkshire and their 14th in Yorkshire. They chased down 225 with Luke Wells top scoring with 88.  But he did have his luck.  On 18 he  went down the pitch to Ben Coad and cut him  just wide off George  Hill at short cover. He had another life when he set off for a single  and should have been run out by a mile but Matt  Revis’ throw was wide off the stumps.  After that there was no turning back for Wells.



He picked Dom Bess up and deposited over mid wicket and out of the ground.  The Vikings should have got rid off him on 87 when he smashed Revis to Bess at mid on but he dropped it. But it didn’t prove expensive because three balls later he hooked Revis to Harry Sullivan on the fine leg boundary,


Wells launched Loten for a massive straight six into the car park.  He reached his fifty when drove Bess straight for one of his seven fours in his fifty which also included a six in 47 balls.  He drove the youngster Sullivan for his second six.  He drilled Revis straight to Coad at mid off who in his eagerness to throw the ball took his eye of it and it ran to the boundary.


At the beginning of their chase Keaton Jennings hit three fours off Matt Waite’s second over.   The Lightning lost skipper Jennings when he advanced down the pitch to Coad and nibbled at one and Will  Fraine took a low catch at slip.



Another poor piece of fielding this time by Will  Luxton on the cover boundary allowed  Steven Croft to get a boundary off Bess. Bohannon dismissively pulled Waite to the mid wicket boundary to bring up his fifty from 58 balls with six fours. But in the next over he under edged a pull off Loten and played on.




4499 crowd  Yorkshire Vikings came expecting another run feast but on a used pitch the Vikings couldn’t bat their fifty overs and were dissmissed in the 48th over as they struggled against the Lightning bowlers, the pick of which was Danny  Lamb who took three wickets for 32 and only bowled six overs and when they fielded it was substandard performance.  For the Lightning Will Williams took two wickets for 30 but Jack Blatherwick was the most expensive, his seven overs cost him 61 runs but he did take two wickets.



The Lightning should have had an early wicket in the fifth over when Harry Duke clipped Williams off his legs but found Washington Sundar at  short fine leg but Fraine, on 12, was halfway down the pitch before Duke sent him back. Luckily for Fraine, Washington’s throw was wayward and Fraine comfortably made his ground.


Later Fraine must have thought it was going to be his day, on 20 he raced down the pitch to Williams and edged him through the slips for a four.


The Lightning got their first wicket when Duke pushed at Williams who found his outside edge to stumper George Lavelle. It then became a procession of Vikings’ batters to the pitch and back to the pavilion as they went from 66 for none to 132 for six in 14 overs.


There was no century this time for Fraine as he fell nine short off his fifty. He tried to clip Lamb off his legs but got a leading edge and Jennings after an age took the catch at mid on.  Three balls later Hill missed a straight ball from Lamb and was leg before for a duck. Lamb got his third wicket when Luxton edged him without moving his feet to  Lavelle who took a low catch diving to his right.


Waite tried to turn Blatherwick to leg but got a leading edge and the ball looped back to the bowler.  Revis pulled Blatherwick against the line, got an outside edge and Croft at point took a steepler of a catch.


Bess went to sweep Washington Sundar but missed the ball, was hit on his boot and was plumb leg before.  Loten gave the Vikings fans something to cheer about when he clipped Blatherwick over square leg for a six and the  Vikings plundered 18 from the over.


Jonny Tattersall became the Vikings third leg before victim,  when he tried to work Wells to the legside but missed the ball. After adding 35 with Loten, Coad top edged a drive of Wells and found Washington Sundar coming in from long off.  


It was no surprise when the Vikings failed to bat their 50 overs and Williams wrapped the Vikings innings up with nine balls left when  Sullivan clipped Williams off legs and found Lamb on the mid wicket boundary who took a good catch.




Vikings assistant coach Ali Maiden said: “We didn’t bat  well enough, it’s dissapointing considering how well we played the other day.  We had a decent powerplay but a lot of our batters got out by hitting across the line.  We’ve got to build partnerships, we lost wickets through poor execution.  From my point of view it would have been nice for the lower order to get some runs.



The pitch was slower than on Tuesday but it wasn’t that much different.  I told the lads at half time that Coad and Loten showed some character to get us to a score that we could defend the danger with a low score is you think the match is over at half time.  With a low score Lancashire didn’t have to take risks and it was a straightforward chase by an experienced batting line-up.”

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