Cricket correspondent, Oli Lathrope, reports from Edgbaston where Warwickshire were beaten at home by Lancashire in the Royal London One Day Cup, losing by 26 runs.
Captain Croft sinks Bears
Steven Croft’s magnificent 123 off just 78 balls was the catalyst for Lancashire as they picked up their first win in this year’s Royal London One Day Cup. The Lancashire captain came to the crease with his team in trouble at 130-4 but played a wonderful innings that saw his team to an imposing 351-8.
Warwickshire whose hopes of retaining their crown are now all but over, recovered from 95-4 but always lost wickets at crucial periods and were beaten by 26 runs in the end. Rikki Clarke top scored for them with 76 from 59 balls, but the Bears have now lost four games in a row and unless results go their way spectacularly they will not be reaching the knockout stages.
Ian Bell won the toss and bowled first and despite a quick start from the Lancashire openers, both were back in the hutch with the score on 58. Haseeb Hameed and fellow England hopeful Liam Livingstone staged a recovery of sorts but when both fell in the space of three overs, the Lightning were in some trouble at 130-4. The latter falling to Rikki Clarke, who was the pick of the Warwickshire bowlers with 2-40.
Vilas and Croft then came together to put on 100 together in just over 14 overs before Vilas fell to Ateeq Javid. Croft went on and in the 45th over he hit Hannon-Dalby for three sixes in an over that went for 35. He eventually reached three figures before going big again off Keith Barker in the 49th, hitting 25 off the Warwickshire pacemen.
He eventually fell for 127 in the final over to Jeetan Patel, who took three wickets in that over, but the Lightning had still posted an impressive 351-8.
Warwickshire in reply needed a good start, but Jonathan Trott was out to Kyle Jarvis in the 4th over their task looked more difficult. Ian Bell’s quick fire 33 helped the Bears get ahead of the rate but he too was out to Jarvis. Hain and Lamb both followed before 100 was on the board and the game looked over.
Rikki Clarke and Tim Ambrose set about a recovery and the pair put on 126 to bring the game back in the balance. Clarke was particularly impressive making use of the short boundary on the Eric Hollies side of the ground, striking some lusty blows much to the delight of the home crowd. He was eventually bowled by Kerrigan and Ambrose was run out a few balls later leaving the Bears needing some lower orders heroics.
Ateeq Javid gave them hope with a cameo of 28 but he was eventually out to Anderson, and the final wicket to fall was Barker stumped behind off the bowling of Kerrigan with the Bears all out for 325.
Re-live the game over-by-over by checking out Burn FM Sport’s Live Blog from Edgbaston: http://burnfm.com/sport/live-blog-warwickshire-vs-lancashire-royal-london-one-day-cup/
