Lancs out despite century

CHRIS OSTICK

DANE Vilas hit his second century of the competition as Lancashire beat Durham at the Riverside, but it wasn’t enough to keep them in the Royal London Cup.

The Red Rose did all they could in their final group match in their bid to qualify for the knockout stages, but they needed other results to go their way to secure a place in the top three.

But when Nottinghamshire’s game at Northamptonshire at Wantage Road was washed out, the point for the Outlaws was enough to put them out of reach of Lancashire.

Lightning have won four of their past five Royal London Cup matches, showing they have the ability in 50-over cricket, but have paid the heavy price for losing their three opening games.

In the end, they have finished fourth in the North Group, just a point behind Nottinghamshire, while they are also the only team to beat leaders Worcestershire so far in the competition.

Paul Collingwood’s three wickets saw Lancashire stumble to 126-4 after a good start, but Vilas’s onslaught helped them to gather 135 runs from the last 15 overs, compared with 76 off the previous 15 as they reached 304-8.

The second 50 in his 83-ball century came off 26 balls and his fifthwicket stand of 118 in 16 overs with Steven Croft proved crucial.

Opener Alex Davies played strongly off the back foot in reaching 50 off 54 balls while skipper Steven Croft made 41.

The accuracy of Kyle Jarvis was rewarded for Lancashire when he knocked back Keaton Jennings’ off-stump then Stephen Cook edged James Anderson to slip as Durham struggled from the off in their reply.

In the end, Jarvis finished with 3-42 as the home side were restricted to 276-9 in their 50 overs.