Lancs need a bit of help from Yorkies
LANCASHIRE will need a bit of help from arch rivals Yorkshire if they are to book a place in the knockout stages of the Royal London Cup.
Lightning’s seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge yesterday have left them sixth in the North Group with just one game left.
With the top three qualifying, Lancashire go into their final match at Durham tomorrow knowing they have to win if they are to move level on points with Nottinghamshire, who are third.
But they also need bottom-ofthe-table Northamptonshire to beat the Outlaws and Yorkshire - who have already qualified - to see off Leicestershire.
Then, it would come down to net run rate, and at the moment Lancashire’s is superior to that of Notts.
“Leicester have a tough game against Yorkshire and Notts have a tough game against Northants, so all we can do is go to the Riverside and beat Durham and see,” said Lancashire head coach Glen Chapple.
Haseeb Hameed top scored with an unbeaten 75 off 79 balls, while Karl Brown scored 52 as the Red Rose made 260-6 in their 50 overs a high-quality Nottinghamshire bowling attack which included Stuart Broad, Jake Ball, Harry Gurney and Samit Patel. Brown and Alex Davies (45) gave them a great start with a 98-run opening stand. But wickets then fell on a regular basis until Hameed and Ryan McLaren put on 79 for the sixth wicket.
“260 was possibly a bit light,” added Chapple. “It was a funny innings really, we worked well through the powerplay and up to the first 17 overs but then it got more difficult.”
An unbeaten knock of 103 off 104 balls from Patel and an unbeaten 77 from former Lancashire player Steven Mullaney guided Nottinghamshire home with four overs to spare, depite two wickets for youngster Danny Lamb, who was making his List A debut for the Red Rose.