Lancashire slump hits New Road victory bid
FOUR Lancashire players were out for a duck as the Red Rose suffered a late collapse on the opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match at Worcestershire.
Coasting on 77-0 at one point in reply to the home side’s 247 all out, Lancashire fell victim to a stunning spell from Ed Barnard to slump to 86-5 at close at New Road.
After Alex Davies was caught by Martin Guptill off the bowling of Charlie Morris for 43, nightwatchman Stephen Parry, Haseeb Hameed, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and then Rob Jones all fell without scoring, with Barnard claiming all four wickets.
Keaton Jennings will resume this morning unbeaten on 42.
It is the latest in a worrying series of batting collapses by the Lanca- shire top order which has seen them struggle so far in the County Championship.
Both Hameed and Chanderpaul have been short of runs all campaign.
Former England opener Hameed, who suffered a finger injury while fielding in the slips yesterday, has scored just 44 runs in nine innings so far this season, while West Indies Test legend Chanderpaul has a total of 182 from his 10 knocks.
“We let it slip a bit with the bat,” said Lancashire seamer Joe Mennie, who earlier in the day claimed 4-43 with the ball.
“At 70-0 we were going pretty well and to lose five wickets like that was not ideal but, credit to them, they bowled pretty well and Ed Barnard especially.
“We are going to have to fight hard tomorrow morning to get ourselves up to a decent score and a competitive score.”
Lancashire, without captain Liam Livingstone and spinner Matthew Parkinson who are on England Lions duty, had Worcestershire on the ropes at 81-5 in the morning session having elected to bowl.
But a stunning 118 from Daryl Mitchell frustrated the Red Rose, sharing stands of 66 and 79 with first Barnard and then Ross Whiteley. In the end, Lancashire broke through, with Jordan Clark continuing his impressive season with 4-56.
“We started off pretty well with the ball,” said Mennie. “We probably went a bit wayward with the ball in the middle session and they got a few more runs than we would have liked but to get them out for 247 was pretty pleasing.”