Title chances are still good insists Vilas despite loss
LANCS FALL TO INNINGS DEFEAT AT HANDS OF ESSEX
DANE Vilas admits Lancashire need to do better after they fell to an innings and 56-run defeat at the hands of Essex at Emirates Old Trafford.
The visiting bowlers took just 21 balls of day four to wrap up victory in the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One match.
Needing just one wicket to complete their comprehensive win, Tom Westley’s bowlers achieved their goal in the fourth over of the morning when Luke Wood was caught behind by Adam Rossington off the bowling of Jamie Porter for 27, thus leaving Lancashire 232 all out in their second innings.
In the 14 minutes of cricket that was watched by 45 spectators, Wood hit three boundaries off Sam Cook and Simon Harmer before a good ball outside off stump ended his resistance.
Harmer ended the innings with figures of 5-89 and Cook returned a match analysis of 6-62 as Lancashire suffered their first defeat of the campaign.
Essex earned 22 points for their victory and move into the top half of the Division One table. Lancashire took just two but will are still in the hunt for the title as the Championship now breaks for the start of the T20 Blast.
It is only Lancashire’s fifth innings defeat this century and their first since they lost to Yorkshire, also at Old Trafford, in August 2014.
It is also the Red Rose’s first home defeat since 2018 when they lost the Roses match in July.
“We will have a good look this week at where we went wrong and how we move forward because we need to do better than that,” said captain Vilas after his side were bowled out for just 103 in their first innings and 232 in their second in reply to Essex’s 391.
“We let ourselves slip a little bit and to be fair they bowled well. They put us under massive pressure and if you let things slip for one second you can put yourself under pressure, which is what we did.
“It’s difficult [to play six consecutive Championship games] but it’s part of the game. We’ve done it before and we are not going to use it as an excuse.
“We do the hard work in the winter to get ready for times like this. We should be fit enough and strong enough to handle those situations.
“I think it was more of a bit of lack of intent or maybe error that we let them get into the game and put us under pressure but I think we’ve been playing really good cricket leading up to this last game.
“We’ve been really positive in all our games and pushed for results. We got two really good wins and three draws so it’s been really good.
“The team is playing good cricket, everyone is contributing and overall I’ve been really happy with it.
“I still think our Championship chances are very high. We are still very positive that we can do really well (in this competition).
“We know we’ve got to play better than this of course but we’ve still got a massive chance. There’s a long way to go in this season.”