Cricket

Frizzell County Championship

Law and Loye egg on Lancashire

Lancashire 391-2 v Surrey Paul Weaver at the Oval
Saturday April 19, 2003

The Guardian

It may have been Good Friday yesterday but at the Oval it was more like August bank holiday. The sight of Saqlain Mushtaq leaving the field holding his back, after sending down 22 overs on a straw-coloured pitch, was a picture filched from high summer.

Saqlain and Ian Salisbury had wheeled away in tandem in the warm sunshine as the Lancashire batsmen prospered on a traditional Kennington belter.

You could almost hear the groan from the Surrey dressing room when Adam Hollioake lost the toss and condemned his men to a day of toil.

On this evidence Lancashire have made two astute signings in Iain Sutcliffe and Malachy Loye. Sutcliffe, who signed from Leicestershire, made 70 on his debut and Loye trumped that with 104 not out.

Historically, Lancashire have made a good fist of raising their own batting talent. But after recent frailties the county has looked beyond its own boundaries and last season Stuart Law - who scored an unbeaten 129 yesterday - from Essex and Alec Swann from Northants had their first summers with the club. The top four has been totally restructured.

There are people here who still talk about 1990, the Year of the Bat, when the seam of the ball was flattened to give bowlers less assistance. That summer Lancashire and Surrey scored 1,650 runs in one match for the loss of 19 wickets. Lancashire responded to Surrey's score of 707 for nine by scoring a little matter of 863, with a triple century from Neil Fairbrother.

If the batsmen in this match hold their concentration they could get close to that. And two potential championship contenders are unlikely to be too philanthropic when it comes to declarations.

Mark Butcher will be disappointed to miss out on such a benign surface. But Surrey left him out to accommodate another bowler. On yesterday's showing there was also a case for leaving out Graham Thorpe, Ally Brown, Ian Ward and Mark Ramprakash, because Surrey's attack still looked thin.

Martin Bicknell did not play because of a sore side and Jimmy Ormond was also left out. That presented the new ball to Alex Tudor, who now comes in off a new and abbreviated run, and Tim Murtagh, who bowled impressively early on. But it was not an even contest as the batsmen pushed through the line of the ball and sent it scurrying to the short boundary on the gasholder side.

Swann and Sutcliffe put on 108 for the first wicket before a misunderstanding between the new pair led to the running out of Swann for 57. Sutcliffe fell leg-before to Saqlain, but Law and Loye then added an unbroken 222 for the third wicket.

The injury to Saqlain is not considered serious; he needed treatment after falling on the ball. But the champions and runaway title favourites this year could well join countless sticky-fingered children and end Easter with egg on their faces.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

[ Previous | Next ]