LANCASHIRE crashed to their second successive Championship defeat today when they lost by 10 wickets to Hampshire at Aigburth.
Their last eight second innings wickets tumbled for just 78 runs on the final day as they were bowled out for 254 just after lunch.
That left Hampshire, who hadn't beaten Lancashire in the Championship since 1992, needing just 118 for victory, and they were guided home thanks to a half century from Michael Carberry and 46 from Jimmy Adams who knocked off the runs in 23.1 overs midway through the afternoon session.
Having lost to Durham last week, Lancashire have now picked up only seven points from their last two matches having begun the campaign with two wins and a draw.
The frailty of their batting will be a major concern for coach Peter Moores, who after they were bowled out for 208 in the first innings here having won the toss, described rectifying it as his biggest challenge.
Lancs started the day well set, resuming with a seven-run lead on 144-2 with Andrew Flintoff 36 not out.
But Imran Tahir, who took 12 wickets against Lancashire at Old Trafford last season, ripped through the Red Rose middle order again, taking 6-108.
But it was Dimitri Mascarenhas, having put Hampshire in control yesterday with a stunning 108, who started the rout by claiming the key wicket of Flintoff.
Freddie, though, was less than pleased with the decision as, having just made his first half-century for the club for over a year and looking in good form, he felt the ball hit his shoulder on the way to Michael Lumb at slip.
Stunned
However umpire Peter Willey raised his finger, thinking it had brushed his glove, leaving a stunned Flintoff, who made 54, to shake his head and rub his shoulder all the way back to the pavilion.
VVS Laxman, playing his first game of the season, didn’t last long as he was run out by Adams after turning for a second which was never there.
And then Kyle Hogg, who played some sweet shots, got a beauty from Tahir which he edged to Dominic Cork at slip to leave Lancashire on 181-5 having minutes earlier been 176-2.
Steven Croft, who was recalled to the team after a back spasm ruled out Mark Chilton, was out for a duck, the first of two Tahir victims caught at short leg by Adams as Hampshire crowded the bat.
The second was Francois du Plessis for 15, a wicket greeted by howls of delight by the leg-spinner who plays alongside the South African for the Nashua Titans.
Luke Sutton was dropped on two when he top-edged Tahir straight to James Tomlinson on the square-leg boundary, but he fell 15 runs later when he pushed at a Chris Tremlett delivery and edged it to Chris Benham at third slip.
And off the final ball before lunch, Tahir claimed his fifth wicket of the innings when he had Sajid Mahmood caught behind.
Attack
Glen Chapple went on the attack after the interval, hitting two sixes, but Gary Keedy lasted just one Tahir ball which he edged to Cork, leaving the skipper stranded on 34 not out.
"From a team point of view we needed some runs and I felt like I was playing nicely," said Flintoff, who batted at number three in both innings. "I was disappointed to get out but more from a team point of view than personally.
“The plan was getting through last night and then setting it up for today. So when I got out half my job was done, I was a bit unfortunate with the dismissal but that happens.
"I felt great coming out this morning and it was an ideal situation on a flat pitch to get some runs - one to get the team out of a bit of a hole and for me to get a decent score.
“I am disappointed with the result more than anything. It is alright getting a 50 but I wanted to get some runs for Lancashire and I only did half the job."
Flintoff, who will play for Lancashire in the Twenty20 Cup against Leicestershire at Aigburth on Monday and in Thursday's game at Derbyshire before linking up with the Ashes squad, has struggled for runs in recent times, but says his hard work now seems to be paying off.
“I have been working hard with Peter Moores. I have been coming in early, working on a few things, and probably for the first time in a long time things were coming pretty naturally to me today.
"I was seeing the ball well, moving my feet nicely, hitting the ball mainly in the middle of the bat so I couldn’t ask for any more really. I’m just disappointed I didn’t go on and score more."
Scoreboard – close day four
Overnight: Lancashire 208 & 144-2, Hampshire 345 (Mascarenhas 108, Pothas 86)
Lancashire 2nd innings (cont)
Flintoff c Lumb b Mascarenhas 54
Hogg c Cork b Tahir 16
Laxman run out 1
du Plessis c Adams b Tahir 15
Croft c Adams b Tahir 0
Sutton c Benham b Tremlett 17
Chapple not out 34
Mahmood c Pothas b Tahir 0
Keedy c Cork b Tahir 0
Extras 23
Total (79.5 overs)
254
Fall: 1-83, 2-128 3-176 4-177 5-181 6-187 7-204 8-237 9-238
Bowling:
Tremlett 11-3-45-2
Mascarenhas 16-2-43-1
Cork 8-1-17-0
Tahir 32.5-4-108-6
Tomlinson 9-2-32-0
Carberry 3-1-10-0
Hampshire 2nd innings
Carberry not out 62
Adams not out 46
Extras 10
Total (0 wkts, 23.1 overs)
118
Bowling
Chapple 5-1-19-0
Flintoff 3-1-12-0
Keedy 10-1-52-0
Mahmood 1-0-7-0
du Plessis 4.1-0-18-0
Hampshire won by 10 wickets
Lancashire 4 pts Hampshire 20 pts
Comments
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Great pity that the wheels seem to be coming off after a great start. It also coincides with Fred coming back into the team ???? Wonder if there is a link !!!!
No doubt they are saving themselves for the 20/20!!
We are showing relegation form - why haven the club signed some decent batsmen?
The worst batting points total in the division so far, like last season. Addressing this will test what Moores is made of. So we have won 2 matches- doesn't make us Championship candidates. We can't go on being rescued by Chapple every week with bat and ball, so Lancs, get back to where you were in Carl Hooper's time, 400+ every first innings- or the second division beckons.
During the Winter, I suggested that Lancashire should sign two accomplished batsmen to complement the few who were already on the books. They failed to do so (even though Blackwell and Michael Brown - a Lancastrian incidentally - moved counties). We are now seeing the folly of not doing so. I suggested that when the new coach arrived he would do well to keep us in the first division. I stand by that assessment. The bowling attack lacks variety and, as I predicted, Keedy is not bowling as well as he used to (another case of 'benefititis'?). Our 'young' bowlers, some of whom have been around now for several years, are not consistently bowling well, and one of them regularly goes for five or six an over rapidly giving the initiative to the opposition (no matter how well Glen Chapple happens to be bowling). Despite the relative success in the shorter forms of cricket, the situation in championship cricket is very worrying.
I have a couple of suggestions for the coaches: Try Luke Sutton as an opener with Horton. He is one of the most technically correct of our players and rarely throws his wicket away. (He might also start to make some runs again in that position!) Also play Gareth Cross for a few games. He is one of the few batsmen capable of turning a match in our direction in just a few overs. (From what I have seen, he is also a very fine wicketkeeper.) Sutton and Cross could share the wicket keeping duties. For instance, if Sutton had been batting all day, then obviously Cross would keep wicket (and vice versa).
As I suggested in my previous post, the authorities need to sign left arm seamers and an off spinner and get at least one member of the current squad (Croft?) to turn into a naggingly accurate medium pacer (in the mode of Mark Ealham)as soon as possible.
Why not get du Plessis to turn up early, work with him, may be he could get some runs in the 2nd team, he's having a nightmare