Season’s firsts as Dane Vilas clocks up half-century to seal Lancashire win

Lancashire 374 (Salt 103, Mitchell 68, Balderson 51, Organ 6-67) and 142 for 4 (Vilas 64*) beat Hampshire 142 (Barker 44, Williams 3-14, Bailey 3-29) and 371 (Vince 87, Middleton 77, Gubbins 62, Balderson 3-84) by six wickets

That took Vilas to 64, his first half-century of the season, and so barely a quarter-of-an-hour after Yorkshire had received their first Championship match of the season, Lancashire had achieved the identical feat, leaving the anoraks to surprise how lengthy it was for the reason that two counties had waited so deep into the summer season for such a modest triumph. And all this on the day when it had been introduced that neither county could be internet hosting an Ashes Test in 2027, a yr during which it is perhaps somewhat grim up north.

In Southport, against this, any considerations had been extra native and fast. Before the gamers had stopped shaking arms with everybody who had taken any position within the match, the chairs that has been put out in strict and serried rows solely 4 or 5 days beforehand had been being folded up and put away.

In equity, nobody had put these seats underneath undue pressure by sitting on their edges. The few hundred spectators that had taken benefit of free admission and turned up on one other superb morning had seen what they anticipated to see with out alarm or fear. The temper of the morning had been summed up by Luke Wood, who was not enjoying within the recreation, strolling across the boundary en path to the dug out with three syrup-strewn ice-creams in every hand.

Hampshire’s successes had been desultory. Josh Bohannon stroked two cowl drives earlier than being well caught one-handed to his proper by James Vince off Felix Organ for 37 and Daryl Mitchell smacked Kyle Abbott over the long-off boundary earlier than he tickled Abbas down the leg facet to Ben Brown.

Other appeals from the Hampshire fielders had been loud however they carried extra hope than expectation. Instead, there was a delicate acceptance from each units of gamers that the results of this match was pencilled in and that indelible ink would quickly comply with. Rob Jones arrived and swept Organ for successive fours earlier than driving his subsequent ball for a 3rd. That left Vilas to manage the coup de grâce, a job he accomplished with the relish of a person who had scored solely 84 runs in eight innings earlier than he strode out to bat with Bohannon on Tuesday night.

The victory implies that Lancashire have prolonged their unbeaten run in four-day cricket to 14 matches. On the opposite hand, it was additionally the Old Trafford facet’s first Championship win since final September once they secured the runners-up place with an innings win towards a Surrey facet who had been already celebrating the title.

“The victory felt great, firstly to get the win because we knew it would be a tough chase,” mentioned Vilas. “We’d played some good cricket coming into this game and we stuck together as a team and did the right things and got a good reward. We were a bit unsure about the pitch, with it being so dry. We knew if we bowled first we would have to bowl really well and every single bowler did that.”

Meanwhile, the caravan strikes on from Trafalgar Road to different valuable cricket fields. On Friday a few of these Lancashire gamers can be having fun with the vigorous ambiance of Wantage Road on a T20 night whereas Hampshire’s cricketers can be taking over Sussex at Hove.

Before lengthy, Southport can be a reminiscence, one venue amongst many in an extended season. Yet even because the chairs are being positioned on pallets and the paraphernalia {of professional} cricket put away, members at Southport and Birkdale are hoping they get one other recreation in 2024 and the prospect to expertise the exhaustion that now engulfs them.