Simon Kerrigan spins Lancashire to victory
Lancashire's bowlers made the completion of their County Championship victory over Warwickshire look easy during the fourth day at Old Trafford
18-Apr-2010
Lancashire 253 and 319 beat Warwickshire 254 and 197 by 121 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Lancashire's bowlers made the completion of their County Championship
victory over Warwickshire look easy during the fourth day at Old Trafford. The Red Rose county picked up 21 points as they won their opening Division One fixture of the new season for the second year running by bowling the visitors out for 197 in their unlikely pursuit of 319.
Wickets tumbled again in the first hour, as had been the case on the previous
three days of this match, but not via the same method. Seam and swing had wreaked havoc on days one, two and three but this time it was rookie left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan who did the damage to the Bears middle order with three wickets in his first four overs.
Preston-born Kerrigan, who claimed two wickets in the first innings, made his
debut because of the broken collarbone suffered by veteran Gary Keedy in
pre-season and finished with a maiden 5 for 43 from 17 overs.
Lancashire completed the formalities on the 121-run victory nine overs into the
afternoon session as Warwickshire captain Ian Westwood carried his bat to finish
82 not out off 184 balls.
Warwickshire had begun the day on 52 for 3 needing a further 267 runs but
that was out of the question when Kerrigan struck in his opening over and the
12th of the day. Westwood and Jim Troughton added a further 47 runs this morning to their
fourth-wicket partnership of 65 before the latter was superbly caught by Ashwell
Prince on the run from mid-on.
That left Warwickshire at 99 for 4 in the 41st over and they would have been
five down in the next had Stephen Moore not dropped Rikki Clarke off Sajid
Mahmood at second slip. But Clarke's reprieve did not last long because he was stumped by Luke Sutton off Kerrigan for seven in the 47th. Having seen the quality of the shot from
Clarke it would have been better for the ex-Surrey player had Moore clung on
earlier.
And Clarke's dismissal was the first of two in three balls for Kerrigan who
trapped Tim Ambrose lbw for a duck to leave the visitors in major bother at 122
for 6. Kerrigan only had to wait another three overs to claim his fourth wicket, that
of Chris Woakes caught by Paul Horton at first slip for a duck. The visitors,
who also lost to Yorkshire last week, were now 128 for 7.
Carter was the next to go courtesy of another ugly swipe, caught at extra cover
by Prince off the medium pace of Tom Smith (two for 27 from 14) in the 54th. Kerrigan trapped Naqaash Tahir lbw to leave Warwickshire on the brink at 134 for 9 in the 57th over.
Westwood and Imran Tahir (36) saved some face with a last-wicket stand of 63
before the latter was caught by a diving Prince at short cover as he tried to
fend off a Mahmood snorter.