D
Deleted member 13648
Guest
What a disaster! I've heard about the tail not performing but this takes the Michael! 200+ lead? Get out! We came nowhere near to that! I felt sorry for Hegg, fighting a lone battle out there, he looked in good touch. What started the rot was Freddie loosing his wicket, to yet another LBW, making it 5 LBWs giving to Surrey in the innings. Freddie didn't do that much wrong with his shot-selection, Azhar Mahmood just swung the ball too much and caught Freddie in front. It was Mahmood's 3rd wicket leaving us on 246/6 with Dominic Cork making his way out to the middle.
The big man did not look happy but he had to go.
With Hegg being the only batsman left for Lancashire, we were starting to think a lead of 150 would be enough, assuming the tail wagged. Cork and Hegg's partnership started brightly with Hegg guiding a cheeky late-cut to 3rd man for his 2nd four of his controlled innings. Only 2 more runs were added though until Cork perished, being un-done by a fantastic Azhar Mahmood yorker. It was, put simply, un-playable. James Anderson the next batsman now and heads were becoming stuck in Lancashire's supporters hands.
Brilliance from Mahmood put us in a terrible position.
Now, running had not been too much of an issue in our innings up until this point, with Hegg intend on scoring runs quickly to put pressure on the bowlers, obviously, quick singles would have to be risked. After running a tight single, to get Jimmy off the mark, Hegg hit another late cut to score a much needed boundary. After this boundary however, another tight run, tighter than the one before, was attempted. It was Hegg's call to make the run as he felt he needed to be back on strike for the next over, so he hit the ball into the cover region and called for the single. A fantastic pick-up and throw from Butcher meant that Anderson really had to motor to make up his ground. The keeper whipped the bails off and seeing it in normal speed it looked like a cast-iron run-out. However, the square-leg umpire obviously thought differently and called for the 3rd umpire to give his judgment. The replays did indeed show that it was an incredibly tight run-out. In fact, if Anderson had grounded his bat he would most probably have been safe. This was of no fault to Anderson however as the bat was grounded until it bounced up off the pitch. This left us on 259/8 and it was time to start thinking about bowling again.
Bad luck causes the team to contemplate on what might have been.
Gary Keedy next in now although I wasn't paying much attention to the innings now as I was starting to go through my warm-ups. A few stretches and lunges into my warm-up and I heard one of the lads exclaim, "That is huge!" I shot up and managed to just see the ball bounce just before the boundary rope, with Keedy hitting a four first ball, a straight drive straight back over the head of the bowler. Embarrasing. I said that he wouldn't be able to do that again if he tried. I wish I'd not said it now, because I was bloody accurate! The very next ball Gary attempted the same shot once again but this time only managing to connect with air and being comprehensively bowled by Rikki Clarke. Off-stump cartwheeling back, can't beat that to be honest. 263/9 and a top rate batsman striding in, in the form of Muttiah Mularitharan. Back to my stretches...
One too many from Keedy means it really is over now
Looks like I made the right choice ignoring this final pairing, it didn't last long. Another run-out and unfortunately it was Hegg who was caught short of his ground. He really deserved a not-out to his name as he had played well and the tail should have given him much more. Still it's not all bad. We have a lead of 77 runs and we can sneak in some overs towards the end of the day. If we can get some quick wickets, we're definatley in this contest still.
Nice and neat presentation Stu 
This is our season, come on Culli, bring us the CC!
