Lancashire's Roses agony

Lancashire suffered a humiliating 10-wicket County Championship defeat inside three days in the Roses clash with Yorkshire at Headingley.
Chanderpaul was out for 47Chanderpaul was out for 47
Chanderpaul was out for 47

Lancashire slipped from 141 for four overnight in their second innings to 209 all out, setting a victory target of just 60 half an hour before lunch.

Yorkshire, for whom Tim Bresnan had struck three times with the ball this morning, knocked off the runs with all 10 wickets to spare inside 21 overs during the early stages of the afternoon.

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They take 21 points from their fifth match of the season to close to within two of early pacesetters Essex at the top of the Division One table.

This was Lancashire’s first defeat in five, and they have still not beaten their closest rivals in the Championship since 2011 when they won here and went on to claim the title.

With Shiv Chanderpaul and Dane Vilas at the crease at the start of play, the Red Rose would have hoped to at least put some pressure on Yorkshire in seamer-friendly conditions.

The ex-international pair had already shared 60 for the fifth wicket, but they could only add four more to that stand.

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Vilas (22) was the first wicket to fall in the third over of the day, the 51st of the innings, when he edged Ryan Sidebottom to second slip as the score fell to 145 for five.

Chanderpaul then fell for 47 in the 54th when Ben Coad had him caught behind with 149 on the board.

It was the second time the in-form seamer had removed the West Indian great in a match which has seen him claim eight wickets for 59.

There was brief respite for Lancashire with 13 runs coming off one Jack Brooks over as Jordan Clark and Ryan McLaren tried to steady the ship.

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But when McLaren was caught at third slip off Bresnan’s third ball of the morning in the 65th over, it was the beginning of the end for the visitors, who face champions Middlesex at Southport from Friday.

They lost their last four wickets for just 12 runs in 27 balls, including Clark for 37, who was caught behind in Bresnan’s next over.

Tom Bailey edged Sidebottom to fourth slip in the 68th over before Stephen Parry gave Bresnan his third wicket when he edged behind in the next to finish the innings.

Bresnan ended the innings with figures of three for 50 and Sidebottom three for 38.

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Lancashire were forced to operate with spinners Steven Croft, Parry and even England Test opener Haseeb Hameed for a large part of Yorkshire’s routine chase as they improved their minus three over-rate from the first innings to avoid a points deduction.

Adam Lyth, who hit a century earlier in the match, finished with 28 not out and Alex Lees 25 not out.

Twenty two of the 30 wickets to fall in this match went to catches behind the wicket, including the slips and gully. Not one was bowled.

Yorkshire travel to Taunton to face struggling Somerset on Friday.

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Lancashire coach Glen Chapple said:“Firstly, I think the Yorkshire basically won the game for them on a pretty spicy pitch. They were pretty relentless on the first day and we weren’t able to match that. I think it comes to down to old fashioned English conditions where it was really bowler friendly.

“We didn’t live up to their bowling, especially Ryan Sidebottom and Ben Coad early on. They just hammered out a length and gave our batsmen nowhere to go.

“A tough game for us, obviously, but I thought the Yorkshire bowlers were outstanding.

“I don’t think the pitch changed on the first day. We both had the opportunity to bowl on a bowler-friendly pitch. It does get worse here, there’s no doubt about it. The impression of the pitch is that they tend to start fairly good here. There was some cloud around and having some rain after you’ve tossed up isn’t ideal. But I don’t think it was the toss at all. It was basically the quality of our bowling didn’t match them. We have to take that on the chin.”