Brave Lincs Lose * C&G

Lincolnshire came the closest of any Minor County sides to producing an upset at the Lindum ground in Lincoln in yesterday's third round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, English cricket's premier knock-out cup.

Lincolnshire, batting first, made an excellent 279-7 off their fifty overs, with veteran captain Mark Fell making 77, and Jason Clarke and Robert Chapman 53 each, Usman Afzaal taking 2/33.

After Jonathan Davies and Mathew Dowman reduced Nottinghamshire to 125-5 at the halfway point, the upset looked right on the cards, but Afzaal (71) stayed firm and upped the scoring rate as Lincolnshire's support bowling couldn't match their openers.

Paul Franks supported Afzaal ably before accelerating to end on 84* off 70 balls including 7 fours and 3 sixes, with Gareth Clough (27*) doing his bit at the other end. So brutal was the assault that 80 runs came off just 7 overs, as the first-class side survived to win with 11 balls to spare.

At Stone in Staffordshire, the hosts gave Surrey an almighty scare before going down by ten runs. Surrey's 273 looked strong enough, Ian Ward hitting 108, but inspired hitting from the Staffs middle order left them just nine short on a distinguished 263/4.

Bedfordshire ran Warwickshire close at Luton after William Sneath took 4/38. Warwicks' 233 seemed safe enough but it needed disciplined spin bowling from Ashley Giles (2/35) and Mark Wagh (3/35) to ensure victory by 15 runs.

Gloucestershire set the second-highest winning margin and the fifth-highest global total in a List A One-Day match after they recorded an immense 401/7 against Buckinghamshire at Wing, Craig Spearman leading the way with 76 off just 41 balls and backed up ably by Tim Hancock (135) and Jonty Rhodes (87). James Averis took 6/23 in Bedfordshire's reply of just 77. The record, incidentally, is 346 runs by Somerset (413-4) against Devon (67) at Torquay in the same competition in 1990.

Andrew Strauss hit 53, Ed Joyce 72 and Chad Keegan took 4/34 as Middlesex saw off Northants by 26 runs in one of the two inter-first class matches.

Chris Adams was the hero for Hampshire in the other, with 80* including 20 off the penultimate over from Wasim Akram as Sussex edged past Hampshire by four wickets in the last over at the Rose Bowl, despite Aussie Simon Katich hitting 82* for the hosts.

Marcus Trescothick returned to form with a brutal 103* off just 70 balls in Somerset's ten-wicket cruise against Scotland at Edinburgh. Keith Parsons took 3/29 in the Scots' 138/9 before Trescothick's 13 fours and 5 sixes ended it in the 20th over of the reply.

Northumberland's bowlers had Leicestershire on the rack at 64/5 with Virender Sehwag and Brad Hodge failing again, but Paul Nixon's 57 carried the favourites to 182 before David Masters' 4/15 mopped up the hosts for 92.

Matt Wood hit 113* and took 3/45 as Yorkshire bounced back from the disaster against Essex to beat Cambridgeshire by 85 runs.

Cornwall preserved dignity with tail-end resistence to record 140 against Kent before reducing the visitors to 83/5 before Matt Walker and Geraint Jones reached the target with 11.2 overs left.

Australian Neil Hancock's 73 for Devon anchored their 180 against Lancashire, paceman John Wood taking 4/33. Iain Sutcliffe scored 89* to take Lancashire to an easy 9-wicket win.

Matthew Maynard hit 115 and Ian Thomas 93 for Glamorgan against the Durham Cricket Board in their 312/9. Durham CB batted well down the order to make a respectable 226 and lose by 86 runs.

Chris Bassano's 101 was the key in Derbyshire's 299/5 against Kent CB, whose tail wagged to help them to 128 after Kevin Dean's 3/6 reduced them to 38/6.

Will Jefferson hit 132 as Essex made 315/6 against Essex CB, whose 273 in reply was more than respectable. England captain Nasser Hussain again struggled, bowled by Ajaz Akhtar for 6.

In the final game, Vikram Solanki's 164* for Worcestershire despatched the Worcestershire CB by 171 runs, the wickets being shared around.

Round Four will be played on Wednesday 28th May 2003 with the 29th as a Reserve Day, and the fixtures will be:

Midddlesex v Sussex (Venue TBC)
Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire (Leicester)
Durham v Lancashire (Chester-le-Street)
Somerset v Surrey (Taunton)
Kent v Gloucestershire (Canterbury)
Worcestershire v Yorkshire (Worcester)
Warwickshire v Essex (Birmingham)
Glamorgan v Derbyshire (Cardiff)



Posted by Neil