Lancashire Lightning starlet Jordan Clark believes the loss of early wickets cost his side dear in their Yorkshire Bank 40 defeat to Durham Dynamos.
The Red Rose’s hopes of progressing in the tournament suffered a huge blow after falling 39 runs short of Durham’s mammoth total of 297-9 from their 40 overs.
And Clark – who top-scored with 72 as Lancashire were dismised for 258 – admits Lightning had to build slowly after early setbacks to stay in the game.
“Peter Moores actually came up with a stat that at seven wickets down, we were actually one run ahead of them,” he told Lancashire’s official website.
“It just shows that if we had wickets in hand, we could have raced it.
“When you’re 40-4, it’s not easy looking at a big target of 290-odd, so we had to set small targets.”
Lancashire were severely under the cosh early on as Mark Stoneman and Phil Mustard got Durham off to a flying start.
Skipper Stoeman top-scored with 85 while Mustard blasted 65 off 47 balls while there were solid middle-order contributions from Gordon Muchall and Ben Stokes.
Stephen Parry was Lancashire’s most economical bowler with 1-38 from his 8-over allocation, while the returning Kabir Ali recorded figures of 2-50.
In reply, the visitors were immediately in trouble, losing their top-order cheaply and being reduced to 80-5.
Clark and Gareth Cross steadied the ship before the latter was dismissed for 36, with Clark left to underpin the innings.
And after Wayne White and Kyle Hogg made little impression with the bat, it was left to 22-year-old Clark and former Hampshire seamer Ali to plot an unlikely victory.
The 22-year-old Cumbrian-born all-rounder hit 72 off 62 – his maiden List A fifty – before holing out to Mark Wood off the the bowling of Stokes.
Ali continued his viscious assualt with the bat, hitting four fours and five sixes as he brought up his fifty off just 22 balls.
The 32-year-old was finally dismissed for 59, bowled by Stokes, as Lancashire lost their third 40-over game of the season.
This defeat puts a significant dent in Lightning’s chances of qualifiying for the semi-finals of this competition, although Clark was enthused by the efforts of Lancashire’s lower-order.
“It wasn’t easy, but Gareth Cross came in and smacked a quick 40 and Kabir did really well at the end there too,” he said.
“It made the total a lot more chaseable, but unfortunately we fell just short.”
Lancashire will look to resurrect their Yorkshire Bank 40 campaign next Sunday when they travel to face Surrery at Guildford.
Picture courtesy of LCCC/SWPix, with thanks
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