Vilas disappointed by Essex defeat but remains bullish over title hopes
It took Essex 21 deliveries to clinch an innings and 56 run victory on the final day of this LV= County Championship match to hand Lancashire their first defeat of the season – and the first home loss for the Red Rose since 2018.
Luke Wood took two boundaries off the opening over of the day from Sam Cook but then edged Jamie Porter’s third ball of the morning to Adam Rossington to bring an end to proceedings.
Dane Vilas reflected on “a disappointing defeat”.
”We will have a good look this week at where we went wrong and how we move forward because we need to do better than that,” he said.
“We let ourselves slip a little bit and to be fair they bowled well. They put us under massive pressure and if you let things slip for one second you can put yourself under pressure, which is what we did.”
Vilas batted away any suggestion of fatigue being a factor having played six consecutive Championship games.
“It’s difficult but it’s part of the game. We’ve done it before and we are not going to use it as an excuse.
“We do the hard work in the winter to get ready for times like this. We should be fit enough and strong enough to handle those situations.
“I think it was more of a bit of lack of intent or maybe error that we let them get into the game and put us under pressure.”
Looking at the six games as a whole Vilas added: “I think we’ve played really good cricket leading up to this last game.
“We’ve been really positive in all our games and pushed for results.
“We’ve got two really good wins and three draws so it’s been really good. The team is playing good cricket, everyone is contributing and overall I’ve been really happy with it.”
Lancashire take 2 points from the game and Essex 22 with both teams now turning their attention to the T20 Blast competition that starts later this week when Yorkshire visit Emirates Old Trafford on Friday evening.
But while Vilas and his team turn their attention to the T20, Lancashire’s skipper had this to say about the rest of the campaign.
“I still believe our Championship chances are very high. We are still very positive that we can do really well (in this competition). We know we’ve got to play better than this of course but we’ve still got a massive chance. There’s a long way to go in this season. “
Lancashire’s next Championship match is against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on June 12th.
Ken Grime
Photos: George Franks & Luke Adams
