MATCH REPORT: Rain ruins opening day against Nottinghamshire
The opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match between Lancashire and Nottinghamshire was abandoned after heavy and prolonged rain at Emirates Old Trafford.
Umpires Ian Blackwell and Hassan Adnan had little option but to call play off at 12.50pm with the ground saturated and pools of water forming on the outfield.
Fifth-placed Lancashire and seventh-placed Nottinghamshire, who were 29 points ahead of Kent in ninth going into this round of fixtures, will hope for better conditions tomorrow.
With no toss possible, the teams have yet to be named but Lancashire, with Phil Salt, Luke Wood, and Tom Hartley called up into the England squad for the series against Ireland, have wicketkeeper/batter Matty Hurst and top order batter Harry Singh included in their first LV= Insurance County Championship squad with Jack Blatherwick and Jack Morley also returning to squad.
Nottinghamshire have added off spinner Matt Carter to their squad from last week’s match against Kent in place of Liam Patterson-White.
Mark Chilton has hailed Tom Hartley’s selection for England’s series against Ireland.
“It’s well deserved," said the Lancashire Director of Cricket.
Tom's worked hard with our coaches, particularly Carl Crowe, over the last two years.
“One of our key objectives is to try and improve players and get them to a level where they get picked for international and franchise teams. It’s really good reward for his efforts and we’re delighted for him.
“He made an impact in the white ball game at the start of his Lancashire career, but he’s always had a real ambition to keep developing his red ball cricket, and he’s continually worked on that.
“What I’ve seen from Tom is gradual improvement across his whole game.
“He’s a tall spinner and his qualities in short format cricket are being able to bowl the ball into the pitch, hit the top of the stumps a lot, and cramp batters for room (to play their shots).
“In red ball cricket it’s about adding the subtleties and variations of pace and flight into his style. He’s not quite a traditional up-and-down type spinner, because he’s coming from a good height and if he can get some drift and drop on the ball, and a few more revs, that’s what he’s continually working on with the coaches.
“The other aspect of his game is his batting and to see where he is now, again he’s made continual gradual improvement and that’s what we are trying to do, create an environment where players carry on getting better and see how far they can go.
“Tom has certainly done that. He’s making good progress and he’s got to the point now where that’s been recognised by England. They’ve had their eye on him for a while.”
Ken Grime
