Lancashire conclude 2024 campaign with New Road draw
Lancashire finished their 2024 campaign with a draw against Worcestershire at New Road.
West Indies bowler Anderson Phillip struck with his first ball of the day for Lancashire as Jake Libby played too early at the delivery and offered a gentle return catch.
Phillip struck again when Kashif Ali, Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer in the Championship this summer, went for a flashing drive and edged through to keeper Matty Hurst.
Gareth Roderick completed 2,000 first class runs for Worcestershire when he reached nine but added only five more before he was run out.
Rob Jones turned Phillip towards cover and he and Roderick set off for a single but the keeper-batter was unable to make his ground before Will Williams direct hit at the non-striker’s end.
Jones (17) was lbw after aiming to drive Tom Bailey and Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira lost his middle stump to the same player. Ethan Brookes was lbw to a delivery angled in by Williams at 78-6.
But for the second time in the game Matthew Waite led a counter-attack, this time in partnership with Adam Hose.
He pulled Phillip for six and a similar shot off the same bowler brought another boundary. Hose provided excellent support, mixing solid defence with a series of fine strokes, on driving George Balderson and straight driving Williams to the ropes.
Waite raced onto 37 from 27 balls before he aimed another pull at Phillips but this time picked out Harry Singh at deep square leg.
The seventh wicket pair added 55 in just nine overs. Hose’s determined knock of 41 off 109 balls came to an end when he was lbw to give Bailey his third wicket.
Van Beek advanced to 44 before he holed out to deep mid-wicket off Phillip but then Leach had time to end with a flourish in making 30 not out before bad light halted play at 3,30pm with 41 overs remaining.
Philip finished with nine wickets in the game, whilst Tom Bailey took six.
Lancashire finish ninth in Division One in 2024 and, as confirmed on Saturday, have been relegated to Division Two in the Vitality County Championship.