MATCH REPORT: Balderson leads Lancashire to a thrilling four-wicket victory against Gloucestershire
George Balderson and Arav Shetty produced an unbeaten 90-run partnership off 62 balls to clinch a thrilling four-wicket victory in the Metro Bank One Day Cup against Gloucestershire with 11 balls to spare.
Lancashire have 16 points from six games, as do Leicestershire and Notts, in the Group A table. Surrey are also on 16 points and they will complete their seventh game later tonight.
A century partnership between Cameron Bancroft and Jack Taylor provided the backbone of Gloucestershire’s 270-6 after the visitors opted to bat after winning the toss.
But after a bright start to their reply, Lancashire were struggling on 183-6 when Balderson and Singh came together in the 39th over with 88 needed off 11 overs.
The Lancashire one-day captain hit 4 sixes and 4 fours in making an unbeaten 56 while Shetty contributed in an invaluable run-a-ball 36 to help revive the innings and take the Red Rose side home.
Keaton Jennings and Matty Hurst had made a brisk start to the run chase, Jennings driving consecutive Luke Charlesworth deliveries for four while Hurst hit both Will Williams and spinner Ollie Price for straight sixes, the pair taking 53 from the first 49 deliveries.
Hurst added a third six when pulling Charlesworth over midwicket when the pace bowler returned for a second spell but on 48 the Lancashire opener was bowled by a delivery from Aman Rao that nipped back to hit off stump and end a partnership of 92 in 16 overs.
Bohannon, busy at the crease from the off, twice lifted leg spinner Ed Middleton into the stands at midwicket for six to help keep that early momentum going, scoring 36 of his fifty partnership with Jennings.
Slowly, but steadily, Gloucestershire’s spinners started to exert pressure, and that brought reward.
Bohannon hit a third six off Middleton, but the bowler extracted swift revenge by having the Red Rose number three caught and bowled for 42 from the following delivery to leave Lancashire on 152-2 midway through the 28th over.
Jennings, having made a patient 67, then mistimed a drive off Price to present a catch to Phillips at extra cover soon followed by Rocky Flintoff bowled round his legs sweeping at Middleton for an eight-ball duck.
Williams backed up those breakthroughs with the wickets of Harris caught at short midwicket for 12 and Harry Singh bowled for 4, meaning Lancashire had lost five wickets for 31 runs in 64 balls to be 183-6.
Having settled, Balderson hit consecutive fours off Rao, the first boundaries struck in 85 balls, to reduce the target down to 59 off 8 overs as his partnership with Shetty began a great fightback.
Amid increasing tension, Balderson added a six over square leg off Charlesworth, and was also caught off a Rao no ball, as the fifty-stand arrived from 40 balls with 34 required from 5 overs.
The pair took 11 runs off the 47th over from Rao before Balderson twice drove Williams for six in the next that brought 16 more runs. That left 5 runs required from two overs and Balderson clinched it in style hitting Rao for a straight six.
It was a superb finale by the Lancashire duo.
Earlier, Tom Aspinwall, returning from The Hundred and playing his first game for any team since July 3, made a great start when taking a wicket with his first ball after James Bracey chopped on for 1 at the start of the second over.
Bancroft got his innings quickly up and running with fours either side of the wicket in Tom Bailey’s second over and the Australian overseas batter twice drove consecutive Aspinwall deliveries to the cover boundary to steer the visitors to 45-1 from the ten over powerplay.
By contrast, Ollie Price had struggled to reach 11 off 30 balls before his frustrations saw the opener top-edge a sweep off Charlie Barnard to Aspinwall at deep square leg, while Joseph Eckland drove a slower ball from Balderson to Barnard at mid-off for 15 to leave Gloucestershire 96-3 in the 21st over.
It was Bancroft who had held the innings together thus far with a nicely constructed innings, reaching his half century from 62 balls and he found excellent support from Taylor in an enterprising partnership of 116 across 21 overs.
The pair added fifty off 65 balls, with Taylor getting to his half century from 56 balls, and posted their 100 alliance from 114 balls before both departed from consecutive deliveries with the score on 212.
Taylor, having hit one six and 11 fours, swept Barnard to Harris at deep square leg for 75 off 69 balls at the end of the 41st over, followed by Bancroft who edged Shetty down the leg side to wicketkeeper Hurst for 98.
Joe Phillips and Tommy Boorman hit 28 apiece over the closing overs, the latter falling to a smart relay catch on the midwicket boundary between Flintoff and Harry Singh, as Gloucestershire closed on 270-6.
“I'm obviously thrilled to get over the line,” said George Balderson.
“I think when I walked out to bat, it looked like we were in a steady decline. But luckily, we managed to put partnership on and turned the tide.
“That's kind of the way that the game goes here at Old Trafford. The ball gets soft, the spin takes control, and it's really tough to start on this pitch.
“We spoke at the start of the day about if we can get a partnership, really extending it, especially in a run chase, and not leaving too much to do at the end.
“I think in a way we were sort of on the way to showing how you don't chase runs here at Old Trafford!
“We knew there was still work to do. We've played enough cricket here to know that white ball run chases are tough.
“And if you do lose a wicket or a couple of wickets in a cluster, it's very tough to start on. So there was never any sort of relaxation up in the changing room thinking the game was done. And obviously it showed that we shouldn't have been relaxed because we got a bit tight at the end.
“But Arav came in and played brilliantly and then gave me the freedom to finish it off.
“When I got in, there was only three overs of spin left. And the spin had been hard work. Their leg spinner was bowling well, getting some variable bounce and a bit of spin out of the pitch.
“So, we just spoke about trying to firstly give ourselves a chance and get through the spin, knowing that when pace came back on in the last eight overs, we'd have a great opportunity to try and take them down and get the runs that way.
“I've had a tough year with the bats so far. And I think for me, I'm my best when I'm just trying to score runs and not worry about what might go wrong. And in the situation out there at the time, Arav was playing the mature knock and that gave me the freedom to try and play a few shots.
“I've enjoyed the responsibility of captaincy.
“And it's nice to play a bit of a captain's knock at the end and get us over the line.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Dan Adams