Parry inspires unlikely Lancs win

PRO40 DIVISION TWO, Old Trafford:
Lancashire 221-7 beat Surrey 213-6 by eight runs (Lancs 2pts, Surrey 0pts)

Match scorecard

Parry's bowling turned the game in Lancashire's favour

Stephen Parry took the vital wickets of Michael Brown and Stewart Walters as Lancashire secured a nail-biting eight-run Pro40 win over Surrey.

Chasing 222 to win at Old Trafford, Surrey were well placed at 168-1, with Brown (87) and Walters (63) having shared 146 for the second wicket.

But Parry removed both in successive overs before Surrey limped to 213-6.

Lancashire had earlier been grateful to 84 from Paul Horton and Tom Smith's 54 for helping them reach 221-7.

The pair put on 129 for the second wicket to guide Lancashire to a strong position of 140-1 following the early loss of VVS Laxman.

But once Smith had been run out, the home side lost wickets at regular intervals to set a total that for much of the Surrey innings appeared insufficient.

Andre Nel, Jade Dernbach and Chris Schofield all took two wickets for Surrey as the Lancashire middle order failed to build on that good start.

Saj Mahmood got Lancashire off to a flier with the ball, bowling Chris Murtagh to leave Surrey 22-1.

Brown and Walters then rebuilt the visitors' innings to put them in pole position to push for victory.

But the game turned when Walters could only pick out Steven Croft on the deep midwicket boundary to give Parry (2-31) his first wicket.

Parry followed that up by bowling Brown in his following over, to leave Surrey 180-3.

Usman Afzaal and Chris Schofield edged Surrey along and were left needing 12 off the final over.

But the visitors never looked like getting them once Schofield was run out by wicketkeeper Gareth Cross trying to run a bye off Smith's first ball.

And with desperation setting in for Surrey, Smith bowled Matthew Spriegel before repeating the trick with the final ball of the match to dismiss Afzaal and finish with figures of 2-37.

Lancashire captain Mark Chilton told BBC Radio Manchester:

"It's just great to come out with a win, I thought we batted really well, it was hard work early doors but to hang in there like we did showed a lot of character.

"Everyone came to the party a little bit, Tom Smith played really well and Stephen Parry so we got wickets at crucial times and that just took us home.

"It's games like that where you've really got to manoeuvre your bowlers to give yourself the best chance of winning the game."