Andrew Flintoff found form with the bat to help fire Lancashire into second place in the LV Division One County Championship table after a superb eight-wicket win over Sussex at Hove.

The England all-rounder battered an unbeaten 62 off 59 balls, including three sixes and seven fours, to help Lancashire chase down 107 with eight wickets to spare. Paul Horton also finished 38 not out, in an unbroken third wicket partnership of 93, to help put Lancashire 13 points behind leaders Nottinghamshire.

Red Rose captain Stuart Law said: “It’s not bad. We’ve got nine games to go, and if we play anything like that for the rest of the year we are going to be hard to beat. That was a thoroughly professional performance. The bowlers were magnificent on a docile pitch. I can’t praise the guys enough because their standards really held the game together.” 

Glen Chapple and Sajid Mahmood combined with the ball to set up the side’s second win of the campaign, from which they claimed 21 points to leap to second spot. The bowling pair shared four wickets in just 9.3 overs of play in the morning session to polish off the county champions’ second innings for 245. Chapple finished with figures of 6-58 from 26 overs, while Mahmood got 3-51 from 15.5.

Lancashire were left fretting over the rain showers for the rest of the day, with the weather wiping out the whole of the afternoon session. Lou Vincent and Mal Loye both went cheaply to left-arm seamer Jason Lewry, before Flintoff came in at No.4 to conclude the game in double quick time.

The 30 year-old crunched three straight sixes off Robin Martin-Jenkins, Corey Collymore and Mike Yardy after he correctly survived a caught behind shout on just two off West Indian Collymore with TV replays showing Freddie's bat hitting his pad. He was later dropped at third slip on 18 by Carl Hopkinson who could only parry the ball diving to his left.

This was Freddie’s highest first-class score of the season, and first Championship half century for Lancashire since the Rose Bowl last May, while he also hit 51 against Yorkshire in the Pro Arch Series pre-season competition in Abu Dhabi back in March.

Law continued: “I said ‘look, if we want to kill the game off then go in and smash a few. If you don’t want to do it, fine’. He wanted to do it. We have seen glimpses of what Andrew Flintoff can do. Being not out at the end will help him. He is a national treasure, we shouldn’t keep having a go at him.”

Flintoff completed the win by hitting Yardy through mid-wicket for four, while Law was given the man-of-the-match award by Sky Television for his brilliant century.

Freddie will find out tomorrow whether he will be named in England’s 12-man squad for next week’s first Test against South Africa, although national selector Geoff Miller has hinted that he would like to see his star man play for Lancashire against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl next Friday.
Photo: Simon Pendrigh
(c) Lancashire CCC Ltd