Dimitri Mascarenhas Trumps Hostile Spell By Andrew Flintoff With Century

Hampshire hold the whip hand despite a hostile spell of bowling from Andrew Flintoff


Andrew Flintoff's rare appearances for Lancashire have proved unproductive surprisingly often over the last few years, and a sparkling century by an England all-rounder with a much lower profile left them with an uphill struggle to avoid marking the second match of his latest comeback with a second consecutive championship defeat.

They were reasonably well-placed when Flintoff fired out Dominic Cork and Chris Tremlett for his first two wickets of the match shortly after lunch to leave Hampshire on 235 for eight, only 27 ahead on a wearing pitch. But Dimitri Mascarenhas, who had then scored only 31, capitalized on some increasingly ragged Lancashire out-cricket to plunder another 69 in a ninth-wicket stand of 78 with James Tomlinson and reach the eighth first-class century of his 14-season career.

Flintoff was on a hat-trick when Cork edged to slip shortly after the former Lancashire veteran had done well to fend off a vicious throat ball and then Tremlett lobbed another nasty lifter to short-leg for a golden duck. That was the last ball of his 14th over but Lancashire sloppily allowed Mascarenhas to take a single from Gary Keedy in the next. That enabled Mascarenhas to see off the hat-trick ball and he ensured that Tomlinson did not have to face a single delivery from Flintoff until he was withdrawn after three more overs, with steady but unspectacular figures of 17-2-60-2.

Disappointingly Lancashire were happy to offer Mascarenhas a single, even with Flintoff bowling. He declined the runs to protect Tomlinson from both Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood, and instead helped himself to a string of boundaries. Even when Tomlinson had been dismissed there was more frustration for Lancashire as Imran Tahir smashed 24 from nine balls in a last-wicket stand of 32 before Mascarenhas became a first victim in the innings for the disappointing Mahmood, having hit 12 fours and two sixes.

Nic Pothas had done much of the spadework for Hampshire with 86 from 112 balls but James Vince, the 18-year-old who showed such promise in resisting Flintoff late on Thursday, narrowly missed out on marking his second championship appearance with a second half-century.

Flintoff may have been restricted to two wickets but James Anderson, who was watching from the pavilion having been rested from this game by England, endorsed the earlier praise of the Lancashire coach Peter Moores. "From what I've seen Fred's getting quite close to 100%," said Anderson, who was made available for a brief chat about the Ashes – although his main concern, paradoxically, was to avoid being carried away by the unavoidable hype.

© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 6/19/2009
 
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