Cricket: Lancashire fall away after Atherton goes

IN AN extraordinary collapse on a pitch which held no devils, Lancashire subsided from 164 for 2 to 203 all out in 13 overs. Saqlain Mushtaq ended the innings with a hat-trick, removing Gary Yates, Ian Austin and Glenn Chapple with the second, third and fourth balls of the 50th over.

Only half a day's cricket was possible but there was enough entertainment to satisfy the most demanding customer. At first, it looked as if a superb innings by Mike Atherton, at his very best, was going to send Lancashire to a formidable total. Then, four wickets fell in 21 balls for four runs. This collapse was preceded by an unfortunate and unhappy incident. In the 37th over Atherton half drove Martin Bicknell and the bowler got both hands to the catch low to his left. After some juggling, Bicknell dropped the catch, quickly caught the ball again after it had bounced and then claimed the wicket.

Alan Whitehead called in the third umpire to adjudicate and the replay showed clearly that the ball had bounced. Two balls later, Atherton was lbw trying to play Bicknell off his legs, a trifle testily maybe, after reaching 93 in 109 balls.

In the next over, Ian Salisbury hit Graham Lloyd on the pad and Neil Fairbrother starting for his single, was sent back and thrown out by Alex Stewart. Later in the over Lloyd was caught behind off a sharply turning leg break and in Salisbury's next over Wasim Akram swept to deep square leg.

Earlier, Atherton's batting had been a delight. It has been a long time since one has seen him play with quite this authority. He was never in doubt and played some lovely strokes on both sides of the wicket including one rippling leg glance. He and John Cawley added 122 in 24 overs for the second wicket and, unusually, Atherton looked half a class the better.