Lancashire pin hopes on some kind of Anderson

2 minute read

Anderson, Flintoff – it’s a strong looking Lancashire team sheet this week. Pity they couldn’t dig out a Chapple or a Fairbrother or a Wasim Akram.

It’s always been reassuring for Lancashire supporters to see Anderson on the team sheet. The club therefore went out and found one.

With the great man himself unavailable, they’ve gone with Anderson Phillip for their last three matches, a West Indian quick whose parents clearly weren’t going to let their family name keep them from maintaining nomenclature equilibrium in the world. (“We can’t let first names take over. Let’s go with ‘Anderson’.”)

Phillip’s contributions during his Lancashire stay have been modest. 2-101 in the shellacking at Durham. 1-35 and 3-81 in the victory over Somerset. The three top order wickets yesterday were very useful though, helping secure two of the 16-to-40 points needed to avoid relegation. (It should be pointed out here that 24 is the absolute maximum available to them, so much of that moving target is already out of sight.)

There’s also the psychological factor. It must feel good to have Anderson opening the bowling and it must feel good to have Flintoff in the middle-order – even when it’s Rocky and he’s only 16 years old and might not serve up his best batting because he’s upset about having his Pokémon cards confiscated.

Stacking the team with familiar names is a good ploy. We fear Lancashire have arrived at it too late.

> Why are Lancashire probably getting relegated?

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