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Saj steals Fred's glory

Graham Hardcastle
30/ 6/2008

SAJID Mahmood stole the show for Lancashire at Hove yesterday - despite not feeling at his best.

All eyes were on Andrew Flintoff as he returned to County Championship action against current champions Sussex but it was his England team-mate who hogged the limelight.

Mahmood claimed five wickets in the four-day LV Division One clash to help reduce Sussex to 253 and push his own claims for an England recall.

But he was also full of praise for Freddie, who finished with encouraging figures of 0-43 from 15 overs, split into two spells of seven and one of one. He hit Hopkinson on the right shoulder with a vicious bouncer.

Mahmood said: "Freddie bowled quickly, consistently and aggressively hitting an area. They played and missed quite a bit but Fred does that always.

"He looked pretty strong to me, and I think was happy with the way he bowled."

Performance

As for his own performance after taking 12 scalps in 10 Twenty20 games, Mahmood was surprisingly disappointed: "It was the worst I have felt all season. The rhythm wasn't really there for me today. I could have bowled a lot better."

Mahmood's 5-76 from 16.4 overs was just his fourth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket - but his second against Sussex after taking 5-52 at Aigburth in 2006.

"I have done alright against Sussex in the past, and I must enjoy bowling against them," he continued. "I don't mind bowling here too. Maybe it is the slope that helps me like Headingley."

Slump

Unfortunately, Lancashire's top order then slumped to 67-4 in reply, with Jason Lewry picking up two wickets for Sussex to put the game back in the balance again.

Sussex captain Chris Adams had won the toss and elected to bat on a flat one in front of the television cameras, with Lancashire skipper Stuart Law admitting that he would have batted first.

Quite why 14 wickets fell on the first day left almost everybody scratching their heads. Poor decision-making and shot selection was the general consensus.

But every one of Lancashire's bowlers put a good shift in to keep the home side pinned down.

It was all kicked off by a nightmare mix-up between openers Chris Nash and Mike Yardy, resulting in the former being run out by Gary Keedy, with the throw from mid-on, and Paul Horton at the stumps.

Mahmood forced Adams to chop on to his off stump to leave the score at 41-2, while danger man Murray Goodwin clipped to Horton at mid-wicket with the score on 57.

Left-arm spinner Keedy then had Yardy caught at slip by Law,

And when Glen Chapple, playing his first Championship fixture since April 23, got the important wicket of wicketkeeper Matt Prior for 30 just before lunch Sussex were 98-5.

Entertaining

Robin Martin-Jenkins, who hit 70 off 98 balls, put on an entertaining sixth wicket stand of 88 with Carl Hopkinson after the break before Keedy (2-54 from 16) got Hopkinson for 39 and then Francois Du Plessis bowled Martin-Jenkins in his first over.

That left the score at 231-7, giving Mahmood the opportunity to whip out the last three wickets of Ollie Rayner, Corey Collymore and Mushtaq Ahmed.

The last thing anybody expected was Lancs then to crumble with the bat, especially after Lou Vincent walloped Collymore for a straight six and two fours early on.

Vincent, opening the innings in place of Iain Sutcliffe, top scored with 38. But Paul Horton and Mal Loye went in successive balls to Lewry, while Du Plessis and the Kiwi were victims of Martin-Jenkins and Collymore.

Law and Keedy are the men charged with the rebuilding job today and the longer they can stay the better.