Ecclestone and Lamb help Lancashire to win despite late scare

There is a certain mystery in the art of winning the toss in a cricket match and Eve Jones may feel that she was a more than a little lucky this morning with the call she made. Everyone knows you have a 50/50 chance of calling right, but it was going to play a deciding factor in today’s result.
A club game was played on the pitch to the side of the one yesterday and with the conclusion of that game taking place in the steady rain. The rain carried on through the night.
While the pitch was covered there was more than a hint of dampness to the rest of the square. On what is usually quick outfield shots that would usually have been boundaries didn’t quite make it.
Lancashire needed little persuasion in choosing to bowl first. Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone opened the bowling and by the end of the powerplay, Nottinghamshire had reached 24 for 0. Sophie Odedra and Georgie Boyce, the Notts openers looked comfortable and were working against some tight bowling and the slow outfield.
The two opening batsman had got Nottinghamshire off to a solid start and added 56 for the first wicket before Odedra was bowled for 28 looking to manoeuvre Emma Lamb through gully. Boyce kept going at the other end and scored 50 before becoming one of Ecclestone’s four victims. Last years leading wicket-taker was again on form.
Lucy Higham had started to comfortable with an innings of but again it was Ecclestone that removed her. So close after the wicket of Boyce, it rocked Nottinghamshire as they lost five wickets for 11 runs. It was left to Beth Unwin and Megan Burton to 22 runs for the ninth wicket including 11 runs from the last over from the bowling of Alex Hartley. Eve Jones and Emma Lamb last week put on a stand of 123 against Middlesex to win their first game of the season and they again looked comfortable batting with each other.
With a target of 153 to win Jones and Lamb found scoring hard. Only one run was scored from the first four overs. With the outfield drying out although Lamb took the playing area out of the equation in the eighth over hitting the games only six in the seventh over. Lancashire didn’t have it their own was and with the wicket of Lamb with the score on 116, wickets started to fall as Ellie Threlkeld, Cross and Ecclestone fell quickly.
It ended in a five-wicket win for Lancashire and had Nottinghamshire added even twenty more runs it could have made for an interesting finish.