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Lancs squad for Roses clash

Lancashire have travelled across the Pennines with a 13-man squad for the Headingley Roses match

Squad: Glen Chapple (capt), Karl Brown, Mark Chilton, Steven Croft, Gareth Cross (wkt), Kyle Hogg, Paul Horton, Gary Keedy, Simon Kerrigan, Sajid Mahmood, Steven Moore, Luke Procter, Tom Smith.

Gareth Cross may not have played in a Roses LV= County Championship match at Headingley before, but the Lancashire wicketkeeper has plenty of happy memories of playing at the Leeds venue.

Cross has played in a number of Twenty20 clashes at the home of the White Rose, but it is in second-team cricket where he has had most of his success.

The 27 year-old from Bury has scored three Second XI Championship hundreds against Yorkshire at Headingley in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

“I’ve had quite a lot of success there, it’s been a good ground for me,” said Cross. “Hopefully I can get another one this week.”

While Lancashire are within striking distance - 23 points with a game in hand – of leaders Durham, Yorkshire are struggling at the wrong end of Division One having only won twice this summer.

They were in the relegation places until they beat Worcestershire at Scarborough last week, and their 2011 campaign has been a far cry from last year when they nearly won the Championship title.

“They’ve not changed the team massively from last year,” continued Cross.

“They did really well last year when all their batters seemed to fire. Adam Lyth had a really good year, Galey did well and Jacques Rudolph too.

“I’m sure they’ll get back to winning consistently soon. They did well against Worcester last week, and they’ve got a good squad. They’re just short of a few runs, so they’ve got Rudolph in, who’s a good player.”

Cross described the Yorkshire squad as “similar to us in the fact that they’ve got a young squad”, and that point is highlighted by looking at the scorecards when Cross scored his second-team hundreds.

Take his 131 in 2006 as an example. Lancashire’s side included Karl Brown, Paul Horton and Steven Croft, who will all play tomorrow, while Stephen Parry featured too.

Yorkshire’s side included Joe Sayers, Adam Lyth, Rich Pyrah, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Patterson, the majority of whom will line up today.

And that brings us to the thrilling first-team Championship match between the two sides at Liverpool earlier this summer when Lancashire chased down 121 in the final 15 overs.

It will go down as one of the most memorable Roses clashes for a number of reasons. Lancashire certainly haven’t forgotten it, with a number of their players including it in their career highlights, while Yorkshire are struggling to erase it from their memory bank.

Cross said: “We actually thought the game had gone, but Roofy (Farveez Maharoof) came in and smacked it.

“All the lads who have played in the seconds together are used to playing games like that quite a lot. In three-day games, you’d quite often set it up to have a run chase.

“People like Crofty, who played really well, are used to those situations.”

Yorkshire’s perilous position in the table has forced them to send out an SOS to former star batsman Rudolph, who spent four successful seasons with the club as a Kolpak player between 2007 and 2010.

The South African returns as their overseas player for the last two months of the season.

But Cross has warned the White Rose not to rely too heavily on the 30 year-old left-hander.

He added: “They’ll be confident that he’s going to go in and get runs, but it’s his first game for them in a while.

“I’m not sure what he’s been doing over there apart from playing for South Africa A, where he’s got a few runs, but it’s different.

“Chappie could swing one in and hit him on the shin first ball. Anything can happen. If he gets a hundred, he gets a hundred. We just have to concentrate on our game.

“We need to put a good performance in. Obviously we’ve got a game in hand on Durham, so it would be nice to get a victory.”

Gareth Cross was talking to Graham Hardcastle
Photo (c) PA Images
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