Bob Willis Trophy final: Warwickshire finish off Lancashire to secure innings victory
- Published
New county champions Warwickshire won their second piece of silverware in eight days
Bob Willis Trophy final, Lord's (day four of five): |
Lancashire 78: Wood 46*; Miles 5-28, Johal 3-29, Norwell 2-9 & 241: Balderson 65, Wells 41; Briggs 3-58, Norwell 3-60 |
Warwickshire 518: Rhodes 156, Yates 113, Sibley 57; Parkinson 4-78 |
Warwickshire beat Lancashire by an innings and 199 runs |
Warwickshire took just 70 minutes on day four to finish off Lancashire and win by an innings and 199 runs to become the second winners of the Bob Willis Trophy.
Resuming on 171-6, Lancashire's only realistic hope of saving the game was for it to rain for the last two days.
But after teenage paceman Manraj Johal got rid of Luke Wood (28), spinner Danny Briggs struck twice.
Liam Norwell ended it when Tom Bailey skied to wicketkeeper Michael Burgess.
The Bears stumper galloped 40 yards to take a fine catch at backward square leg - and complete a superb team effort to back up last week's County Championship triumph.
Although outplayed after the shock of losing their first six wickets for just 12 runs on the first morning, Lancashire at least avoided two unwanted records.
With successive fours from Bailey, they surpassed their heaviest first-class defeat, against the Alf Valentine-inspired West Indian tourists by an innings and 220 runs at Old Trafford in 1950.
And, by just one run, they avoided their worst defeat by a county, against a Hedley Verity-inspired Yorkshire by an innings and 200 runs at Old Trafford in 1938.
After six years without silverware, the Bears have now won two trophies inside eight days.
Rob Jones was Lancashire's second victim of the morning at Lord's, leg before wicket to Danny Briggs
The only serious obstacle for the Bears was removing Wood, whose unbeaten 46 in the first innings added up to comfortably more than half the Lancashire total.
But, 43 balls into the day, with 24 added, Johal found Wood's leg stump with a full-length in-swinger.
Four overs later, Rob Jones was leg before wicket to a big turner from Briggs.
Bailey then smashed two fours to get the Red Rose past the first of those unwanted landmarks. But, after Briggs had Jack Blatherwick stumped off Briggs, it took last man Matt Parkinson's arrival at the crease to nudge past the second of them.
Bailey at least performed that task, but he was then immediately out as Norwell finished the job, to allow Bears skipper Will Rhodes to become the second skipper to lift the trophy, following Tom Westley for Essex a year ago.
Championship runners-up Lancashire were weakened not only by the absence of injured trio Keaton Jennings, Richard Gleeson and Saqib Mahmood, but also Liam Livingstone, who left early for the Indian Premier League, and they were unable to call on England's all-time Test wicket-taker James Anderson.
Lancashire came back admirably from a six-week run without a victory in any competition to win their last two Championship games, see off Hampshire and give themselves hope.
But the Bears' final-day triumph against Somerset last week, followed by this rather embarrassingly one-sided defeat, leaves them without a trophy since their 2015 T20 Blast triumph.
Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes:
"There has been a lot of highs and lows in the last week. To come back two days after the Championship finished was always going to be hard for one team.
"But it is a bit of a surprise that none of our players made it into the team of the year. It just shows the depth we've had.
"It was well documented that we hadn't passed 400, but there was always someone different performing every game and we played on good wickets that have gone four days.
"I don't know if the MCC-county champions game is happening next year, but it might be a cool way to start the year, these two teams playing against each other in a foreign country?"
Lancashire captain Dane Vilas:
"The boys are a little bit upset with me for losing the toss but Warwickshire bowled really well, and it was really hard to come back from 12-6.
"We've had a rollercoaster of emotions. We were really keen to come here and win the trophy.
"It is a little bit disappointing the way we played but all credit to Warwickshire. They are deserved champions of both trophies.
"The body is a bit tired, especially after these last five weeks which have been really tough."
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