Crawley praises pace ace (23 August 1999)

23 August 1999

Crawley praises pace ace

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

John Crawley led the praise for unsung hero Peter Martin after his five wickets fired Lancashire into the top four of the Championship table on Saturday.

Martin ripped out the heart of Yorkshire's second innings in a superb afternoon spell to set up Lancashire's fifth consecutive win by 10 wickets.

He ended with 5-67 to follow hiss 3-9 in the first innings and 5-51 in the last game at Derbyshire.

That's 34 wickets in nine Championship matches this season at an average of around 25, and Martin is on course to match last year' tally of 48 and hopefully to break the 50 mark for the third time in his career.

Crawley said: "Digger has bowled really well all season. He's been the linchipin of the attack, and everybody has bowled around him."

It might sound strange to describe Martin as the linchpin when Muttiah Muralitharan took 66 wickets in 12 innings.

But the 30-year-old offered Murali solid support on spinning pitches in June and July and now that the Sri Lankan has gone, he has come into his own.

His spell on Saturday came with Yorkshire threatening to set Lancashire a tricky target. Despite two wickets for Andy Flintoff in an impressive pre-lunch burst, they reached 238-5 - only nine runs behind - with Craig White and Gavin Hamilton going well. But Martin came on for the 101st over, decided not to take the new ball and promptly fired out Hamilton and Richard Blakey with the old one.

Richard Green also chipped in by yorking Ian Fisher, Gary Yates claimed two wickets on his first Championship bowl of the season and although there was no joy for Glen Chapple or Chris Schofield, they also played their part.

"It was a good team performance in the field and all the bowlers did their respective jobs," added Crawley. "When you've got five doing that it can make up for not having one match-winner."

So Lancashire are set to name an unchanged team for the game at Worcestershire tomorrow, unless Mike Atherton returns, with Crawley looking for two more wins in their remaining four games to clinch not only a place in next year's First Division, but possibly even second place behind runaway leaders Surrey.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)