Lancashire landslide

NatWest Trophy: Gooch's sentimental journey cut short as six-wicket Chapple wreaks havoc

It Is in the dew-dripped early morning of the NatWest Trophy final that bowlers are supposed to wreak their havoc, but Lancashire turned tradition on its head yesterday when they swept to their second one-day title of the season by dismissing Essex for 57 - the lowest total in 33 years of 60-over finals.

That was not the only record to be broken on a day that had done little to fire the imagination until Essex were swallowed up by catastrophe in a climax that was the polar opposite of the 643-run Warwickshire-Sussex epic of three years ago, but was no less extraordinary. With six wickets for 18 in 6.2 overs, Glen Chapple recorded the best figures in a Lord's one-day final and made the man-of-the-match award a formality.

When Essex went out to bat in mid-afternoon in bright, pleasant-seeming conditions with a target of only 187 to aim at, it looked as if the match was firmly within their grasp. A minute short of two hours later they lost their last wicket, and Lancashire were celebrating their second successive NatWest win.

Chapple and Peter Martin, who took three for 17, exerted an almost hypnotic power over opponents whose demise could never have been anticipated in even the wildest of Lancastrian dreams. The pitch certainly gave them more help than they could have expected, and the complaints made of it by the Essex captain, Paul Prichard, were to some extent justified. Movement off the wicket and in the air continued all day and anything pitched in roughly the right place was always going to cause batsmen problems.

The outcome meant, of course, that Graham Gooch, in what could well have been his last appearance in a one-day final at Lord's, went home without the glory, and it would have been small consolation to him that he was the only one of Essex's top eight batsmen to reach double figures.

Little did he or anyone suspect what would happen when Martin started from the Pavilion End and, after Ian Austin had deceived people into thinking that the Nursery End held relatively few terrors, Chapple took over to turn the day into a rout.

True, Austin had sent one just over the top of Gooch's middle stump in his first over, but when Gooch cover-drove Martin for four in the over after that, a straightforward Essex victory felt inevitable, and neutrals were thinking in terms of this as one of the less memorable finals. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

In the seventh over Martin caught the edge of the bat as Paul Grayson pushed forward and Warren Hegg took the catch. That was 13 for one. In his next over Nasser Hussain got a thicker edge, and Hegg took a much harder catch, picking up the ball just above the turf - 17 for two. Martin made it three for six in 20 balls when Neil Fairbrother took Prichard at slip - 25 for three.

From Essex's point of view this was alarming, but not yet a disaster. For that we had to wait for the arrival of Chapple, the 22-year-old seamer of whom much was expected when he burst on the scene two winters ago but who is not supposed to have trained on since. What followed from him may change that view. At the very least it will should have guaranteed him a place on the England A tour of Australia.

The pitch was badly at fault with his first wicket - a horrible shooter which did for Ronnie Irani to make it 31 for four. Four overs later, and with Essex by now in a state of transfixion, it became 33 for five when Darren Robinson was caught at slip. Chapple took Essex's sixth wicket with his next ball - an unplayable one that clipped Robert Rollins's off stump.

Amid an air of mounting incredulity Jason Gallian strolled up and with his first ball had Gooch lbw (33 for seven) before Mark Ilott went lbw to Chapple (34 for eight). Five wickets had fallen for four runs in six overs.

Tea was taken with Essex on 46 for eight, although smelling salts might have been more in order. After Neil Williams and Ashley Cowan had tried to remind us that the game is about hitting the ball, Cowan was bowled by Chapple, a fate that immediately befell Peter Such.

In retrospect, Lancashire's 186 was a fine effort. Essex thought they had won the biggest battle of the day by winning the toss and putting Lancashire in, but John Crawley held his side together with a painstaking 66 after Mike Atherton had gone cheaply and Gallian failed to build on a promising opening. Fairbrother and Lloyd were similarly disappointing and just over three an over was below what Lancashire would have hoped for.

With the exception of Neil Williams, who could not complete his overs after injuring a thigh, the Essex attack could feel satisfied. Not for long, however.