Racing: Green makes it six

Lancashire 212 and 24-1 Yorkshire 237-9 dec Match drawn Eight Roses players were on trial at Chelmsford yesterday, leaving the strength in depth of Lancashire and Yorkshire under scrutiny at Old Trafford.

Mike Atherton cast his eye over the hopefuls who can expect a slice of first-team action should Test calls again disrupt the Lancashire dressing-room.

The Lancashire skipper Mike Watkinson, one of four Red Rose players involved in the Rest versus England A game, missed the chance to see one of his young prospects rip through the old enemy with a six-wicket haul. The lively medium-pacer Richard Green made full use of the overcast afternoon conditions in a devastating spell of four wickets in four overs to build on his two overnight victims.

The England captain Atherton, though, will also have logged the performances of two young Yorkshire left-handers as "very promising". Richard Kettleborough and Alex Morris, the England Under 19 captain during the winter, shared a partnership of 138 in dragging Yorkshire back from 79 for five.

There was little to play for, except the attention of the Yorkshire skipper David Byas, and the pair seized their opportunity. Overnight rain had left enough zip in the wicket for the new signing Steve Elworthy to relish an extended spell. The Northern Transvaal all-rounder had saved Lancashire blushes on Friday with a debut 88, coming to the wicket at 63-5.

The shoes of Wasim Akram were never going to be easy to fill. David Lloyd, before his calling to higher office, wanted to complement the pace of Peter Martin and Glen Chapple. The new Lancashire coach, John Stanworth, would have been happy to see the bounce and movement which accounted for Byas and Richard Blakeley.

Kettleborough settled quickly, comfortable against the spin of Gary Keedy, but the left-arm spinner also impressed with a genuine tweak and controlled flight. Kettleborough survived one simple chance, off the bowling of Elworthy, before both batsmen fell to Green. Morris was eventually guilty of over-ambition, bottom-edging a pull to a ball too fully pitched for the shot.