Published: 30/07/2010 11:22:35 | Modified: 30/07/2010 11:36:27
Author: Andy Wilson | All Contributors
Moore needs shoulder reconstruction
Lancashire’s long search for a settled and reliable opening partnership has suffered another major blow with the loss of Stephen Moore for at least the rest of this season.
A specialist has confirmed that Moore will need reconstructive surgery on the horrendous shoulder injury he suffered fielding on the boundary in the Twenty20 quarter-final defeat by Essex in Chelmsford, bringing a premature end to the 29-year-old’s first summer at Old Trafford after his move from Worcestershire.
“It is a big disappointment for Stephen and the club as we approach the Championship run-in,” said Lancashire’s coach Peter Moores. “We wish him well in his recovery.”
Moore has failed to provide the hoped-for solution to the county’s opening problem, contributing only 426 runs in 17 innings at an average of 25. But his absence means that Lancashire are back in the state they were last season.
Paul Horton has already been forced to go in first despite suggestions he may prefer to bat in the middle order, and for this week’s game against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl, Tom Smith was again opening with him.
The Smith experiment that Moores had persisted with for so long was shelved after a desperate run of scores for the all-rounder earlier this season – and the change seemed to work, as Luke Sutton scored a century in his first game as an opener against Somerset, and Smith also reached three figures from the lower middle order against Yorkshire at Headingley.
But Sutton quickly dropped back down the order with Moore and Horton given an extended run, and the wicketkeeper underlined his value at six or seven with another vital century in Lancashire’s last Championship game at Durham.
Luke Procter, a 22-year-old left-hander from Oldham, appears to have overtaken Karl Brown as the next cab off the rank from the second team.
He was called into the squad for the Hampshire game, but any chance of him playing disappeared when he was injured in the warm-up – a further example of the curse that seems to hang over Lancashire’s openers.
So it was no surprise to anyone at the Rose Bowl or back home in the north when Smith, Horton and number three Mark Chilton all failed, to leave Shivnarine Chanderpaul to stage a rescue act from 41 for three. The years when Graeme Fowler and Gehan Mendis were fixtures at the top of the order seem a very long time ago.