WASIM AKRAM clutched his fourth Gold Award after a spectacular one-man demolition job on Notts - and insisted that teamwork was the key to Lancashire's success.

Wasim produced a real "Captain Marvel" performance with a stunning unbeaten 89 from 43 balls, two wickets and two catches as Lancashire stayed on course for the Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-finals with a 58-run victory at Trent Bridge.

But afterwards he preferred to praise John Crawley and Andy Flintoff, Lancashire's other successful batsmen, and the way the team combined in the field.

"John has now made three half centuries in our last three difficult matches, and he is playing well enough for England to take another look at him," said Wasim after Crawley had hit 81 from 114 balls, taking advantage of an early let-off from former team mate Jason Gallian at second slip.

He shared a second wicket stand of 91 with Andy Flintoff after the early loss of Mike Atherton, and Wasim added: "If Flintoff was from Pakistan, we would have him in the Test team already."

But it was Wasim's batting which stole the show. He raced from 33 to 89 in just 14 balls, and hammered 46 of the 52 which Lancashire plundered off the last two overs. Warren Hegg, completely overshadowed in a match-winning sixth wicket stand of 123 in 10 overs, still continued his consistent form with 36 from 32 balls. "I am quite confident in my batting because I scored a few runs for Pakistan in South Africa, and this was the sort of pitch where you had to give it everything," Wasim explained.

"It is important to me to bat well for Lancashire this year because I am going to go in at number six to give us the balance of five batsmen and five bowlers, and I think that will help me concentrate."

Notts were going well in their pursuit of 299 with Gallian, who had earlier had the satisfaction of having old mate Neil Fairbrother caught at point off a rank long hop, sharing a second wicket stand of 96 with Matt Dowman to steer them to 147-1.

But Lancashire kept cool and stormed back with three more wickets for Glen Chapple and two each for Wasim, Gary Yates and Ian Austin, who was once again the pick of the bowlers.

"We are all working together in the field and I want it to be a team effort between myself, Athers, Harvey (Neil Fairbrother) and John Crawley," said Wasim. "I want everyone to come up with their own ideas."

Lancashire are now joint top of Group A with Leicester and Warwicks, and second on run rate with 15.62 compared to Leicester's 7.09 - although they had a great chance to boost that at home to Minor Counties today. At least Lancashire will know what they have to do when they face Northants at Old Trafford in their last qualifying game tomorrow.

Lancashire faced a race against time to launch their second XI Championship defence with a win at Old Trafford today after letting Surrey off the hook.

Five wickets from Richard Green had reduced the Londoners to 106-8 in reply to Lancashire's 359-8 declared, but Surrey's veteran captain-coach Alan Butcher then hit an unbeaten century as they recovered to 300-9.

Paddy McKeown hit a quick 56 in Lancashire's second innings and with Nathan Wood resuming today on 35 after his first innings 77, skipper Peter Sleep was set to make a lunch-time declaration.

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