MARK Harvey will have to wait for his championship chance with Lancashire despite a man of the match performance on his NatWest Trophy debut at Old Trafford yesterday, writes ANDY WILSON.

Padiham pro Harvey hit an impressive 86 from 98 balls as Lancashire crushed Berkshire by 169 runs to book a second round tie against Sussex at Hove two weeks today.

But it still was not enough to force his way into the squad for tomorrow's championship game at Worcester, and instead Harvey headed south west last night for the second team fixture against Somerset at North Perrott - where he will celebrate his 23rd birthday tomorrow.

Harvey's only previous first team appearance this season came in Somserset, when he scored eight in the Sunday League defeat at Taunton before being stumped off Mushtaq Ahmed.

Lancashire coach Dav Whatmore said: "It was good to see him getting some runs in front of an Old Trafford crowd. He will benefit from the experience."

But Paddy McKeown, Steve Titchard and Andrew Flintoff are still preferred for the trip to Worcester. Mike Atherton and John Crawleuy are also available but there are major doubts over Neil Fairbrother, Mike Watkinson and Wasim Akram.

"I didn't really expect to play in the first team against Worcester," said Harvey. "I didn't know I was playing against Berkshire until 40 minutes hefore the start - I thought I would be 12th man." Harvey's day did not start well when he arrived 10 minutes late for fielding practice - he had forgotten that NatWest games start at 10.30am.

But it ended in style as he was presented with the man of the match award on the Old Trafford balcony by former England wicket keepet Bob Taylor.

Harvey just pipped Graham Lloyd, who scored a NatWest best 96 from 107 balls in a fourth wicket stand of 176 in 28 overs after Lancashire had slipped to 88-3.

Any faint Berkshire hopes of overhauling a total of 351-7, 21 runs short of Lancashire's previous best in the competition, were killed off as Ian Austin and Peter Martin restricted them to 20-0 after 16 overs.

Lancashire now have a great chance of reaching the quarter finals as despite a crushing ten wicket victory over Shropshire yesterday, Sussex have struggled in all forms of cricket this season.

A Cumberland side featuring a wealth of East Lancashire talent put up a spirited fight against Northants at Barrow.

The county championship outfit were 68-5 at one stage thanks largely to the bowling of former Clitheroe star Marcus Sharp who finished with figures of 9-1-27-2.

Clitheroe professional Jonathan Fielding bowled a controlled spell to return 12-3-24-1, former Barnoldswick and Settle player Paul Beech had figures of 5-0-21-1 and Michael Scothern 12-1-50-1 as Northants recovered to a 223 total.

But East Lancs batsman David Pearson went for 3, Beech for 5, Fielding was run out for 5 leaving Scothern (23) and Sharp (7) unbeaten on 187 in reply.

Lancashire fans planning to travel to Worcester for Sudnay's Axa Life League game are advised to pre book their tickets with the Worcestershire club, because of the small ground capacity of New Road.

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