Lincolnshire skipper Oliver Burford (pictured) believes his side are on the up – and now hopes his record at the coin toss starts heading in the same direction.

"It's got so bad that in the last game (against Cambridgeshire), I couldn't even toss the coin – it fell off my thumb," joked Burford ahead of the Imp County's long trip to Carlisle to face Cumberland.

"At least for this game their skipper will toss the coin, rather than me."

But it appears the wicketkeeper's record only extends to Minor Counties duty.

"For Sleaford, I must have won two thirds of the tosses, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong on a Sunday for Lincs," he added.
"I can't exactly remember what my record is with Lincs, apart from the fact it's not good.

"I might have won one in my first game as captain – I'll go with that."

For the record, Burford has lost three out of four tosses for the county, his one success coming, appropriately, at Sleaford in his first match as skipper against Norfolk.

Lincs' form since then is little better, with their four Minor Counties Championship matches producing two defeats and two draws.
However, Burford is offering no excuses.

"Winning the toss would help as we like to bat first and control the game from there," he said.

"But it's no excuse, we've still got to go out there and bowl teams out and play well.

"We've produced some good cricket at times, but also some poor spells. We need to start stringing the good spells together."

The game at Carlisle’s Edenside is scheduled for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Cumberland complete their programme at Luton against Bedfordshire on August 23, 24 and 25.

EASTERN  DIVISION  WESTERN  DIVISION
Pos Team P W D L A Bat Bow Pen Pts  Pos Team P W D L A Bat Bow Pen Pts
1 Buckinghamshire 4 3 1 0 0 11 16 0 79  

2 Hertfordshire 3 2 1 0 0 12 9 0 57  
3 Norfolk 4 1 2* 1 0 9 16 0 53  

4 Suffolk 4 1 2 0 1 11 10 0 51  

5 Northumberland 4 1 2 1 0 3 14 0 48  

6 Staffordshire 4 1 2 0 1 5 12 0 47  

7 Bedfordshire 5 1 0 4 0 7 16 0 39  

8 Cambridgeshire 4 0 4 0 0 10 13 0 39 

9 Lincolnshire 4 0 2 2 0 9 13 0 30 

10 Cumberland 4 0 2 2 0 3 15 0 26  

* Indicates 8 points gained batting second in drawn match where scores are level.
+ Indicates loss of 1 point for slow over rate

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