LEICESTER (third day of four): Leicestershire, with eight second-innings wickets in hand, are 64 runs behind Lancashire
IT WILL be Lancashire’s fervent hope today that the match at Hove drifts towards stalemate and that 57 overs lost here to rain does not prove to thwart them. On what has become a typically somnolent pitch, Gary Keedy and Carl Hooper, their spin bowlers, will hold the key.
Should Lancashire win while Sussex and Surrey draw, they will be 31 points behind the leaders, but have a game in hand on both sides, with Sussex still to be played twice and Surrey to be faced in Manchester from August 26. It is a prospect to relish.
Where seven other seam bowlers in this match have taken ten wickets for 583 runs and conceded 3.73 per over, the indefatigable Phil DeFreitas managed somehow to return six for 88 from 41 wholehearted overs. Yesterday, he did not bowl Jeremy Snape, his off spinner, however, and could not afford to risk Rupesh Amin, an alarmingly vulnerable slow left-armer.
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From 332 for four, Lancashire moved to 479 all out and an early tea, after 90 minutes were lost around lunch. The nonchalant Hooper, taking an over to realise he had emerged without his protective box, continued to 117, reaching his century with a fourth six. Stuart Law, in Graeme Smith mode lately regarding time at the crease, went for 186. After making 236 not out against Warwickshire, it was the first time he had been dismissed for 13 hours, narrowly missing becoming the first Lancashire batsman to score consecutive double centuries.
Leicestershire, needing to bat about 110 overs to be safe, lost an impetuous Darren Stevens when, for the fourth time in five innings, he departed as soon as he had passed fifty. Having driven Keedy’s first ball for six, he holed out at long-off next ball. Darren Maddy was legbefore sweeping at Keedy, but John Maunders reached a composed fifty by the close, leaving Lancashire much to do.