County Championship: Weatherald ton lifts Foxes after Crane’s 99

Resuming on 334-7, Crane and Timm van der Gugten ensured a third batting point and made sure the visitors did not get a third point with the ball, extending a leisurely stand to a marathon of 133 in largely untroubled fashion.

Van der Gugten reached a cautious half-century off 136 balls before falling to a brilliant stumping by Ben Cox, down the leg-side off seamer Ben Green.

Crane played some pleasant drives but was forced to slow down by some containing Leicestershire bowling, just 20 runs coming off 13.3 overs for the ninth wicket before Andy Gorvin drove Josh Davey to mid-on.

Last man Ryan Hadley, with an uncertain batting pedigree, came in with Crane on 88 and managed to prod his way to an unbeaten 11 as the tempo dropped further on a placid pitch.

Crane took his boundary tally to 10 as he moved gently through the nineties but the Foxes refused to give anything away and Crane finally lost patience, trying to hoist Ajaz Patel through mid-wicket and seeing Cox whip off the bails again for a sixth dismissal.

It was a remarkable achievement for a lower-order player who had not managed a 50 with his previous county Hampshire, and whose previous best was 61.

The Foxes came out flying with Patel and Weatherald bringing up the half-century in just nine overs and continuing to find the boundary with regularity, both playing a fine range of shots.

Crane’s leg-spin was quickly hit out of the attack after just six overs and Patel had caned 14 boundaries by the time Kiran Carlson’s off-spin induced him to top-edge a slog-sweep to mid-wicket where Eddie Byrom took a well-judged catch.

Weatherald edged the returning Crane luckily past slip on 97 but dispatched the next ball firmly to the point boundary, his 14th four in an assertive knock.

Shortly afterwards Weatherald limped off, with night-watchman Josh Davey joining cautious captain Ian Holland (16 not out) to see out a day which saw just four wickets fall.