County Championship: Leicestershire dominate against Lancashire

Tom Scriven collected his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket as Leicestershire dominated the second day of their County Championship match against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

Bowling accurately and at good pace, the Leicestershire seamer finished with 5-46 from 20 overs as the home side were dismissed for 263, Marcus Harris making 77 against his former team-mates, his fourth score over 50 in five innings for his new county.

In reply, Leicestershire were 120-1 after 29 overs at the close with Rehan Ahmed unbeaten on 61 after putting on 102 for the first wicket with Sol Budinger.

The visitors therefore have a superb platform upon which to build a first-innings lead on the third day of this game.

The brisk pace at which the Leicestershire openers scored was in notable contrast to the more guarded approach of the Lancashire batsmen, who managed to score at 2.7 runs an over against Peter Handscomb’s nagging five-man pace attack.

Yet in a shortened first session, Lancashire scored 92 runs in 24 overs for the loss of Matty Hurst, who was lbw to Scriven for 46, and in the temporary absence of Luke Wells, who was forced to retire hurt on nine when in obvious pain after being struck on the left elbow by a ball from Ben Mike.

Nevertheless a lunch score of 153-4 looked a useful score in cloudy conditions.

Only Harris had batted with any certainty against Leicestershire’s quicker bowlers and even the Australian was dismissed 40 minutes into the afternoon session when he was lbw to a ball from Scriven that nipped back. Harris’ 77 meant that he has an aggregate of 360 at an average of 72 for his new county.

Tom Hartley was then run out for 11 after a mix-up with George Balderson that saw the England spinner run about one and a half pitches before being beaten by Lewis Hill’s throw from wide mid-off.

Wells returned and had put on an unbroken 34 with Balderson at tea, by which time Lancashire were 235-6 after 87 overs and Leicestershire had taken the new ball.

The first half-hour of the evening session belonged to Scriven, who trapped Wells in front for 29 to collect his third lbw of the day and then bowled George Balderson for 51, two balls after the left-hander had reached his half-century, before having Anderson Phillip caught behind for three.

Van Beek ended the innings when he had John Turner caught for a golden duck by first slip Louis Kimber and attention shifted to Leicestershire’s innings and Saqib Mahmood’s first red-ball match since last May.

The Leicestershire openers had one slice of luck when Budinger was dropped on nought, his edge off Mahmood’s eleventh ball flying very rapidly between Michael Jones and Keaton Jennings at first and second slip.

Otherwise Ahmed and Budinger put bat to ball in magnificent and sometimes contemptuous fashion. Their fifty stand came up in 61 balls and the century in 19.4 overs. Some relief came for Lancashire when Budinger, having been dropped on 31 by Josh Bohannon off Hartley, was caught by the same fielder for 41 at mid-on when he miscued a pull off Mahmood.

That ended the opening partnership on 102 but Ahmed reached his fifty off 77 balls and he and Holland took their side safely to the close.

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