A third victory in five matches meant Lancashire extended their lead at the top of the County Championship’s second division on Wednesday. Asked to score 323 to win in 59 overs, Leicestershire collapsed to 78 all out in the face of penetrative swing and seam bowling from Tom Bailey and Kyle Jarvis, two heirs apparent to the throne of the watching Glen Chapple in the Red Rose pantheon. Some of the shots played by the Leicestershire batsmen can only have dismayed their new head coach Andrew McDonald.
For his Lancashire opposite number Ashley Giles, however, all is rosy. With Chapple out of action with a broken finger, players such as Jarvis, Bailey and Jordan Clark have stepped up impressively, and this was a pleasing reaction to unexpected defeat by Gloucestershire last week.
Bailey, who finished with five for 12 from nine overs after Leicestershire plunged from 20 without loss to an embarrassing 29 for seven, is a tall young seamer from Preston who began the season with first-class best figures of two for 36. He did not bowl particularly well in the first innings, when he overstepped 10 times in nine overs, but a switch of ends worked wonders, and the Leicestershire batsmen failed to cope with the swing he found through the air. A series of edges were caught unfussily in the slip cordon, while Ned Eckersley and Ben Raine were both bowled half-forward.
At the other end, Jarvis, who came into the game having already picked up 23 wickets this season, finished with match figures of seven for 79. A busy, bustling seamer, he persuaded both the Leicestershire captain Mark Cosgrove and Neil Pinner to hook at short deliveries before playing themselves in. While Cosgrove was at least trying to pull out of the shot when he top-edged a simple catch behind, Pinner had no excuse for lifting the ball straight to long leg before he had even scored.
The course of events amused the Leicestershire faithful not at all, although many in the crowd, accustomed to seeing their side struggle in recent years, thought the Lancashire captain, Steven Croft, had already delayed his declaration unnecessarily.
Leicestershire began well enough, with Lewis Hill and Angus Robson taking the score to 20 before Hill edged a Bailey out-swinger to Paul Horton at first slip – a good catch after Alex Davies had dived across him. Then the procession began.
It had been, said Bailey, important for Lancashire to respond to the Gloucestershire defeat. “I’ve done a bit of work with Chappie during the games, and it’s really helped,” he said. “I was trying to bowl like Brett Lee from the top end in the first innings, and I’m not that fast. I calmed down a bit in the second, tried to use my skills, and it paid off.”
For Leicestershire, so optimistic after a change of regime in the close season, this result is a huge reverse. “So far this season we’ve played some pretty good cricket, so to put up a performance like that was pretty disappointing,” said Cosgrove. “Sometimes it happens. The pitch was fine; we just didn’t play as well as we should have. The dressing room isn’t happy, but we know we’re moving forward and while this is a setback, it’s how you bounce back that counts.”
