Asked to bat first, as cricket politely puts it – has a side ever pondered the question and, equally politely, declined, one wonders – Lancashire must have been delighted to be approaching a fourth batting bonus point when bad light ended play eight overs early.
For this they had to thank the opener Paul Horton, who battled his way through the morning and much of the afternoon sessions to score a dogged 70, the captain, Steven Croft, and Leicestershire’s slip catching, which was appalling.
Horton was badly missed on 20, by the captain, Mark Cosgrove, and, though Cosgrove (who also dropped Kevin Pietersen last week, when the Surrey batsman had reached 110 of the 355 not out he finished on) immediately banished himself to the covers, Rob Taylor then shelled Ashwell Prince twice.
The bowler on all occasions, including that at The Oval, was Ben Raine. It may be that the Leicestershire all-rounder will eventually look back on the last few days with a smile but for the time being he must wonder what he has done to offend the cricketing deities.
It seemed they favoured the Foxes when Cosgrove won the toss. With plenty of grass left on the wicket the bowlers found good movement but Horton and Karl Brown batted solidly in taking the score to 41 before Brown got a thin edge to a fine delivery from Clint McKay and was caught behind.
The movement off the pitch became more pronounced as the effect of the heavy roller wore off and Alviro Petersen was sufficiently unsettled to waft at and edge at a wide one from Tom Wells. Horton and Ashwell Prince dug in again before Horton finally lost patience, throwing his bat at a wide delivery from Wells with the score on 156, and when Prince, leg- before to a Charlie Shreck inswinger, and Alex Davies, edging an outswinger from the same bowler, went without addition to the score, Leicestershire were entitled to feel they were back in the game.
With Croft still playing himself in then, the importance of Jordan Clark’s robust 44, hit off 48 deliveries, should not be under-estimated. The young Cumbrian gave the innings important momentum and, though he got a little over-excited in driving at the second ball after tea, a wide delivery he edged behind to give Niall O’Brien a fifth catch, Nathan Buck – who left Leicestershire for Lancashire at the end of last season – gave his new captain solid support.
“Any time you got put in and scored 350 in a day you’d be very happy,” said Horton. “The pitch has an even covering of grass, it seamed and there was a bit of bounce all day and you saw people getting hit on the thigh and stuff like that. Hopefully we can kick on and get 400 in the morning.
“Personally I was disappointed not to go on but it was a tricky first couple of hours. We built some important partnerships and we were fortunate Leicestershire didn’t hold on to their catches in the morning. If they had done, it could have been a very different day.”
Andrew McDonald, the Leicestershire head coach, who has talked about the importance of winning what he calls the “key moments” in games, kept his players in the dressing room for some time after a close made even later by several delays for bad light. If the Foxes are to end their run of 36 championship matches without a win, they are going to have to take a far bigger proportion of their chances.
