Keedy adds urgency to Lancashire equation

Lancashire'S tilt at the Championship may have been undermined by the weather, but should they fail to win here they will be able to blame no one but themselves after attempting to bat Leicestershire out of it yesterday.

Generally, this is not a bad tactic, provided the tactician gets his sums right. From Warren Hegg's point of view, while a lead of 220 looked enough to contemplate victory by an innings, it was the time element that gave cause for concern. On a pitch where Stuart Law and Carl Hooper had dominated the ball for four hours in a partnership of 247 for Lancashire's fifth wicket, would four sessions be long enough to bowl the home side out a second time?

As Leicestershire's second innings got off to a solid start, Hegg may have been having doubts, although the home side somewhat undermined their own progress with two self-inflicted setbacks.

First Darren Stevens, who had batted well to complete a fourth consecutive fifty, threw away his wicket in a moment of extraordinary rashness. He greeted the introduction of Gary Keedy's left-arm spin into Lancashire's attack by lofting a towering six into the pavilion but was then obliged to walk, red-faced in the same direction as a daft attempt to give the next delivery similar treatment had him caught at wide long-off, where Keedy had Alec Swann lying in wait.

It gave Keedy, who had found bounce and turn to take four wickets in Leicestershire's first innings, an immediate shot of confidence, boosted further when Darren Maddy, having just swept four, was out leg-before, hit on the full trying the same from the next delivery. Keedy is the man to whom Hegg will look to complete the job today.

Resuming on 332-4 yesterday, Lancashire might have been expected to step up the scoring rate with a declaration in mid-afternoon in mind. Instead, even after Hooper had been caught at slip when he edged an away-swinger from Philip DeFreitas for a superb 117 and the redoubtable Law had fallen to Maddy for 186, they preferred to bat on for a full set of bonus points and more. After a 90-minute stoppage for rain, it was 12 minutes to four when Leicestershire at last dismissed them for 479.

The bowling was ordinary in the extreme with the exception of DeFreitas, who carried the attack with yet another superb performance, finishing with 6 for 88 from 41 overs. It might need more heroics from the captain to save Leicestershire today.

Muttiah Muralitharan took six for 61 on his Championship debut as Kent claimed a 55-run win over their First Division relegation rivals Essex who, needing 291 to win, were all out for 235 to give the hosts their first championship success at Canterbury this season.