Leicestershire thwarted by Lancs and the weather
- Published
Rothesay County Championship Division Two, Emirates Old Trafford (day four)
Lancashire 263: Harris 77; Scriven 5-46 & 90-3: Bohannon 45*; Holland 2-22
Leicestershire 491-8 dec: Handscomb 142*, Ahmed 100, Hill 64; J Turner 2-44
Lancashire (11 pts) drew with Leics (15 pts)
The County Championship match between Lancashire and Leicestershire ended in a draw after the home side's fourth-wicket pair, Josh Bohannon and Marcus Harris, safely negotiated what could have been a tricky final session at Emirates Old Trafford.
Resuming on 16-3 at 16:30 BST after persistent rain had prevented play getting under way in the first two sessions at Manchester, Bohannon and Harris extended their stand to an unbroken 79 and had taken their side to 90-3 by the time the draw was agreed with a minimum of eight overs left to be bowled.
At that point, Bohannon was 45 not out and Harris was unbeaten on 34. However, the last session was not without its alarms for the home side. Bohannon was dropped twice in the opening seven overs by wicketkeeper Ben Cox off the bowling of Ian Holland, although neither chance was easy.
Leicestershire take 15 points from the game to Lancashire's 11 and the visitors will have left the ground disappointed not to have had a longer opportunity to press home their advantage.
The home team had gone into the final day still needing 212 runs to avoid an innings defeat and Keaton Jennings' players might be grateful for the week off they will have before their next game, at home to Gloucestershire on 2-5 May, when it is expected that James Anderson will make his first appearance of the season.
Leicestershire, on the other hand, will remain among the Division Two leaders after this round of fixtures and will travel to Bristol for their match against Gloucestershire in good spirits.
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Leicestershire head coach, Alfonso Thomas, said:
"We've done some really good things in this game. There's always room for improvement, but I'm just so proud of the guys for how they've gone about things.
"To a man, everybody in this team does his job and that to me is the sign of a really strong side. I was really chuffed for Tom Scriven that he got his maiden five-wicket haul and then the way Rehan and Sol batted set the tone for us going into day two.
"It set things up for our pretty powerful middle order to take us nearly to full batting bonus points – but I'm happy with four.
"We have a bowling team and people are ready to come in. I wanted a squad of about seven or eight bowlers for the season. It's going to be tough to go through the season with the same bowling attack. I'm begging and pleading with the ECB to let me have Josh Hull in the squad."
Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings said:
"I think when you look back at the four days, batting first on that surface was hard work. I thought actually to get to 263 was probably about par. We had opportunities to push ahead of the game and get above par, but let them slide. And the same with the ball. I don't think we executed well enough.
"We chatted about it as a group. We missed too often. And obviously, they're going to get a big score as the wicket sort of levels out a bit.
"Overall, it was frustrating. You feel like a bit of a stuck record coming in saying the same thing.
"I think with the ball we need to be more relentless, landing the ball in the right area often enough. You want guys getting big hundreds, especially first innings. That's one where the points are.
"We've seen Northampton and Leicester both put us under pressure with big first inning scores. We want to be the side doing that.
"I suppose a positive spin is we haven't played our best cricket, but we're not a million miles off (the top). We haven't played good cricket. We've got a week now to correct it."