Lancashire stumble again as van Beek, Hull lead Foxes rally

Winless Lancashire squandered a promising start to be bowled out for 206 on the opening day of their visit to runaway Division Two leaders Leicestershire in the Rothesay County Championship.

Logan van Beek and Josh Hull took three wickets each as Lancashire, who had been 74 without loss in the 28th over, were subsequently dismissed by an hour after tea as Leicestershire added three more points to the impressive 115 banked from four wins and two draws so far.

Frustratingly for coach Dale Benkenstein, most of his batters made starts but none could turn them to anything of consequence with Luke Wells's 36 their top score.

Leicestershire made an unsteady start to their first innings, losing openers Sol Budinger and Rishi Patel inside the opening seven overs, but had progressed to 59 for 2 at the close.

Any spectators hoping for a glimpse of James Anderson in a first-class match at Grace Road for the first time in 20 years were disappointed after Lancashire decided he should miss this match to manage his recovery from injury, having bowled 28 overs against Derbyshire last week.

In any case, the home side won the toss and opted to bowl first on a green-tinged pitch, so they had to content themselves with the four worthy seamers of Leicestershire instead, albeit with an England player among them in left-armer Hull.

Not that they are not worth watching this season, led by the division's leading wicket-taker in Ian Holland, although they were successful only once in a morning session with which Lancashire, after their struggles of the season so far, would have been encouraged.

They lost Keaton Jennings, who was leg before in the first over of van Beek's second spell, but 77 for 1 at lunch was at least satisfactory.

Their fortunes took a turn for the worse, though, in the middle session, the first ball of which saw a tentative Wells, who had been dropped at first slip on 10, caught behind as van Beek struck again.

Leicestershire's celebrations were understandably animated with the departure of Marcus Harris for 10. The Australian is the division's leading run-scorer and made more than 1000 first-class runs over two stints at Grace Road. He could count himself unfortunate this time, bowled by a ball from Ben Green that dislodged the leg bail after seeming to pinball off his thigh pad and the back of his bat.

There was rather less bad luck involved in the four other dismissals that left Lancashire 171 for 7 at tea. Josh Bohannon, beaten for pace, was leg before to a good delivery from Hull, but George Bell and Matty Hurst, both caught at slip within the space of three deliveries bowled by Holland and Tom Scriven, may reflect that they have played better shots.

Peter Handscomb, who caught both, the first at the second attempt, instinctively grabbed on to another deflection as George Balderson became a second victim for Scriven, although this time it was via a superb ball that had gone past the edge and hit the off stump. Scriven was denied when diving wicketkeeper Ben Cox put down Tom Bailey on 4 but Leicestershire were well on top.

Tom Hartley, with an unbeaten 23, marshalled a degree of resistance as Leicestershire's bowlers got into the tail but Bailey was bowled offering no shot. Dragging the Lancashire total past 200 before Anderson Phillip, off a steepling top edge, and Will Williams were caught behind was of only minor consolation.

Budinger, tamely, was caught at midwicket, and Patel at second slip as Williams and Bailey claimed a wicket each with the new ball but with Lewis Hill at the crease to temper Rehan Ahmed's exuberance, Leicestershire recovered from 24 for 2 to close on 59 without further loss.