Leicestershire remain favourites as wickets tumble

Leicestershire 332 and 132 for 6 (Sanderson 4-36) lead Northamptonshire 151 (White 4-24) by 313 runs
Scorecard

An extraordinary day's cricket saw 21 wickets fall and Leicestershire, having declined to enforce the follow-on, close with a lead of 313 with four wickets remaining in their second innings.

Captain Mark Cosgrove's decision not to ask the visitors to bat again surprised many after the Leicestershire seamers occupied only 46.3 overs in dismissing Northants for 151. But Cosgrove felt the pitch - quick, with some nip in it for the seamers, but no minefield - might deteriorate sufficiently to make batting last a difficult prospect, however small the target.

"With the pitch nipping around, and the occasional ball starting to keep low, making it tough to bat last, I felt it was more valuable to have the runs on the board," said Cosgrove. "We're 300 ahead, which is a good position to be in, hopefully we can get another hundred and get bowling at them again. The pitch isn't a minefield, but if you keep putting the ball in the right area you'll get enough chances to win the game."

Northants opener Jake Libby  said they were not surprised not to be batting again."We thought we'd be back in the field, because of the amount of time left in the game and I guess their theory is the wicket is going to go a bit up and down.

"There's always going to be enough in the pitch to keep the bowlers interested, but there's pace too, the ball comes on to the bat nicely, so you can get your runs too. We feel we've clawed our way back into the game, and if we can take their last four wickets quickly tomorrow, anything is possible."

Northants had begun the day well, picking up Leicestershire's five remaining first innings wickets for just 21 runs, with Olly Stone and Ben Sanderson benefitting from bowling line and length, something the visitors signally failed to do on the first day of the game.

Leicestershire's bowlers picked up where their opponents left off, taking three wickets before lunch. Ben Duckett went leg before to Ben Raine, hit in front by a delivery that swung back in to the in-form left hander. Alex Wakely never looked comfortable before losing his off stump to the same bowler, but Libby had been batting well when he was unluckily caught down the leg side on 32 by wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien in Wayne White's first over.

The afternoon session was a procession. Northants quickly lost Josh Cobb who, having looked in good form, threw the bat at a wide delivery from Clint McKay and edged a catch behind. Richard Levi had struggled to 19, made from 61 balls, when he too fell to a wide delivery, edging Neil Dexter's loosener to O'Brien.

Dexter's relatively gentle medium pace continued to prove effective as two balls later, Steven Crook pushed hard-handed at a straight delivery and edged to gully. Rory Kleinveldt also came and went  in short order, edging a Dexter out-swinger to first slip.

Stone was bowled by a White delivery which stayed low, and Azharullah and Sanderson also fell to the allrounder, the former caught at first slip, the latter leg before.

Leicestershire's second innings batting proved equally fragile. Horton may have been a touch unfortunate to be given leg before to Kleinveldt, the ball striking the pad well above the knee roll, but Dexter was comprehensively bowled by Stone.

Sanderson, formerly of Yorkshire before a four-year spell out of the first-class game, then picked up three quick wickets, including that of Cosgrove leg before with a delivery which stayed low, before O'Brien and Aadil Ali took the lead past 300 with a stand of 53 for the sixth wicket.

Even then there was to be drama, with Ali edging the last ball of the day from Sanderson to wicketkeeper Adam Rossington.