Leicestershire stretch lead but the drop looms for Northants in NUL

Leicestershire Foxes stretched their lead at the top of the Norwich Union League's first division to ten points after dispatching struggling Northamptonshire Steelbacks by seven wickets under the floodlights at Wantage Road.

The hosts posted a respectable 231-8 in 45 overs thanks to Graeme Swann's competition-best 83 off 70 balls, but the Foxes easily reached their target with 4.3 overs to spare to record their eleventh victory in twelve starts this season.

Swann and Tony Penberthy (50) led a recovery from 66-3, adding 99 for the fourth wicket in 19 overs. Swann - dropped by Ward at midwicket off Vince Wells with just a single to his name - hit three sixes and seven fours while Penberthy, also dropped on 37, played a valuable supporting role.

But their efforts were put into perspective as Shahid Afridi and Trevor Ward sent up the Foxes' 50 in only the fifth over. Afridi's 36 came off just 18 balls, including two sixes and five fours, and Ward stroked 11 boundaries in a thoroughly enterprising 42-ball knock.

Ward drove a catch to extra cover off Penberthy - the all-rounder's 158th wicket in the competition, passing Peter Willey's Northants record of 157 - but Darren Stevens and Ben Smith, unbeaten on 68 and 44 respectively, knocked off the last 73 runs with ease.

If Leicestershire are closing in on the Division One title, Northamptonshire now need little short of a miracle to avoid relegation into the second division for 2002.