Old Trafford

Lancashire v Leicestershire

(Rothesay County Championship Division 2)

18th-21st April 2025

Day One 

The opening day of this County Championship Division 2 match consisted of just one session: the morning one.  For, just moments before the players were due out after the lunch break, the forecast rain arrived.  And stayed.  

Which was a bit of a shame, as Leicestershire had made a pretty decent start to the contest; having taken three wickets for the loss of just 61 runs.

Day Two

More overnight rain meant the start of Day Two was delayed by half-an-hour, but the Leics attack initially struggled to make the same impact as on Day One.  One over apart when Logan Van Beek shipped 18 runs to Matthew Hurst in a single over, the home side plodded on doggedly and had reached 184/4 when danger-man Marcus Harris was dismissed lbw for 77.

Only George Balderson offered any sustained resistance for the home lot after Harris' dismissal.  He was bowled by Tom Scriven on 51 - one of Scriven's five victims on Day Two as Lancashire were finally all out for 263.

Leicestershire, in contrast to their host's plodding start, shot out of the blocks and were soon scoring at a rate in excess of 6/over.  They had reached 102 when Sol Budinger fell, and closed the day on 120/1, with Rehan Ahmed unbeaten on 61.

 

 

Day Three

Liecs enjoyed a fun day in the sun at Old Trafford on Day Three, batting for almost the entire three sessions, before declaring on 491/8, with both Rehan Ahmed and Peter Handscomb having reached treble figures.  Ahmed had fallen caught by Josh Bohannon two balls after making his century, whilst Handscomb finished the innings unbeaten on 142.

It represented pretty much a perfect day with the bat by the visitors; the only minor blot being Ben Cox wildly throwing his wicket away - that dismissal allowing Lancashire to pick up a barely deserved second bowling bonus point.

Leicestershire put their hosts in to bat for the final eight overs of the day, and in swift order took the wickets of Keaton Jennings, Anderson Phillip and Michael Jones, leaving Lancashire reeling on 16/3 at stumps, still 212 runs behind.

Ordinarily, this state of affairs would present Leicestershire with an eminently winnable position.  But, with all forecasts suggesting Day Four would be a wash-out, the visitors may have to settle for just 15 points from the match, rather than the hoped for 23.

 

  

  

 

 

Day Four

Inevitably, the first two sessions of Day Four were lost to rain, leaving Leics the highly improbable task of taking seven Lancashire wickets in just 24 overs.  In the event Marcus Harris and Josh Bohannon artfully guided their side to safety, Leics finally deciding to call it a day with eight overs remaining.

However, by this point I was back up the road in Caledonia.

So - another, one could argue, draw where being brave could have led to a win.

I would have thought, Leicestershire declaring after around 100 overs (once it had become apparent a fifth batting bonus point was out of reach) would have shown much more ambition.

It would have meant the rattled Lancashire batters having to face thirty-plus overs at the tail end of Day Three, rather than just eight.

But, hey.  What do I know?

Result

Lancashire (293 & 90/3) drew with Leicestershire (491/8 dec).