Leicestershire beaten in three days with Jarvis haul

Lancashire produced a stunning victory inside three days against Leicestershire at Emirates Old Trafford, beating their opponents by an innings and 157 runs to achieve their sixth win of the season.

The Division Two leaders were eventually bowled out for 483 after Ashwell Prince (104) completed his fourth century of the summer, supported by thumping cameos from Arron Lilley (59) and Tom Bailey (27).

Lilley then took four wickets for 28 runs, while Kyle Jarvis collected his fourth five-wicket haul of the season, finishing with figures of 5-44 and claiming the final wicket of the match to take his tally to 55 wickets in a fantastic season for the fast bowler.

Jigar Naik was the benefactor of Lancashire’s aggressive approach, claiming career-best figures of 8-179, although his teammates did not fair quite as well as the spinner as they carried their lack of enthusiasm into their second innings and were bowled out for just 119.

The Red Rose started the day in a commanding position with Prince approaching a fourth hundred of the season. The South-African batsman has scored over 900 runs this summer - at least 200 runs more than any other batsmen in the country - and guided Lancashire to fourth batting point.

He and Alex Davies added 52 runs for the fourth-wicket partnership at a snail’s pace compared to the hard-hitting antics that were to follow once Lilley came to the crease.

 Davies advanced to 1,000 first-class career runs before he fell to Naik for 29, chipping to Charlie Shreck at mid-on with the score at 355/5. James Faulkner made a short stay at the crease, adding eight more runs to the total before Naik took the outside edge of his bat through to Andrea Agathangelou at first slip, Leicestershire’s second wicket for 16 runs.

Spirits were up as far as Leicestershire were concerned, but that was to change rather quickly for Mark Cosgrove’s side as Lilley and latterly Bailey thumped the ball to all parts of the ground.

Before that Prince reached his 44^th first-class hundred in 167 balls and when he was out for 104 he progressed to 939 runs at an average of 78.25 runs per innings. The left-handed veteran let loose once he reached this milestone, only to miss a delivery from Naik, as Niall O’Brien whipped off the bails for a routine stumping.

Lilley played superbly for the home side, scoring quickly and playing plenty of eye-catching shots in the process as the all-rounder motored to 32-ball fifty with a towering six, the second of his innings which also included seven fours.

Not to be outdone, Bailey joined in the fun as he added to Lancashire’s already commanding total with two sixes of his own, scoring 27 runs in 20 balls before he too was stumped off Naik at 474/8.

Jarvis departed first ball when he was bowled by Naik, who must have been the only Leicestershire player to enjoy the opening session of the day, as he went on to remove Lilley for 59 to give him his eighth victim of the innings.

 The Leicestershire spinner did indeed pick up the wicket of Lilley when O’Brien was once again on hand to whip off the bails, although Lancashire were hardly unsatisfied with the manner in which these wickets fell, given the fact that they had scored 169 runs in the opening session of the third day.

A superb season for Jarvis included the Zimbabwean’s 50^th wicket of the summer when he removed Shreck in Leicestershire’s first innings and he collected another five wickets in the second innings to continue what has been a truly remarkable campaign for the fast bowler.

Jarvis got Lancashire off and running with the early wicket of O’Brien when he was trapped lbw for 10, with Leicestershire losing their first wicket at 24/1. In the reverse fixture, Leicestershire capitulated to 78 all out after losing their first wicket at 20/1 and there was every chance of repeating this against a severely dejected side, who must have been regretting their decision to bat first from a very early stage.

Much like in the first innings, Leicestershire’s steady progress was halted by wickets at regular intervals, although the next wickets was simply baffling as Angus Robson shouldered arms to a delivery from Jarvis and was bowled for 27.

If Cosgrove’s decision at the toss had been slowly working towards a defeat for his side, then it was unforgivable for the Australian to thrown his wicket away in the manner that he did, as he picked out Lilley at deep extra cover with only four runs to his name.

It had been a superb day for Lilley, who had already scored 59 runs from 41 balls and the off-spinner continued to make an impact for Lancashire with four wickets in the Manchester sunshine.

His first scalp was that of Umar Akmal (20) – a potentially dangerous batsman and caveat to Lancashire’s bid for victory – but the Pakistan batsman top-edged a sweep to Davies and despite some deliberation from the umpires he was back in the pavilion with the visitors stumbling to 85/4.

Lilley had another breakthrough with five more runs on the board when Ned Eckersley edged to Paul Horton at first slip, a brilliant reaction catch with one hand to remove the Leicestershire batsman for 27 which, along with Robson, was the highest score of the innings.

Leicestershire lost their second wicket in the space of four deliveries when Ben Raine edged to Prince, who took an equally impressive catch to leave Leicestershire squirming on 90/6 with Lilley collecting yet another breakthrough.

The Lancashire off-spinner took his chance brilliantly at Southport, claiming five wickets to guide the Division Two leaders to an innings victory against Derbyshire and he claimed four more wicket today to briefly extend Lancashire’s lead at the top of the table to 54 points.

Jarvis returned with venom and he soon had Naik (4) trapped lbw with the visitors meandering their way to 107/7. The Zimbabwean fast bowler set up the possibility of two Lancashire hat-tricks in the same match when he removed Rob Taylor’s leg-stump to claim his second wicket in as many deliveries.

The notion of this game progressing to the fourth day had all-but departed – and a good job too given the fact that the forecast for tomorrow could have upset Lancashire’s bid for victory.

Agathangelou remained the only notable batsman in Leicestershire’s ranks, but his determination was in vain as the ex-Lancashire man was to be Lilley’s fourth victim of the innings when he edged to Davies for 18.

After the altercation between Prince and Shreck yesterday evening, the former would have seen what followed as poetic justice, as Shreck was trapped in front of his stumps by Jarvis, who collected his fifth wicket of the innings for the fourth time this season, completing a thumping victory for the Red Rose on home soil.

The margin of their victory was significant and it was the second time that Lancashire completed victory over the Division Two whipping boys this season, a victory which means Lancashire have won four of their last five games.