Cricket / NatWest Trophy Second Round: Stewart outfoxes Leicestershire: Martin Johnson reports from Leicester

Leicestershire 129; Surrey 131-3. Surrey won by seven wickets

WHATEVER the batting equivalent of pie-throwing is, caber-tossing perhaps, Leicestershire achieved it with a NatWest performance of such stunning ineptitude here yesterday that the sort of match which occasionally finishes in moonlight was effectively done and dusted before the spectators had dipped into their lunchboxes.

The plan was decent enough - mark out the pitch used for the previous Championship game, win the toss, scratch out 200 or so, and then get their spinners to strangle out Surrey's hard-wicket strokeplayers on a surface rapidly becoming more suitable for a garden allotment than a game of cricket.

It might have worked, too, particularly against a side that lost a Benson and Hedges game to Lancashire by shedding their last nine wickets for 18 runs when they needed only 26 to win. However, a total of 129 is scarcely defendable even on a minefield, and Surrey, who coasted in by seven wickets, with 167 balls to spare, and were showered, changed, and heading back down the M1 soon after four o'clock.

In employing three off-spinners, two specialist, one part-time, Surrey had clearly done their homework on Leicestershire's pitches this season, and as an added bonus had the one fast bowler in the country who does not give a fig whether he is confronted by a flying greentop or a slow dustbowl. If a pitch does not suit him, Waqar Younis does not bother to use it, and he dispatched three Leicestershire batsmen with his familiar high-velocity blockhole ball.

Leicestershire, at one stage, were 61 for 1, with Tim Boon and James Whitaker going well, but after a succession of strokes against the spinners that amounted to catching practice, Leicestershire badly needed to regroup at 94 for 5.

The method they employed was a trifle curious to say the least. Winston Benjamin strode out, slogged at each of his first four balls, the last of which clattered into his leg stump. Paul Nixon then got out hitting across the line just before lunch.

Benjamin was no more impressive with the ball, disappearing for 29 in his first three overs, mostly off the middle of Alec Stewart's flashing blade. Stewart was in magnificent form, smiting 12 fours in his 38-ball 56, before he was the first in a mini-clutter of wickets for the Leicestershire spinners.

If it was a numbing experience for the crowd, it had clearly addled the senses of the NatWest rep as well, who strode on to the balcony and informed everyone that they had witnessed 'an exciting game of cricket'. This speech took place 45 minutes before tea.