Cricket: Lancashire spinners put them into third

LANCASHIRE WENT into third place in the County Championship yesterday with a crushing innings victory over Gloucestershire at Old Trafford yesterday.

The spinners Chris Schofield and Gary Yates took four wickets apiece as the visitors following on, were dismissed for 193, to lose by an innings and 35 runs with more than a day to spare.

Resuming on 11 for 2 Gloucestershire lost two early wickets to Peter Martin, leaving them on 27 for 4. Things did not get much better for them as they lunched on 110 for 8.

The only delay to Lancashire came when Martyn Ball and Jonathan Lewis put on 83 for the last wicket. Ball ended unbeaten on 40 from 21 balls but Lewis, who had made 39 from 34 balls, holed out to Schofield off Yates to bring the contest to an end.

Schofield, the 20-year-old legspinner, finished with 4 for 60 and match figures of 8 for 116, while Yates recorded 4 for 91 and match figures of 8 for 155.

Kent completed their fifth championship win of the season and their third in five matches, beating Hampshire by 292 runs with a day to spare at Canterbury.

Set 446 to win, Hampshire batted poorly. The West Indian all-rounder Carl Hooper took four wickets to finish with match figures of 8 for 43 while Martin McCague chipped in with 4 for 40.

Kent started the day on 86 for 3, an overall lead of 304, but made a stuttering start. They lost three quick wickets before the innings was sustained by a seventh-wicket partnership of 77 between Steve Marsh, who made 47 off 44 balls, and Matthew Fleming.

McCague then hit a quick 26 including two sixes - one of them landing on the top deck of the Frank Woolley Stand - before Kent were all out for 227 on the stroke of lunch.

Steve James scored his fourth championship century of the summer to leave Glamorgan in a strong position against Essex at Chelmsford yesterday.

The 30-year-old opener never looked in trouble as he moved smoothly to 147 during which time he passed 1,000 first-class runs in a season for the sixth time. He hit 17 boundaries in an innings lasting five hours and 252 balls.

The reigning champions amassed 371 for 5 before declaring to leave a depleted and young side Essex an improbable victory target of 400. At the close they were in some trouble at 41 for 2.

Paul Johnson's second century in three innings since giving up the Nottinghamshire captaincy last week broke Worcestershire's grip on a tough game at Kidderminster.

Johnson made 139, with 18 fours and a six, in nearly six hours and minimised the damage caused by Bobby Chapman, a former Trent Bridge team-mate, who took a career-best 6 for 105.

Nottinghamshire, 125 behind on the first innings, came back to total 401, setting the home side a target of 277. They were already struggling by the close, losing Elliott Wilson and Nathan Batson to Chris Tolley.

l Muttiah Muralitharan edged the winning runs with last man Ravindra Pushpakumara at the other end as Sri Lanka squeezed home with 13 balls to spare in the first of their two limited-over games against Northamptonshire at Northampton yesterday.