Cricket: White magic casts temporary spell

Yorkshire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331 and 208-6

Leicestershire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373

AT THE start of the summer Leicestershire were not so much unmentioned as prospective champions as unmentionable. They were a side in transition, without stars, surely incapable of sustaining any realistic challenge, except maybe in resisting a fall to the bottom half of the table.

Now they are a side brimming with confidence and yesterday they gave themselves a real chance of going top with a game in hand. That they did it the hard way was a tribute to their self-belief and spirit, qualities not too apparent in Yorkshire.

Leicestershire must have started the day with firm hopes of reaching the 500 mark and putting the match out of the opposition's reach. In the last two sessions of the second day they had not lost a wicket. But it went badly wrong almost immediately. Within two hours they had lost their remaining eight wickets, the last five of them for 17 runs.

Yorkshire did well to haul themselves back into the contest. Peter Hartley and Craig White, one a worthy seamer with a solid if unspectacular track record, the other an all- rounder of unquestionable promise and a decidedly spectacular future, bowled excellently.

Hartley did the early damage with the new ball, White replaced him and with the use of his quicker ball left three batsmen probing air. He deserved his three for 14 in five overs.

A close match looked on but Leicestershire regrouped quickly. Their fielding is keen and if they tend to be over-excitable this is hardly the most serious of faults. Yorkshire lost three early wickets, two before the lead had been wiped out, and one of them to the first of two questionable decisions when Martyn Moxon was judged caught behind.

This is perhaps a case of luck kicking you when you're down but Leicestershire are in the sort of form where they are making their own good fortune. While Richie Richardson and White were compiling a fourth- wicket partnership of 96, a mixture of the aggressive and the studious, they never lost their zest. The feeling was that they would break through.

Richardson owes Yorkshire runs, bundles of them, and his fourth half-century of the season only begins to repay the debt. For the moment he is far from the brash, punishing batsman he used to be, and he, too, is bereft of good fortune. He was beginning after two hours to promise something more when he was caught at short leg, with his bat not appearing to be very near the ball. Maybe it was a case, for once, of appealing long enough, loudly enough.

That was the signal for White, 10 minutes later, to abandon his responsibilities. He played a quite dreadful shot high to midwicket which would have raised eyebrows on a village green. Paul Grayson followed soon after and Yorkshire then led by only 140. By the end they had increased that to 166 with Richard Blakey playing a calm, vigilant role.

Yorkshire's long decline refuses, as obstinately as any Yorkshireman, to disappear. They have had more international calls than a BT operator, their side looks competitive, their academy is producing some notable players yet still they are less than the sum of their parts.

The lead may yet be extended to something likely to test Leicestershire but belief and the rub of the green is a very powerful combination.