Gallian plays like true captain

Nottinghamshire 263-5 Leicestershire 259-7 Notts won by 5 wickets

Nottinghamshire had delayed the start of this Norwich Union League match by an hour, a decision taken, apparently, when it was thought England might make the World Cup final. Clearly, they are an optimistic lot at Trent Bridge. Then again, they have to be, given that the county's fortunes on the field cannot surely get any worse.

Indeed, yesterday, nine days after the dismissal of manager Clive Rice, they improved by 100 per cent as some positive batting against inconsistent bowling achieved a first victory of the season in this competition, the home side overhauling Leicestershire's total of 259-7 with three balls to spare.

Despite the hampering effects of bad light on the batsmen and a wet ball on the bowlers ­ with much of the Nottinghamshire innings played in driving rain ­ it proved an absorbing contest, the close finish made possible initially by a partnership of 190 for the fourth wicket between Jason Gallian and Nicky Boje.

Gallian, dropped on nought by Carl Crowe at short extra cover off Phil DeFreitas, reached 91 before Crowe eventually had him stumped, his 93-ball effort including 11 fours and a six carved off Devon Malcolm. The stand with South African spinner Boje, which spanned 30 overs, was a fourth-wicket record in the competition for Nottinghamshire.

A target of 40 off the last five overs after Vince Wells had held a return catch to remove Boje for 86 seemed, for a couple of overs, likely to elude the home side as new batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Chris Read struggled to see the ball. But both adjusted in the nick of time, attacking the bowling of Wells and Darren Maddy before a Read boundary off the latter rewarded supporters who stayed to see the 8.31pm finish.

Wells, the Leicestershire captain, justified his decision to bat first by making 68 off 74 balls and only Boje, the left-arm spinner, could do much to contain Leicestershire's fluent progress once the early loss of Trevor Ward had been overcome. Iain Sutcliffe and Darren Stevens put on 78 in 14 overs for the second wicket. Wells supervised stands of 55 in eight overs with Maddy and 51 in eight with Rob Cunliffe.

Wells was bowled playing across the line to Paul Franks, who then took a pummelling himself from Phil DeFreitas, the all-rounder hitting two sixes in the final over on his way to 26.