Josh Hull reminded England’s selectors of his potency as Leicestershire cemented their place at the top of the County Championship Division Two with a 132-run victory over Northamptonshire.
Chasing 289 at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Northamptonshire were bowled out for 156 after Hull bowled three of their top four in his first four overs.
The 20-year-old ended with 3-13, the spearhead of a seam quintet all of whom took wickets in an excellent collective effort.
Leicestershire’s lower order had doggedly extended their second innings to 175 all out, Ben Sanderson finishing with 6-72 and Harry Conway 3-43, in the morning.
That elevated the target to 289 in five sessions and there was no way back for the visitors after Hull’s blitz.
Leading by 113 on first innings, Leicestershire, resumed on the third morning on 96-6 in their second and their lower order knuckled down diligently to bat until the brink of lunch.
Ian Holland’s 113 minutes’ resistance for 11 ended when he nicked an outswinger from Conway but Logan van Beek (27) and Ben Green (32) also batted for more than 100 minutes.
Even after van Beek fell lbw to Justin Broad, the last two wickets added 37 as Tom Scriven and Hull offered Green support. Scriven edged Conway to second slip before Green ladled Sanderson to deep mid-wicket to supply the big-hearted bowler’s sixth wicket.
Northamptonshire’s quest for 289 was then reduced to 31-3 after Hull hit the stumps three times in his first 23 balls.
The left-armer outlined his credentials to add to his single Test appearance so far with a superb spell of swinging, pitched up, fast bowling which emphatically vindicated the old adage, “if they miss, you hit.”
He clipped a leg stump left exposed by Ricardo Vasconcelos, beat a half-forward Luke Procter for pace to find off stump and rattled middle and leg through James Sales’ attempted on-side flick.
Rob Keogh perished carelessly when he chipped a leg-stump offering from Holland to mid-wicket.
George Bartlett (37) applied himself well until tea but fell to the third ball after the interval.
A heavy shower during tea invigorated the pitch and three wickets fell in the first ten balls after the break as Bartlett was lbw to van Beek and Saif Zaib and Broad edged away-swingers from Green to wicketkeeper Ben Cox.
Lewis McManus and Calvin Harrison defied the oppressive bowling and the appalling din from an adjacent pub to add 37 in 76 balls before both fell in three balls to Scriven.
Harrison edged behind and McManus fell lbw to leave last pair Sanderson and Conway with a day and 19.2 overs to survive. Sanderson, who passed 1,000 first-class runs earlier in the match, made inroads into his second thousand with a merry 32 before Rehan Ahmed bowled him to round off another resounding Leicestershire win.
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