By Christopher Martin-Jenkins
First day of four: Leics 349-4 v Surrey
LEICESTERSHIRE are closer still to their second championship in three years, and deservedly so. A partnership of high quality between Ben Smith and Aftab Habib, built cautiously while the innings was at the crossroads but blossoming on a dry, comfortable pitch, has knocked the stuffing out of Surrey.
There was turn for the slow bowlers on a day when the Surrey players must have yearned like pining lovers for the absent Saqlain Mushtaq but Leicestershire are only a run away from maximum batting points. The need for Surrey to score fast when their time comes may help the leaders towards the three bowling points they will need to be sure of the title, regardless of a possible Lancashire win.
This assumes that Surrey will not now win, which, of course, they still might, remembering England's achievement in losing to Sri Lanka here last month after scoring 445. But the likes of Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Ali Brown and Graham Thorpe will have to score even faster than Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva. They will also have to bat as a team a good deal better than they bowled yesterday after Martin Bicknell, Joey Benjamin and Ben Hollioake had dismissed four of the top five batsmen for 102 in the first 25 overs of a lively morning's cricket.
Darren Maddy was deftly caught behind in the third over, in two minds as to whether to play at a ball which came back a fraction off the seam, but Iain Sutcliffe, Vince Wells and Phil Simmons all gave glimpses of what was possible for batsmen, with an assortment of boundaries. Then Sutcliffe was brilliantly caught at second slip, Wells held at mid-off from a leading edge and Simmons played on as he tried to withdraw his bat.
Bicknell bowled a fine second spell but hurt his left knee in the process and finally limped off after two full seasons of tireless swing bowling. The pitch was too slow for Ian Salisbury, whose bad balls were ruthlessly punished - 11 fours and a six - and for Rupesh Amin, who came close to having Habib stumped for 64 and caught at silly point for 82. Against two players who waited patiently for the bad ball and put it away unerringly over a rapid outfield when it came, Surrey looked inreasingly innocuous.
Already the leading run scorers for Leicestershire in the championship this year, the vastly-improved Smith and no less gifted Habib, have so far put on 247, beating a Leicestershire record for any wicket against Surrey which has stood since 1911. Leicestershire's secret for some time, according to Jack Birkenshaw, their coach of salty wisdom, has been teamwork. Smith, Vince Wells and Alan Mullally may have been the leading lights this season but, as Birkenshaw put it, ``people have chipped in when they've had to''.
Always a most talented timer of the ball but small, slight, and troubled for a few seasons by the short pitched ball, Smith has become a masterly player off the back foot and much more productive on the on side than he was. Habib was picked up by Birkenshaw from Minor County cricket with Berkshire, the county of his birth, after Middlesex had released him. He has a lot of time for his strokes and yesterday he showed a special penchant for the on-drive and the late cut, two of the rarer shots these days. Between them they put on a show worthy of a great occasion.
It is hard to lead the table for almost four months and not to win it but it looks now as though that is to be Surrey's fate. They wrote to all their members encouraging them to come to the Oval for this match to cheer them to what they hoped might be their first championship title since 1971. There were some 1,800 members in an overall crowd of just under 3,000 but the toss on a dry surface was no less important for the absence of Saqlain and it was Simmons who won it.
Day 2: Leicestershire on the brink as Smith leads way
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins at the Oval
Second day of four: Surrey (13-4) trail Leicestershire (585-6 dec) by 572 runs
LEICESTERSHIRE could be county champions again, to all intents and purposes, by lunchtime. They are thrashing Surrey at their own headquarters and when bad light drew a dark grey veil over what has become an extraordinarily one-sided match, Surrey were 13 for four in response to the sort of total which has been rolled up so many times on the old scoreboard beneath the gasholders.
The 1996 champions need only three more wickets to give them the two further bonus points which would settle the issue barring a totally unforeseeable Surrey win. Much of the talk during the day had been of how Surrey might turn the tables from behind, perhaps by declaring with six wickets down to deny Leicestershire the bonus point route.
For their part Leicestershire simply set about winning, using the classic formula of a huge first innings score and a demolition of tired batsmen by aggressive and well-directed new-ball bowling. After Ben Smith had made his first double century and the highest score by any Leicestershire player against Surrey, Alan Mullally and David Millns obliged, exploiting the minimal movement through the air and off the pitch which Surrey's own new-ball bowlers had wasted through undisciplined line and length on the first morning.
More serious still for Surrey, with Lancashire, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire all in strong positions to win their respective last matches, their final position could be fifth and out of the prize money if they should follow on today and lose before tomorrow evening. The county who led the table for almost four months, and for all but the first and last three fixtures at the beginning and end of the season, may have to be satisfied with the consolation of an appearance in next season's Super Cup.
There was no sunshine to help Smith and he lost his partner in the record fifth-wicket stand soon after play got going after a 20-minute delay for drizzle at the start of the day. But this neat, uncomplicated 26-year-old pressed on with faultless judgment to an unhurried and untroubled maiden double hundred, again cutting with crisp assurance and getting on to the front foot with increasing confidence on a pitch he knew he could trust.
Although Ian Salisbury, Rupesh Amin and even Nadeem Shaid, who eventually had Smith caught at slip off a leg-break after lunch, all got turn, Smith played everything on its merits. It was an innings of calm determination and unwavering concentration lasting almost nine hours and including 21 fours, a six and a seven.
Ben Hollioake had found Aftab Habib's outside edge with a beauty when only nine runs had been added but Surrey's bowlers, bereft without Martin Bicknell once the ball went soft, managed only one more wicket all day as Leicestershire's batsmen gorged themselves. Paul Nixon, emphasising how unlucky he has been not to win the vote of the England selectors for one of the main winter tours, compiled a sound and composed 11th first-class hundred and, all too predictably no doubt for Surrey supporters, Chris Lewis, cashed in stylishly until Phil Simmons decided, 25 minutes after tea, that the optimum moment had come to exploit a tired and deeply disappointed side.
Mullally surged in off his economical run and immed iately showed that his days of wasting the new ball are behind him. In his second over he had Mark Butcher caught low at cover off a leading edge as he shaped to on-drive. Enter Graham Thorpe at three to rest a tired Alec Stewart, who had kept wicket tidily throughout the 180 overs of Leicestershire's remorseless innings.
Thorpe went half-forward to his second ball, missed it and was given out lbw for what was his fourth successive duck stretching back to the second innings of the Lord's Test in June. Three of them have been leg before and now that his back has apparently completely recovered, Thorpe's practice will have to be based on moving his feet decisively forward or back.
Whenever Leicestershire get the bit between their teeth Millns can be relied upon. In his own second over he found Nadeem Shahid's outside edge and it was not until the seventh over that Surrey got a run on the board. A profoundly crestfallen Stewart managed to hang on until the umpires met to confer about the light but by then Alistair Brown had gone as well, lbw on the front foot to a fast, straight ball.
Day 3: Stylish finish by team of no stars but three leaders
By Scyld Berry at the Oval
Surrey 146 & 168-7 v Leicestershire 585-6 dec
Leicestershire captain Philip Simmons holds aloft the Britannic Assurance Championship trophy surrounded by his teamSHORTLY before noon the archetypal county cricketer, Vince Wells, fell on his knees, as it happened, in the direction of Leicester. By dismissing Ian Salisbury, he had just secured the bonus point which in effect gave his county the championship for the third time, as Leicestershire at that stage had a lead of 500 and were unlikely to lose this match.
It is not normal for a 36-year-old dressed in shorts to hobble out on to a ground in mid-session, but an exception could be made for James Whitaker in these circumstances. Leicestershire's four-day captain has not played since the opening game owing to his knee injury, but he was nevertheless welcomed into the celebratory huddle, who drank to their success with something that was the colour of orange juice. Even Alan Mullally ambled up from mid-off to join in.
For their second championship title in three years Leicestershire receive £100,000 from Britannic Assurance, sponsoring the competition for the last time. In this period the county have lost only two games, a record which makes them deserving champions every bit as much as their number of victories.
Leicestershire were in some doubt about the merits of enforcing the follow-on once they had dismissed Surrey for 146. They could have insured themselves against any conceivable loss of this match and their title by batting again, 439 runs ahead. But with the style of champions they sent Surrey back in and whittled them away a second time.
For their triumph Leicestershire owe everything to their teamwork, which has brought them to the boil at exactly the right time with a string of wins in their run-in. Pushed to pick out individuals, their coach Jack Birkenshaw pinpointed the two 26-year-olds, Ben Smith and Aftab Habib, who had ``come of age'' during the season and particularly during their partnership of 252, which had started when they were wobbling at 102 for four on the opening morning.
Smith has been the county's leading run-scorer. Habib was picked up on the transfer market, like Wells and several others have been by a county of low population which has to shop around for bargains, and given the scope and confidence to show his flair. ``Adam [Hollioake] said he thought he could get to Aftab with a bit of talking, but he stayed cool and took it,'' said Birk enshaw.
The county's teamwork - no stars, all workers - has been all the more commendable for the fact that they have had three captains. First Chris Lewis took over from Whitaker, until he was disciplined for turning up late for training at Worksop and removed from the job. But according to Birkenshaw, this would have happened about then in any event: ``Chris is captaincy material, but doing it every day knocked him out.''
Next season Whitaker is due to resume as four-day captain, but the demands on his knees of fielding will again make a separate one-day captain necessary. The position of overseas player has to be discussed as well since Phil Simmons has had a poor time with the bat, but the mellow Trinidadian has handled the side well since taking over from Lewis; and yesterday, after enforcing the follow-on, Simmons put in a big effort with the ball to make the plan work.
Illustrating their teamwork, seven of Leicestershire's batsmen have scored championship hundreds this season, while David Millns made a highly important 99 in the defeat of Warwickshire and Lewis, while still captain, hit 71 from 33 balls to defeat Northamptonshire in the fastest successful run-chase, in terms of balls, ever achieved in the champ ionship.
Yesterday morning Lewis contributed an inswinger which hit Alec Stewart's offstump as the England captain drove like a man who has been on the road without cease since going to Pakistan last November as preparation for Sharjah. Of Surrey's five other wickets remaining overnight - they had resumed at 13 for four three were the victims of debated decisions as Surrey had the ill-luck of a team who have conceded a mountainous total by bowling short and wide.
In the afternoon, when Surrey followed on, Lewis's contribution was a stunning run-out as he moved to his left at mid-off and threw out middle stump at the far end. Graham Thorpe could have done with rather more practice before going off to Australia next month, after four consecutive ducks dating back through his back operation to June.
Ben Hollioake had hit so fluently first time around that he kept his pads on for the second innings and hung around until Mullally went round the wicket and had him caught at second slip. Simmons chipped in with the wickets of Nadeem Shahid, bowled off inside-edge and pad, and Stewart in his final appearance of his 10-month season, as he dabbed a tired cut and was caught behind by Paul Nixon. After tea Ali Brown was stumped off a cowboy's shot at Matthew Brimson as spin, so seldom needed on this season's pitches, at last had a say.
To get the best out of such diverse personalities as the spiky Nixon and the languid Mullally, and Lewis as he veers from laid-back to wound-up, is not the least of the achievements which have helped Leicestershire to their title.
Surrey, having led for most of the summer, seem destined to finish fifth without any prize money at all. A few defeats would have been justifiable, given all the demands on them by England, but this makes their fifth defeat, too many for worthy champions; and their bowling here was poor in the absence of Saqlain. Still, they have qualified for next season's one-day Super Cup, which has just found a sponsor called Fluous. Hence it will be justly known as the Super Fluous Cup.
More Day 3: Team ethic is Leicestershire key
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins at the Oval
Leicestershire (585-6 dec) bt Surrey (146 & 228) by an innings & 211 runs
TAKING 16 more wickets on Saturday, Leicestershire completed an extraordinary triumph over Surrey to become only the fourth team in history to win the county championship without being beaten.
The victory, secured when Paul Nixon stumped Rupesh Amin halfway through the extra half-hour of the third day, was their sixth in succession and, of the four games Leicestershire did not win this season, rain played some part every time. Having lost only two championship games in three years and stayed unbeaten at home, it is clear that, despite failing in the first of the summer's finals at Lord's, this is the most efficient county team in the land.
The word that matters, of course, is team. This is an unfashionable club, with limited resources. The bonus, averaging some £8,000 a man, for winning the Britannic Assurance first prize of £100,000 will swell salaries which are modest compared to some earned by Surrey's players. Again, Surrey are replete with current England cricketers, whereas only Alan Mullally and Darren Maddy will be touring this winter.
Only Ben Smith has made 1,000 runs; only Alan Mullally has taken 50 wickets. They have had to use three more players than the 13 employed throughout the 1996 campaign and Phil Simmons has had a poor season all round compared with his triumphs then. James Whitaker has missed the whole season but he has somehow contrived to be an effective non-playing captain who has helped rather than interfered. It was he who took the initiative in suspending Chris Lewis and David Millns before the Nottinghamshire match for breaking the strict rules of smartness and punctuality he has laid down with Jack Birkenshaw's support. The sort of internal dissension that might have created elsewhere can only be imagined.
Here there was no resentment. Leicestershire won without them Jimmy Ormond is the sort of reserve fast bowler for whom other counties would pay a great deal - and in the next match, which Birkenshaw believes to have been the key to the title, Warwickshire were beaten at Edgbaston with Millns making 99 and Lewis taking five for 76.
The most unbelievable win was against Northamptonshire when Lewis, an effective acting captain until, in Birkenshaw's words, ``he got tired'', led the successful attempt to score 204 in 20 overs. But the game which sealed the title was this one against Surrey, and there was further evidence that a unified team will succeed over a group of individuals as all six bowlers took a wicket and Lewis curtailed the possibility of prolonged second-innings resistance when he brilliantly threw out Graham Thorpe from mid-off.
Briefly Adam Hollioake and Alec Stewart had threatened something better in the first hour when they scored at almost a run-a-minute. Hollioake might have been unlucky when given out caught behind in the first innings and he made an excellent unbeaten fifty in the second after his younger brother had been left 46 not out before the follow-on.
In Surrey's defence, it is fair to point out that they might have been unassailable before the last match but for constant Test calls, that they missed Saqlain Mushtaq in this game and that they would have been more competitive if Martin Bicknell's knee had not failed him. But they were walloped in the end by the worthiest of champions.