By Neil Hallam at Leicester
First day of four: Leics (41-3) trail Northants (322) by 281 runs
NOT least among useful attributes for an ambitious cricketer is a sense of occasion, a point Alan Mullally underlined with a timely five for 62, his best championship bowling figures of the season, on a day which found England selectors David Graveney and Graham Gooch at Grace Road.
Mullally's belief that he is now a ``far better bowler'' than when he was first called to England's colours in 1996 was hard to dispute as one spell yielded three wickets for nine runs in 20 balls.
Northants, bottom of the table and reduced to 124 for six soon after lunch on a good pitch on which they had chosen to bat, could hardly have been brimming with confidence at this juncture.
You could, however, have been forgiven for thinking otherwise as Mal Loye and Graeme Swann turned the tide with batting of such composure and fluency in a stand of 111 in 28 overs that Northants were able to claim three bonus points in recovering to 320.
Loye, whose 76 took his championship aggregate to 840 this season, departed after a jab to second slip and Swann, whose 92 came off 118 balls, was dislodged by some extra bounce but that was not the end of Northamptonshire's resistance.
Paul Taylor punished wilting bowlers and Leicestershire were looking even more chastened when they lost three wickets in their first seven overs, Vince Wells perishing on the back foot while Iain Sutcliffe and Darren Maddy fell to Devon Malcolm.
Day 2: Smith and Habib prosper in the sun
By Neil Hallam at Leicester
Second day of four: Leics (407-7) lead Northants (322) by 85 runs
THERE is nothing like adversity to concentrate the mind, a fact Ben Smith and Aftab Habib may have been prepared to concede after both had made centuries to direct Leicestershire towards the high ground against a Northants attack increasingly discouraged by the pitch.
Smith admitted he had been ``forced to do a bit of soul searching'' after following his first-ball duck in a Natwest Trophy tie against Glamorgan last week with another in the crushing by Essex in the Benson and Hedges Cup final.
What he found there, evidently, was a strong reserve of competitive character, a good measure of durability and the fluency to add the tonic of a rousing 153, his second century of the season, to the healing balm of his 87 against Surrey in Monday's AXA League game at the Oval.
With Habib similarly determined to atone for his cheap dismissal at Lord's, their fourth-wicket stand put on 249 in 62 overs to transform Leicestershire's mood on a day which began with them struggling at 41 for three and concerned primarily with avoiding the follow-on.
Devon Malcolm and Franklyn Rose, so hard to handle in the previous evening's gloom, were a considerably less testing proposition in bright sunshine and their failure to keep the ball up to the bat was compounded by a tendency to stray outside the off stump.
Smith's marked penchant for anything in this vicinity has earned him the nickname 'Cutter' among his team-mates and this stroke was well represented among the 22 fours which studded his 279-minute effort.
Habib's driving was also regularly encouraged in a stand which fell only 41 short of Leicestershire's fourth-wicket record - the 290 shared by Peter Willey and Tim Boon against Warwickshire in 1984 - but at 4.50 Northamptonshire claimed their first wicket of the day.
Smith's weariness was evident in a miscued hook, his first blemish since an edge against Malcolm on 50 brushed the fingertips of second slip. It was some reward for the persevering left-arm seam of Paul Taylor, far and away the most effective member of an attack weakened by the knee injury which deprived them of the off-spin of Graeme Swann in mid-afternoon.
The new ball and fading light undermined Leicestershire's hopes of pressing on to a more commanding lead as Rose revived with three wickets in five overs but Habib, whose 150 came off 304 balls and contained 21 fours, maintained his vigil to the end in a ground almost deserted well past eight o'clock.
Day 3: Northants stall with Habib in overdrive
By Neil Hallam at Leicester
Northants (322 & 161-6) trail Leics (484) by 1 run
LEICESTERSHIRE negotiated the odd pot-hole and an irritating diversion or two to open up a clear road towards their first home championship victory of the season.
Aftab Habib's nine-hour vigil carried him on to 198 and the award of his county cap while granting Leicestershire a first-innings lead of 162. Northants, bottom of the table and bereft of confidence, subsided laboriously to 161 for six, still one run in arrears.
Since stalling so shamefacedly at Lord's in their Benson and Hedges Cup final defeat by Essex last weekend, Leicestershire have drawn on reserves of character to move within reach of a fifth win to consolidate their second place in the championship.
Habib is regarded by team manager Jack Birkenshaw as the most naturally gifted of Leicestershire's clutch of promising young batsmen, and he showed application and unerring shot selection.
Alan Mullally's renewed ability to swing the ball in late quickly accounted for Russell Warren, but Mal Loye's luck was firmly in as he toiled to 19 in 2.5 hours with 50 minutes separating his last two runs.
He saw a sharp edge from David Millns spilled by Phil Simmons at slip, then he pulled the first ball from left-arm spinner Matthew Brimson to square leg and survived again.
Lip readers were left in no doubt about Loye's self disgust until a call from Rob Bailey arrested his progress towards the pavilion and had him scampering, apparently mystified, back into his ground to avoid being run out.
The delivery, though of the gentlest pace, was marginally above waist height and thus a no-ball call. David Sales was also saved nine overs later when he was bowled off an inside edge only to discover with relief that Millns had overstepped.
If these incidents were frustrating for Leicestershire, neither was expensive. Bailey fell pushing at width, Sales square-drove fiercely to deep point and Loye's crustacean occupation ended with a catch low at slip.
Kevin Curran was the victim of a juggling catch at mid-off as Mullally took his match haul to eight wickets to underline claims which brought two England selectors David Graveney and Graham Gooch to the first day.
Day 4: Lewis and Wells work wonders in brutal assault
By Neil Hallam at Leicester
Leicestershire (484 & 204-6) bt Northamptonshire (322 & 365) by 4wkts
LEICESTERSHIRE revealed extraordinary degrees of self-belief and ambition in deciding that a target of 204 from 20 overs was possible in championship cricket and an astounding talent for violent and frantic acquisition in achieving it with five balls to spare to claim the most astonishing victory in their history.
With no fielding restrictions in championship cricket and judgment of the wide less strict than in the one-day formats, the target seemed purely theoretical but Leicestershire launched themselves at it with unfettered ferocity to claim their first home championship win of the season by four wickets.
Vince Wells established a dizzying tempo with a half-century off 25 balls, including a six and six fours and, after a brief hiatus in which four wickets fell in as many overs, Leicestershire's captain Chris Lewis stamped hard on the gas with a blazing, unbeaten 71 off only 33 balls, including four sixes and five fours.
Leicestershire had 60 on the board in under six overs when Darren Maddy was run out attempting an unlikely single and needed one more run to reach 100 in the 10th over when Phil Simmons speared a ball to long-off.
Wells, who had taken 16 runs off the first (and only) over from Devon Malcolm and 18 off the next from Franklyn Rose to score the first 34 runs, also perished at long-off and the draw beckoned when Ben Smith jay-walked in line, Paul Nixon failed to complete an ambitious second run and Iain Sutcliffe was bowled behind his legs.
Lewis, however, was in no mood to abandon the assault. A six over square-leg off Paul Taylor primed him for a barrage of powerful strokes as 50 runs came off 18 balls and, by the time the last three overs arrived with 25 runs needed, the tide was running irresistibly Leicestershire's way.
``You could try that a thousand times and pull it off only once,'' said Lewis. ``We had nothing to lose and the closer we got, the more we started to believe that it was possible. If we had been playing Surrey or some other side in contention with us at the top we would probably not have attempted it.
``The fact that we won shows that the only limitations on this side are those that we place on ourselves.''
Defeat was hardest of all on 19-years-old Grahame Swann, whose maiden championship century followed his first-innings 92 and meant that Northamptonshire, apparently close to defeat inside three days when they were on the ropes at 128 for six, had barely another glove laid on them in 65 overs of staunch resistance yesterday.
Northamptonshire required a lot of rain, a lot of luck or a great deal of resolution from their lower order to frustrate Leicestershire. In the event, only 40 minutes was lost to bad weather and the need for luck was circumvented by the maturity of Swann. In the side as an off-spinner and batting at No 8, he confirmed high promise by dominating an eighth-wicket stand worth 142 in 39 overs with Taylor.
With Alan Mullally under the weather with 'flu and able to bowl only 11 overs in the day, the problems of a docile pitch were magnified for Leicestershire and there was no sign of the bristle and aggression which revealed itself later as Northamptonshire grafted on to 365 in 142 overs.
Swann batted for more than four hours and hit two sixes and 14 fours before being held off bat and pad. But this sterling effort was explosively eclipsed by Wells and Lewis.