A WITHERING spell of four for 11 in 16 balls from Chris Lewis, who ended with his competition-best analysis of five for 19, restricted Staffordshire to a total of 189 and hardly extended a Leicestershire order in which Phil Simmons purged the frustrations of a lean run with an unbeaten 107 off 124 balls, including 15 fours and a six.

Staffordshire captain Steve Dean was Lewis's first victim, dislodged by some extra bounce, and when Ian Stokes carved fatally at Alan Mullally only eight of Staffordshire's 21 runs from 13 overs had come off the bat.

Laurie Potter and Peter Wellings re-aligned the innings with a stand of 57 in 20 overs and Staffordshire were heading for something better than respectability until Lewis returned to sweep away the last four wickets.