Lancashire moved to joint top of the AXA League table after Neil Fairbrother's impish innings of 82 not out left Leicestershire with too much to do on a slow Old Trafford pitch yesterday.

This was a scintillating victory for Lancashire, and it is surprising to think that, as one of the league's most consistently strong sides, they have won the competition only once in 28 years, and that back in 1989.

So, for all the achievements in knockout finals 200 miles away at Lord's in recent times, the Old Trafford public are overdue some glory on their own doorstep, especially as the championship looks too distant after Surrey's win over the weekend.

Yesterday's crowd of around 7,000 roared their approval as Leicestershire's pursuit was cut short by some expert seam bowling, Peter Martin taking three wickets in an over at a crucial point.

Fairbrother's return could hardly have been more welcome. Having recovered from a sprained ankle, caused by treading on the ball while fielding at Lytham three weeks ago, he proved more than adept on this particular dance floor, where other players looked clumsy.

Defeat effectively put Leicestershire out of the hunt for the 40-over title, though they could still look elsewhere for diversion against Lancashire, in a possible NatWest Trophy final and during the championship run-in.

Vince Wells and Ben Smith excelled with the bat, with Leicestershire looking likely winners at the threequarter stage, but there are still no other batsmen on the circuit to match Fairbrother.

Nobody is as clever at prodding and slanting the ball into gaps as Fairbrother did, burning his way up and down the pitch turning ones into audacious twos. It was hard to credit that the little maestro was not part of England's preliminary World Cup squad, announced last week, even at 34.

The left-hander's 82 was struck off 98 balls and contained only three fours and a six. The rest of his runs had to be scampered against some tidy bowling.

Significantly, Wasim Akram chose to bat on winning the toss, knowing that a total of 160-plus would take some digging out on a very dry strip. In the event Lancashire's total perched even above that figure, thanks to 34 runs being flayed off Phil Simmons's last two overs.

It was a trivia enthusiast's delight when Michael Atherton opened the innings with Andrew Flintoff, because these two batsmen, along with Jack Ikin, had been the only Lancashire players to be capped by England before their county since the war.

After a cautious start, in which Flintoff and John Crawley fell early to slip catches, Fairbrother accelerated the total to a challenging total with help from Graham Lloyd and Wasim.

Leicestershire, after building their own platform in reply, launched an assault that against a less mature side might have won the day. They had eight wickets in hand when they entered the last 10 overs needing to score at around five an over, but Ian Austin introduced some doubts with a wicket maiden, and next over Martin removed Darren Maddy, Jonathan Dakin and Dominic Williamson in four balls.