LANCASHIRE seamer Tom Bailey said working with Glenn Chapple recently had been a huge factor after finishing with a career-best 5-12 from nine overs as Lancashire routed Leicestershire for 78 to complete victory by 244 runs.

Bailey, who took the first two wickets as Leicestershire plunged from 20-0 to an embarrassing 29-7, is a tall young seamer from Preston who began the season with first-class career best figures of 2-36.

MORE TOP STORIES:

“I’ve done a bit of work with Chappie during the games, and it’s really helped,” he said.

“I was trying to bowl like Brett Lee from the top end in the first innings, and I’m not that fast. I calmed down a bit in the second, tried to use my skills, and it paid off.”

Bailey did not bowl particularly well in the first innings, when he over-stepped 10 times in nine overs, but a switch of ends worked wonders, and the Leicestershire batsmen failed to cope with the swing he found through the air.

A series of edges were caught without fuss in the slip cordon, while Ned Eckersley and Ben Raine were both bowled half-forward.

At the other end, Paul Jarvis, who came into the game having already picked up 23 wickets this season, finished with match figures of 7-79 persuading both Foxes skipper Mark Cosgrove and Neil Pinner to hook at short deliveries before playing themselves in.

Lancashire resumed on 39-2, leading by 158 runs, and captain Steven Croft delayed his declaration until the visitors had passed 200 in their second innings, with Darwen’s Alex Davies scoring 54 and Ashwell Prince an undefeated 76, setting Leicestershire a target of 323 to win off a minimum of 59 overs.

The Foxes began well enough, Lewis Hill and Angus Robson taking the score to 20 before Hill edged a Bailey out-swinger to Paul Horton at first slip. Bailey then bowled Ned Eckersley, half-forward, without scoring, and Leicestershire skipper Cosgrove, trying to pull out of a hook at a Jarvis bouncer, succeeded only in giving Davies a simple catch behind the wicket.

Pinner was also out hooking, lifting his sixth ball, from Jarvis, straight to Simon Kerrigan at long leg, before Robson edged Bailey to Croft at second slip. Ben Raine and Niall O’Brien then both fell to Bailey.

Tom Wells and Clint McKay added 12 for the eighth wicket, but Wells inside edged a delivery from Jordan Clark into his stumps.

McKay played well after the break, until he top-edged an attempted pull at Nathan Buck and gave Davies a simple catch, and Charlie Shreck also went to Buck, a former Leicestershire player, edging to Kerrigan.