Cricket: Gallian plunders century

Round-up

Sunday 01 June 1997 23:02 BST
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Jason Gallian struck his second successive Axa Life League century to maintain Lancashire's 100 per cent record and strengthen their position at the top of the table.

Gallian followed up his unbeaten 101 against Northamptonshire a week ago with 104 off 100 balls against Leicestershire, as Lancashire made light work of a victory target of 259. They reached it with eight balls to spare and won by five wickets.

Gallian was the last man out as he and Neil Fairbrother shared a match- winning partnership of 128 in 17 overs, allowing the league leaders to recover from a poor start which had seen them slump to 50 for 3 in the first 10 overs.

Leicestershire's veteran medium-pacer Gordon Parsons took two wickets in two balls and finished with 2 for 27 off his eight overs, but the rest of the home bowling was poor and Lancashire made the most of it. Fairbrother finished with an unbeaten 50 off 52 balls and Graham Lloyd hit 38 off 35 balls.

Leicestershire looked to have set a challenging target when they totalled 258 for 5, with Darren Maddy top-scoring with 85 off 70 balls and sharing a third-wicket stand of 144 in 19 overs with his captain James Whitaker, who hit 74. But wayward bowling and some sloppy fielding cost Leicestershire dearly as Lancashire cruised to victory with plenty to spare.

Glamorgan crushed Durham by six wickets with 9.1 overs to spare at Pontypridd for their second Sunday victory of the season. Robert Croft celebrated his inclusion in the England squad for the first Test with a remarkable spell as Glamorgan chased a total of 184 to win - but not with the ball.

Croft failed to take a wicket in his eight overs, but after being promoted to open the innings with Hugh Morris, he struck a sparkling 46 off only 33 balls to give Glamorgan a flying start. He eventually fell to a catch by Martin Speight off Simon Brown in the 13th over, following the same route taken by Morris (22) two overs earlier.

Glamorgan then stumbled, with Matthew Maynard brilliantly caught by James Boiling off Michael Foster and Adrian Dale needlessly run out as the home side slipped from 79 without loss to 120 for 4. But Steve James (45no) and Anthony Cottey (21no) ensured there were no further alarms.

However, from the moment Waqar Younis had John Morris caught behind for a duck, Durham must have known it was not going to be their day.

An unbeaten 74 off 112 balls from Nick Speak, who reached his half-century with a straight six off Croft, lifted Durham to a respectable 183 for 8, but it was never enough thanks to Croft's blistering start.

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