County lose to leaders Essex

Leicestershire versus Essex, Specsavers County Championship, Day 3:

SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE

INTERVIEW | Andrew McDonald spoke to BBC Radio Leicester's Richard Rae at stumps, the interview is available HERE

HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the third day are available HERE

Specsavers County Championship Division Two leaders Essex produced an extremely strong third day performance to beat Leicestershire by an innings and ten runs at the Fischer County Ground.

The visitors claimed a first innings lead of 185 after being dismissed for 423 with teenager Dan Lawrence posting a magnificent 154 from 304 balls, an innings that spanned six hours and 19 minutes.

Debutant Dieter Klein finished with 4-107 for Leicestershire, who were then bowled out for 175 in the second innings as Jamie Porter and David Masters took four wickets apiece.

Neil Dexter top-scored with 44 but Leicestershire finished with three points and Essex extended their lead at the summit after claiming a full 24-point haul.

Essex resumed their first innings at 368-8 off 103 overs and Lawrence and Napier batted superbly to ensure the visitors took maximum batting points. The landmark was gained off the very last ball of the 110th over and they denied County a third bowling point in the process.

Lawrence got straight back into his stride with a flowing drive through mid-on and a delightfully timed pull to the mid-wicket boundary, while a couple of nudges also went down to vacant third man.

Napier clouted through mid-on to collect his first four of the morning in the 110th over before taking the single that ensured Essex collected all eight bonus points from the contest.

The stand of 84 came to an end when Napier drove Charlie Shreck to Dexter at mid-wicket, and Lawrence was the last batsman to be dismissed after completing a 299-ball 150 that contained 19 boundaries. The teenager chipped Ben Raine into the off-side and Mark Cosgrove ran around from extra cover to pocket the catch.

Masters was the unbeaten batsman and he struck an early blow as Paul Horton (2) edged to James Foster in the fourth over. Robson and Dexter then combined to form a positive second wicket alliance worth 46.

Dexter hit a trio of delicious drives through cover, mid-on and extra, and also glanced and pulled away for further fours as part of an impressive start.

His colleague Robson also looked in good touch in progressing to 21 but there was a blow on the stroke of lunch as the opener edged Napier to Alastair Cook at first slip.

County were at 53-2 at that stage, still 132 in arrears, and their skipper came to the wicket. Cosgrove's first contribution was to flick down to long leg and the boundary took him to exactly 1,000 Specsavers County Championship runs for the summer.

The captain continued to score freely, including a superb drive through mid-off, and had scored 18 off just 13 balls when the players left the field due to rain. He had scored all of the runs since lunch, with Dexter still on 26 and Leicestershire at 71-2.

Two overs had been lost when play restarted at 2.35pm and Dexter and Cosgrove continued on their way, including a boundary apiece in the first over back from Masters.

A huge wicket was then claimed by Masters, who trapped Cosgrove leg before for 27, leaving Leicestershire at 88-3 in the 22nd over.

Dexter and Pettini took the score to 99-3 before another shower brought about an early tea with 51.4 overs still remaining in the day.

Porter struck three times in quick succession upon the resumption, firstly having Pettini (6) caught behind off a lifting delivery before Eckersley (12) drove to substitute fielder Kishen Velani at square leg.

After Masters claimed his third victim, Lewis Hill (0) gloving a great delivery through to Foster, Porter then had Dexter held at the wicket.

Raine and Jones dug in, with the former also pulling Ravi Bopara for two fours in the 38th over, but a mix-up brought about the end of Raine's innings. Twelfth man Velani was again in on the action with a good throw to Foster after running in from deep mid-wicket.

More resistance followed from Jones and Klein, with some lusty blows coming among solid defence. 

But Jones became the fifth batsman to be held by Foster, and the fourth dismised by Porter, with County still trailing by 11. Shreck (0) was then pinned lbw by Masters after Klein (16 not out) had added a single.

It meant that Porter finished with match figures of 8-89, while the evergreen Masters ended with 4-39 in the second innings.

Leicestershire now have a week away from Specsavers County Championship action before returning to face Sussex at the FCG on Tuesday, September 6.

Leicestershire bowling figures: Raine 22.2-5-78-2, Klein 26-4-107-4, Jones 18-5-69-2, Shreck 31-8-88-2, Dexter 19-0-57-0, Cosgrove 1-0-3-0.