da bet7k： The partnership of 113 between Habib and DeFreitas was finally broken by abrilliant piece of fielding from Michael Atherton
Steve Wright22-Aug-2000
Aftab Habib
Photo © AllSport
The partnership of 113 between Habib and DeFreitas was finally broken by abrilliant piece of fielding from Michael Atherton. Having dropped twocatches in the slips earlier on in the day, he was determined not to drop athird.Habib when on 93 hit a ball high into the sky over into the midwicket regionwhich looked to be along way over Atherton. He turned, sprinted 20-30 yardsand with arms fully out stretched held on to a great catch.This wicket was badly needed by Lancashire as they did not seem to have anyanswer for the Leicestershire batsmen. Leicestershire scored at an healthy rate throughout the day and there weresome good partnerships put together.Defreitas, against his old county, played aggressively right from the startand his 50 came off 67 balls with 8 boundaries.John Crawley tried to prevent the flow of runs by switching his bowlersaround regularly and at one stage even brought Neil Fairbrother into theattack, hoping that the lack of pace on the ball would make it harder forthe batsman to score on a very slow wicket.Towards the end of the days play there was evidence that the wicket wastaking spin, and Leicestershire, with Anil Kumble in their side must feelquitely confident.