ALAN Mullally bowled himself into the ground for Hampshire again yesterday but it will need some uncharacteristic solid batting by his teammates to take advantage of his superb performance.

On a batting strip showing no signs of deterioration, Mullally ripped through the Leicestershire top order for the second time in the match with a clinical display of seam and swing.

Aided by three top-class catches and a stumping from Adrian Aymes, former Leicestershire bowler Mullally reduced his old county to 175-9, a frail lead of 213.

But then Hampshire's old inability to polish late resistance surfaced again as last pair Dominic William and Scott Boswell hung around for 75 agonising minutes to put together 65 crucial runs.

Neither Williamson nor Boswell would have been playing if four frontline bowlers, Chris Lewis, Anil Kumble, Philip DeFreitas and James Ormond had been fit and neither has any batting pretensions.

Not event Mullally, who had bowled unchanged through the morning session for figures of 3-25, could dislodge them as the Leicestershire total at last assumed modest proportions at 240 all out.

The end when it came was something of an anti-climax as Boswell, who had made 20, edged Shaun Udal gently to slip where Will Kendall held on.

Mullally had shown little signs of tiring and finished with 4-59, giving him nine wickets for the match and 23 for the last two county matches.

The England selectors cannot surely have failed to notice his superb recent performances though Hampshire need him more than ever now that Shane Warne is temporarily back in Australia.

Hampshire were left 270 to win, the biggest total of the match against a weakened attack and with a whole day and 24 hours in which to get the runs for the second championship win of the season.

Almost predictably they did not make the best of starts, losing Derek Kenway to a skier and Will Kendall lbw with only 45 on the board.

Nightwatchman Alex Morris and Giles White had improved that a 54-2 when bad light ended play five overs nearly but the Hampshire batsmen were left with plenty to consider overnight.

They went into the last day needing a further 225 and and in theory with plenty of experience batting to come but such have been the batting displays over this season no Hampshire supporter would be wise to bet on the outcome.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.