Tom Craddock wreaks havoc for Essex against Leicestershire

Tom Craddock has yet to earn a county contract, but on current form the 21-year-old leg-spinner should soon have any number of suitors. Having taken four for 70 from 30 overs to bowl Essex to victory in his championship debut against Northamptonshire two weeks ago, Craddock took four for 54 to leave his side with a clear advantage in this second division fixture. A Yorkshireman who has spent the best part of three years playing university cricket, Craddock first impressed the Essex coach, Paul Grayson, playing against the county for the Unicorns, and while he does not yet appear to be a huge turner of the ball, he has remarkable control. Three of the wickets he took yesterday, those of Matt Boyce, James Taylor and Andrew McDonald, came during a spell of 21 consecutive overs bowled either side of tea. He will have been most pleased with that of Taylor, very much the class act of the Leicestershire batting line-up. Having previously pushed uncertainly at several deliveries, Taylor groped forward at the final ball of the over and edged a catch straight into the hands of Billy Godleman at short leg. When McDonald then left a delivery which hurried back into his pads to be leg before wicket, and Greg Smith had his bails trimmed by arguably the ball of the day from Maurice Chambers, Leicestershire were 176 for 5 and looking to be in deep trouble, the more so given the wicket, slightly capricious on the first day, had flattened out in the sun. A partnership of 68 for the sixth wicket between Wayne White and Tom New put the game back in the balance, but it tilted back towards Essex in the final two overs of the day, first when Craddock, reintroduced after a short rest, won a generous leg before decision against White, and then when Jigger Naik hung his bat out a wide delivery from David Masters and Owais Shah took a smart low catch at first slip. Bringing back both Craddock and Masters was smart captaincy from James Foster, who earlier in the day had played wonderfully well in moving from his overnight 58 to 117 not out, his second consecutive championship century. In doing so he received doughty support from Craddock, but it was indicative of Foster's sense of priorities that he turned down several singles when on 99 to keep Craddock off strike, and thereby give Essex the best chance of reaching 300 and a third batting point. It took Leicestershire more than 90 minutes of a steamy morning session to break the partnership, and almost inevitable that having done so they would end the Essex first innings with the following delivery.