Handscomb shines but falls short of another county ton

Axed Test batter Peter Handscomb came frustratingly close to his second century of his Leicestershire spell, outdoing Marnus Labuschagne on the second day of their County Championship encounter.

Handscomb was dismayed to be given out five short of a second ton in four innings off the bowling of another Australian, Michael Neser, after leading a rousing rescue of his new county's first innings at Grace Road.

With help from wonderkid Rehan Ahmed (90 off 129 balls) in a 177-run sixth-wicket stand, Handscomb helped take Leicestershire from 5-168 to 407 before being the final wicket to fall when he was deemed to have edged a Neser outswinger behind.

The Victorian threw his head back in disbelief, a feeling shared by teammates later on Friday when Glamorgan's star man Labuschagne survived a close lbw shout off Wiian Mulder.

Labuschagne played a series of eye-catching drives before being caught at second slip as the Welsh county reached the game's halfway point on 5-164, behind by 243 runs.

Handscomb played all four Tests on Australia's recent tour of India but was overlooked for their World Test Championship final and initial Ashes squad altogether, with Marcus Harris, Matthew Renshaw and Mitch Marsh winning places instead.

That is despite the right-hander's red-hot form in the United Kingdom, peeling off scores of 112, 68no, 15 and 95 to sit third on the top run-scorers list in the second division of the Championship.

He has also been wicketkeeping in the four-day competition, taking a catch off the bowling of Tom Scriven, who took three wickets before stumps to put Leicestershire in an enviable position.

"I think Peter and I bounced off each other well, we were very chilled and just tried to do the basics right," said Rehan, the 18-year-old leg-spinning allrounder who made a record-breaking Test debut for England in Pakistan last year.

"There was a bit of bounce for me and there might be some turn tomorrow, if I don't spin it on day three something might be wrong."

Neser, another to be overlooked for Australia's Test squad, finished with 2-98 as Sydney-born Timm van der Gugten snared 6-88 having removed the hosts' entire top four.

In London, Wes Agar had a similarly strong outing in his first match at Lord's, snagging four wickets against Middlesex including former Test openers Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman in the South Australian's second match for Kent.

Image Id: D01E2AEB213046EBBC7773D50C27F628 Image Caption: Wes Agar took 4-60 in his first match at Lord's // Getty

Sixteen second-day wickets fell on a lively track at the home of cricket, leaving the game delicately poised with Middlesex 2-40 in their second dig and ahead by three runs after taking a slight first-innings advantage.

Elsewhere, a Sussex side soon to be joined by Steve Smith managed 4-302 against Harris' Gloucestershire thanks to Cheteshwar Pujara's 99no, Surrey's ex-Australia ODI quick Daniel Worrall took 4-38 against Warwickshire, while Durham are in the box seat for an innings win over Derbyshire.

Australians in the County Championship 

Durham: Matthew Kuhnemann

Essex: Daniel Sams (T20s only)

Glamorgan: Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser

Gloucestershire: Marcus Harris

Hampshire: Nathan Ellis, Ben McDermott (both T20s only)

Kent: Wes Agar, Kane Richardson (T20s only)

Leicestershire: Peter Handscomb (April and May)

Northamptonshire: Lance Morris (May 4-21), Chris Tremain (April 6-23), Sam Whiteman (until August), Chris Lynn (T20s), Andrew Tye (T20s)

Somerset: Peter Siddle (until July), Cameron Bancroft (until May 7)

Surrey: Sean Abbott (until July), Dan Worrall (UK passport)

Sussex: Nathan McAndrew (until July), Steve Smith (May 4-21)

Warwickshire: Glenn Maxwell (T20s only)

Yorkshire: Mickey Edwards (UK passport)