Although Essex were beaten in their latest County Championship fixture, against Lancashire at Old Trafford, they put on a fighting display that saw them in contention until just after lunch on the final day.

They had to face the prolific and controversial off-spinner, Sri Lankan Muttiah MuralitharanThe home side were eventually bowled out for 298 with Peter Such returning seven for 136, his best bowling figures since claiming eight for 118 against Yorkshire in 1996.

When the visitors replied, Muralitharan took centre stage with a magnificent performance that saw him finish with seven for 73 as Essex were dismissed for 207 in 69 overs with the slow bowlers refreshingly delivering 52 of those overs.

Those wickets gave the diminutive spinner his 47th victim from the last seven first-class innings in which he has bowled and only three times has that performance been bettered.

The first was in 1898 by Charles Townsend for Gloucestershire, then left-armer Hedley Verity took 50 in seven innings for Yorkshire before leg-break bowler A.P. (Tich) Freeman claimed 51 scalps in seven innings for Kent in 1932.

Following 16 wickets in the Test Match against England at The Oval last summer, Muralitharan took 24 wickets in his first two matches for his county side, although bizarrely he finished on the losing side on both occasions.

Lancashire took their second innings score to 209 for seven before declaring to set Essex an unlikely 301 to win.

Once again Such gave a superb performance with six for 77 to complete record a career best match analysis of 13 for 213.

At 114 for two, Essex appeared to have a chance of pulling off what would have been a remarkable victory but magician Muralitharan still had a few tricks to weave, collecting a six wicket haul as Essex tumbled to 182 all out.

There was special praise for Essex's opening bat Paul Grayson who batted for a total of six hours and 45 minutes in the match to top score in each innings with 63 and 76.

Muralitharan joined Lancashire this summer but his appearances had to be put on hold until Sri Lanka were eliminated from the World Cup.

He has quickly made up for lost time with an incredible tally of 53 wickets, and that achievement saw him awarded his County Cap on Saturday during the day/night match.

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