Grace Road

Leicestershire V Glamorgan

(Metro Bank One-Day Cup)

11th August 2o24

Another delightfully engrossing day's cricket - I really wish I had not waited until my mid-fifties before taking this sport seriously.  

On this occasion Leicestershire succeeded in keeping their bid to retain the One-Day Cup alive, with a narrow nine run victory over a previously unbeaten (in the tournament) Glamorgan side.

Things began poorly for the Foxes as Ian Holland was dismissed in the first over, with a parade of colleagues swiftly following him back to the pavilion, leaving the hosts on 59/5 at the completion of the eleventh over.

Captain Lewis Hill and Ajinkya Rahane's respective dismissals were both, for the most part, self-inflicted; Hill run out after dawdling between the stumps, whilst Rahane inexplicably decided to raise his bat out of the way of a wicket-bound delivery and, seemingly, deciding to play it with his pads instead.  

Fortunately, Peter Handscombe was on hand to dig his side out of the hole; the Australian going on to score 103, which incorporated a fine partnership of 139 with Liam Trevaskis.  Leics had reached an, at one time improbable-looking, 255 when Handscombe was caught; with Tom Scriven and Roman Walker's late partnership adding a further 16 runs from the final 14 balls of the Foxes' innings.

  
Glamorgan, chasing 272 to win, always appeared to be behind on the required run-rate; a state of affairs not helped by the fact Leicestershire always managed to take a vital wicket just when the visitors looked on the verge of putting together a number of fruitful partnerships.  When Colin Ingram was caught lbw in the 42nd over, leaving Glamorgan on 197/7, I (and a few others in Grace Road, I bet) thought that may be that.  

But the redoubtable Dan Douthwaite had other ideas, and he just refused to capitulate.  His colleagues' slightly conservative scoring rate earlier in the match perhaps left the chap with just a little too much to do to rescue the situation.  By, by gum, he didn't half come close.  

His knock of 62, which included four 4s and four 6s, had his side requiring just ten runs from the final 10 balls to win.  But he was hampered by the fact his partner at the death was bowler Jamie McIlroy - who, with the best will in the world, was never going hit a boundary.  Douthwaite was caught going for broke with another attempted boundary whack, which fell just short of the ropes and into the gleeful hands of Sol Budinger.  

Thus did Leicestershire rescue a 9 run win from what should have been a rather more comfortable afternoon (in my opinion).

So - it is off to Bristol in a few days time, where another win would secure a place in the knock-out stage for the Foxes.

I seem to have taken loads of pix of these orange seats.
But I like them.

This is Ben Cox...and the vid clip below shows him hitting one of his six 4s of the afternoon.

Glamorgan's Timm van der Gugten

A fox and two tall cricketers.

Ajinkya Rahane

     

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Leicestershire V Hampshire

(Metro Bank One-Day Cup)

16th August 2o24

I do appreciate how facile, not to say deeply silly, it is to suggest any single incident could have predicated the result of a match which had lasted around seven hours.  But I came away from this one believing two points decided the outcome.

Leics, chasing 291 to win, had recovered from 30/3 to reach 282/7 leaving The Foxes requiring just 9 runs from the final 12 balls.  Reaching this point was in no small way due to Ben Cox's partnership with Liam Trevaskis, Cox contributing 45 to his side's total.  But Cox had been dropped by Hampshire's Fletcha Middleton in the 42nd over whilst on 29.  Those 16 additional runs scored by Cox, before he was dismissed made a huge difference in the end.

Similarly, in the tense final over, with Leics requiring four runs from the final four balls, Hampshire bowler Dom Kelly chose the most inopportune moment to bowl a two-run no-ball.  Thus did 4 required from 4, become 2 required from 4, Scriven ultimately doing the needful.  But this really had been a wafer-thin close win.

Liam Trevaskis

Tom Scriven

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Leicestershire V Northamptonshire

(Rothesay County Championship Division 2)

3-5th May 2o25

I only took in Days 1 & 3 of this particular match (there was no Day 4), as I also wanted to squeeze in the 2,000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket on this latest sporting weekend down in Engurland.

Day One

On a beautifully sunny May day, Leicestershire accrued a total of 304 runs in their first innings, this impressive tally due in no small way to Rishi Patel's century knock.  Most of his top-order batting colleagues fared less well, as Rehan Ahmed, Lewis Hill, Peter Handscomb and Ian Holland were all dismissed whilst in single figures.

Fortunately, Leicestershire's ability to bat deep into their line-up dug the team out of a potential hole as they had sat at 119/5 at one point.

Visitors Northamptonshire were left with five overs to negotiate at the end of the day, which Luke Proctor and South-African born Ricardo Vasconcelos managed to do with minimal drama.

 

Day Two

As stated before, Day Two I missed, as I spent the afternoon forcing my cash into the pockets of the Newmarket Racecourse on-site bookmakers.

And, I later learned, I had missed a bit of a wicket-fest, as 16 of the blighters fell on Day 2, Northants having been bowled out for 191, with Justin Broad top scoring on 36.

In Leicestershire's second innings, the aforementioned Ahmed, Hill and Handscomb had again succumbed cheaply, with the difference this time around Rishi Patel had done so as well.

Thus, when I turned up on Day 3, it was to find Leicestershire sitting on a slightly precarious score of 96/9.

Day Three

96/6 soon became 99/7 as Ian Holland was caught by Lewis McManus, and for a brief period I thought Leicestershire were in danger of being skittled out fairly soon.

But, as in the first innings, the guys further down the order dug in and the runs continued to flow.

Leicestershire were eventually all out for 175, setting Northants a target of 289 t0 win.  However, Josh Hull pretty much settled the outcome of the match early on, taking the wickets of Vasconcelos, Proctor and James Sales in quick order to leave the visitors on 31/3.

And although Ben Sanderson enjoyed a bit of a slog-fest at the death (six boundaries in his 26 balls faced), he and his side fell 133 runs short.

 

 

Not that it mattered much in overall scheme of things, but I was startled to note the fourth highest source of runs (behind Rishi Patel, Sol Budinger and Ben Green) for Leicestershire over both innings had been Extras - the Northants' bowlers having coughed up a total of 62.