Ball dominates on day two

DAY TWO | Leicestershire CCC 233 & 48 for three v Somerset CCC 318

SCORECARD | Available HERE

REPORT | The Running Foxes claim 10 wickets for the first time this campaign as they end day two at the crease.

The second day got underway at the Uptonsteel County Ground as the sun once gain shone strongly in Leicestershire.

The attack of the Running Foxes, consisting of Chris Wright and Dieter Klein began brightly with two genuine lbw calls in the opening overs of the day.

The umpire did not oblige to the appeals of the Leicestershire squad, for both chances on Jack Leach. However, the start was positive for County as they could sense the opening wicket of the day.

After half an hour’s play in the day, Leicestershire were hard done by to not have claimed the wicket of Somerset skipper Tom Abell following a tidy piece of fielding from Lewis Hill.

The Foxes man collected the ball after Abell pushed it out into the leg side and looked for a quick single. Hill then hit the stumps looking for the run out of Abell, who was not in his crease, though, the umpire decided it was not out.

County’s frustration was growing following two decisions having not gone their way.

The partnership of Abell and Leach, who were effectively on their third life, pushed on and soon reached their fifty as they looked to weather the storm from the Running Foxes that had seen Ben Mike and Gavin Griffiths introduced.

The Foxes, for all of their effort and misfortune, kept battling away in search for their first wicket of the day – and were rewarded just after the hour mark.

Ben Mike claimed his first wicket of the fixture as Leach (26) was dismissed for the first time this season after chopping on to his own stumps. Somerset’s fourth wicket was up as they sat on 102 for four.

George Bartlett made his way to the crease and was soon congratulating his skipper who posted his half-century. The fifty for Abell came from 85 balls including eight fours.

County then spurned a golden chance to claim the wicket of Abell - on 54 - shortly after, as Callum Parkinson found Abell’s outside edge but skipper Colin Ackermann at first slip failed to take the grab.

Ackermann’s day did not get any better, as minutes before the lunch interval, the Running Foxes skipper took a Parkinson delivery to the face, following and top edge off George Bartlett.

There was a brief break in play in which the Leicestershire medical team treated Ackermann, and came to the decision that he could see out the remaining overs in the session.

The visitors, who had lived a charmed life during the morning, headed into lunch having lost only one wicket sitting on 157 for four.

The sun continued to beat down on the Uptonsteel County Ground turf as the afternoon session got underway.

Following the blow he received just before lunch, captain Ackermann re-emerged for the Running Foxes, but only in the interim as Leicestershire were preparing a concussion replacement.

County were still battling away in search for the fifth wicket of the innings, and soon, following wickets in consecutive overs from Mike, the visitors were six wickets down.

Abell (88) seemed to have ran out of lives for Somerset as Mike enticed the batsman into a leading edge with a lovely ball that shaped away from the batsman. Marcus Harris was stood at second slip who made no mistake of taking the grab from the nick off.

The next Mike over saw another wicket fall, as the youngster made it three for the day.

Bartlett (48), who was looking for his fifty, thought that the short delivery from Mike was his chance. He looked to pull the allrounder away through the leg side, but did not catch it at all well, leaving a simple catch for Harry Dearden short mid-wicket.

At this point the concussion replacement had been made as the injured Ackermann was replaced by Rishi Patel, who due to the recent update to the ECB regulations, was eligible to bat and or bowl during the second innings.

Somerset found themselves on 219 for six with a brand-new set of batsmen at the crease in Steve Davies and Craig Overton.

The seventh wicket partnership saw the visitors into the lead after wiping out the Running Foxes’ 233 runs posted in the first innings.

They then went on to record their fiftieth run with Davies leading the way for Somerset after being together for 14 overs.

The partnership reached 70 runs before Parkinson claimed his first wicket of the fixture.

Overton was the man dismissed – for 24 – as the Running Foxes man took the leading edge of the man at bat with Rishi Patel on hand at first slip to take the grab.

Overton’s replacement, Lewis Gregory, failed to trouble the scorers as Parkinson got one to turn back into the Somerset man as he departed for a three-ball duck.

Two balls prior, and Davies brought up his half-century against the Running Foxes, coming from 68 balls including seven fours.

Josh Davey joined Davies at the crease with the visitors on 297 for eight. The tea interval was then brought up with County having taken four wickets in the afternoon session as Somerset went in on 305 for eight.

The Somerset first innings came to an end in less than 30 evening session minutes as Griffiths and Wright claimed the final two wickets.

Firstly, Griffiths claimed the wicket of Davies (59) as he set his field superbly by placing Harris at leg gully.

Moment later, Davies lofted Griffiths’ short delivery straight to the Australian as Griffiths claimed his first wicket of the game with the penultimate delivery of the old ball.

Leicestershire took the new ball as soon as they could, but it only grew two deliveries old before Wright emphatically brought the Somerset innings to an end on 318 after cracking Marchant de Lange’s middle stick for a two-ball duck.

The visitors took an 85-run lead into the second innings as Hassan Azad and Marcus Harris walked out to the crease to open the Running Foxes’ response, with 24 overs remaining in the day.

The breakthrough was made by the visitors in the second over as Azad (0) nicked a Davey delivery through to wicketkeeper Davies.

Azad’s replacement, Harry Dearden (0), though, only faced two balls before edging one through to Tom Abell at third slip who took the catch, diving to his left. The Running Foxes were quickly two down as substitute Rishi Patel made his way out to the middle for the first time this season.

Patel came in and seemed to have added a slight sense of control for Leicestershire, posting a number of boundaries off the bowling of Davey and Overton.

The latter began the second innings in good form though, and soon had his second of the innings as Harris (7) hooked a short ball to Tom Lammonby at square leg who took the catch.

Harris was replaced by the in-form man for Leicestershire as Lewis Hill joined Patel at the crease.

Patel, though, was the man looking in good touch in the second innings as he accelerated the run-rate, particularly off Lewis Gregory, hitting the bowler for back-to-back fours with six over left to play.

The duo of Patel (27*) and Hill (7*) then successfully saw the Running Foxes through to stumps as Leicestershire head into the third day on 48 for three.

FIGURES (1st inns) | Wright 18.2-6-57-2, Klein 17-1-74-2, Mike 14-2-50-3, Griffiths 14-1-42-1, Parkinson 17-2-76-2

FIGURES (2nd inns) | Overton 7-6-4-2, Davey 6-0-16-1, Gregory 6-1-21-0, Leach 2-1-4-0, de Lange 3-2-1-0

TEAM | Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, Harry Dearden, Colin Ackermann (C), Lewis Hill, Harry Swindells (wk), Ben Mike, Callum Parkinson, Chris Wright, Dieter Klein, Gavin Griffiths.

SOMERSET CCC | Tom Lammonby, Tom Banton, Tom Abell (C), James Hildreth, George Bartlett, Steve Davies (wk), Craig Overton, Lewis Gregory, Marchant de Lange, Josh Davey, Jack Leach

IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallett of Outside Off for providing the images throughout the game.

MATCH SPONSOR | Thanks to energetics-energy for sponsoring round three of the 2021 LV= County Championship.