Burgess and Ali ready for next challenge

There is still a long way to go in the Royal London One Day Cup but Leicestershire Foxes know that they face a crucial week in the competition.

After three games in the competition, the Foxes have recorded one point following a washout against Surrey and losses to Northants and Gloucestershire.

The latest defeat was hard to take given the Foxes got to within one run of Gloucestershire’s 315-6 but the major positive was the performances of 20-year-old Aadil Ali (84) and Michael Burgess (49), who is 21.

Leicestershire’s young guns played exceptionally well during a sixth wicket partnership that not only handed the team a chance of getting home, but also gave Members and supporters plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the future.

Burgess praised Ali and feels that the club is taking strides forward, but also acknowledged the need to convert performances into points.

He said: “I went through the processes I have been working on with (Head Coach) Andrew McDonald, and Aadil was playing so well that I had time to get in. As soon as I was in, we said ‘let’s play how we play and see how far we can take it.’ ”

“Massive credit has to go to Aadil, as well as Tayls (Rob Taylor)and Squid (Clint McKay), who were exceptional to get us close but as we said in the dressing room, close isn’t good enough anymore.

“We know that we are making progress but there comes a time when progress isn’t quite good enough and we need to start winning games – and winning games consistently.

“We know that we have got a structure and a coaching staff that will allow us to do that, so it’s down to the players to deliver that for us game in, game out.”

The Foxes now have back-to-back away matches at Yorkshire Vikings and Derbyshire Falcons before taking on reigning champions Durham at Grace Road on Thursday morning (10.30am start).

Yorkshire can call on considerable international experience in Glenn Maxwell, Adil Rashid and Gary Ballance, and also have a number of talented younger players like Jack Leaning and Matthew Fisher.

Maxwell smashed 111 off 76 balls as the Vikings won at Worcestershire last Thursday while Rashid and Ballance have played for England this summer. The impressive Leaning and Fisher did well against the Foxes in the NatWest T20 Blast thriller at Grace Road so the team are well aware of their talents.

Burgess said: “Losing (against Gloucestershire) was tough to take but we’ll take a lot of confidence into the match against Yorkshire on Monday. They are a good team but we have to get off and running.”

Derbyshire have had a mixed start to the tournament with fine wins against Somerset and Northants coming either side of defeats to Yorkshire and Gloucestershire.

Paul Collingwood’s expertly crafted century guided Durham to an opening day win at Northants before their second game against Worcestershire was washed out.

Durham then landed a tremendous seven-wicket win at Somerset where they hauled down a target of 328 with 21 balls to spare thanks in large to an opening stand of 211 between captain Mark Stoneman (112) and wicket-keeper Phil Mustard (98). A first defeat then came for Durham against Surrey on Friday.

The Foxes have named a 14-man squad for the start of a huge few days of RLODC action with Andrea Agathangelou, Lewis Hill and Ollie Freckingham back in the travelling party.

Ali is looking to continuing his fine form since coming into the first team. Speaking after the Gloucestershire game, he said: “It was all about taking calculated risks and I was lucky to have Burgey (Michael Burgess) making my job easier by scoring boundaries.

“We knew if we took it deep then we would get close. It’s always good to be in a tight game but at the same time, it is always a stinker to come out on the wrong side of it.

“It’s a shame I didn’t get the win for Leicestershire but I am learning all of the time. We had a quick debrief to go through what went well and what didn’t and we’ll come back fighting on Monday.”

Foxes (from): Cosgrove (capt), Agathangelou, Ali, Burgess, Eckersley, Freckingham, Hill, McKay, O’Brien, Raine, Robson, Sayer, Sheikh, Taylor.