County need 332 on final day
Tue 28 Apr 2015
Leicestershire will require a further 332 to win with nine wickets intact on the final day of the LV=CC game against Northamptonshire
Northants were 142-5 at one stage in their second innings but went on to make 429, the crucial moment coming when former Leicestershire favourite Josh Cobb was put down without having scored.
Cobb (54) made the most of the opportunity by sharing 78 with Rob Newton (58) and 52 with Dave Willey (88), who went on to add 97 in just 71 balls for the eighth wicket with Rory Kleinveldt (56) and 49 for the ninth with Olly Stone.
Charlie Shreck and Clint McKay got through a lot of hard work and finished with Leicestershire best figures of 4-91 and 3-94 respectively.
Leicestershire were set 376 to win from a minimum of 113 overs and closed on 44-1 with Angus Robson 25* and Ned Eckersley 6 not out.
Northants started the day with a lead of 51. McKay, Ben Raine and Ollie Freckingham bowled well and regularly beat the bat in the first hour. Alex Wakely cracked a couple of boundaries in the sixth over of the morning but they were rare loose deliveries from Raine.
Freckingham and McKay picked up reward for the team’s pressure. Wakely (40) mishit an attempted pull off Freckingham and Charlie Shreck pouched the chance at mid-on, and McKay bowled Keogh (1) in the next over.
There was an appeal for leg before against Adam Rossington first up, so Leicestershire definitely had their tails up. Rossington (7) then fell in McKay’s next over as he nicked to opposite number Niall O’Brien.
Cobb was put down at slip off Freckingham at the start of his innings as Neil Pinner dived to his left and parried the ball out of the grasp of Mark Cosgrove. Cobb then went on to build two sizeable partnerships.
The former Leicestershire man hit two consecutive leg side fours as Shreck entered the attack and Newton, who played another sensible knock, played a couple of nice cuts to take his boundary tally to five. Northants went in on 191-5, extending their advantage to 137.
The partnership moved beyond fifty from the first ball of the afternoon session and the impressive Newton completed his second half-century of the game with a sixth four, the milestone coming from 90 balls.
Newton somehow escaped when a bottom edge off McKay bounced over the stumps but he was bowled shortly afterwards as the returning Raine removed his off-stump with the first ball of a new spell.
Cobb continued to look dangerous with his trademark boundaries down the ground, adding a sumptuous on-drive to a previous stroke over mid-off. Willey added a couple of fours in the 79th over and Cobb pulled the returning Shreck to the ropes before the new ball was taken.
County needed to break the stand between the two free-scoring batsmen but the new cherry did not have an immediate impact. There was a close call as Willey survived an lbw appeal from McKay but he continued to attack and Cobb moved to an important 50 from 121 balls with his seventh four, a fine stroke through mid-wicket.
The stand had reached 52 when Cobb tickled one down the leg-side off Shreck and O’Brien took a terrific diving catch. Kleinveldt then joined forces with Willey and the pair dealt almost exclusively in boundaries.
Willey moved to 50 from just 43 balls with eleven fours, and by the time the stand reached 50, Kleinveldt had scored 16 of his 20 in fours. Kleinveldt then clubbed a couple of sixes over mid-on and three fours in the 98th over as he powered to 50 off just 32 balls (8x4, 2x6).
His brutal knock came to an end when a top edged pull off McKay went towards Wells, and the fielder took a good catch running in from the mid-wicket boundary. The advantage was 317 by tea as Northants went in on 371-8.
Willey hit two fours and a six down the ground in the second over of the evening session and Stone progressed to 28 before he was bowled by Shreck with the score on 418. The seamer then picked up his fourth wicket as Willey scythed down to third man where Pinner took the catch.
Leicestershire lost an early wicket as Dan Redfern was well held by Cobb at backward point off Willey. Robson and Eckersley battled hard until stumps, with the former collecting four boundaries by the close. There was an appeal for caught behind against Eckersley in Stone’s second over but the batsman was unmoved.
Bowling figures: McKay 34-6-95-3, Shreck 28.1-8-91-4, Raine 20-4-82-2, Wells 11-2-51-0, Cosgrove 3-2-10-0, Redfern 3-0-14-0, Freckingham 15-1-67-1.
