County on top at halfway stage
Fri 5 Aug 2016
Leicestershire versus Derbyshire, Specsavers County Championship, Day 2:
SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE
INTERVIEW | An interview with Ned Eckersley by BBC Radio Leicester's Richard Rae is available HERE
HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the second day are available HERE
REPORT | Leicestershire enjoyed the better of the second day against Derbyshire as Ned Eckersley completed a fine century before the bowlers got to work at the Fischer County Ground.
Eckersley, who was stranded on 94 not out at Worcestershire last month, progressed to an 11th first-class career century as Leicestershire put 380 on the board. His 117 was an innings of the highest order, a responsible mix of defence and attack after coming in with the score at 138-5.
Derbyshire were then grateful to the efforts of Wayne Madsen, so often a thorn in Leicestershire’s side over the years, in their reply of 191-6 from 65 overs.
Madsen has made 500 runs in his last six Specsavers County Championship innings against Leicestershire at an average of 100 - with 66 the lowest of five scores in excess of 50 - and took his first-class career tally against the Foxes into four figures during today’s innings of 76.
County asked questions throughout with Clint McKay, Ben Raine and Charlie Shreck took their combined total of Specsavers County Championship wickets to 97 in each claiming two victims apiece.
Leicestershire resumed at 300-7 and although they narrowly missed out on recording a fourth batting point, the team batted for the majority of the first session.
The overnight duo of Eckersley and Raine sensibly played themselves in before some runs arrived when the slow left arm of Callum Parkinson was introduced.
Raine struck the spinner’s second ball of the day for a maximum over long-on before Eckersley collected nine runs in the space of two deliveries at the start of his next over, including a five as the result of overthrows.
Eckersley and Raine took their stand to 50 in the 110th over and were at 340-7 at the end of it, meaning the bonus points were 3-2 in County’s favour at that point.
The alliance came to its conclusion when Raine (33) nicked Alex Hughes in the next offering, Alex Mellor taking a sharp catch standing up to the wicket.
A fine on-drive brought Eckersley four more and he was on 99 when the ninth wicket fell. Derbyshire brought on Neil Broom in an attempt to clean up the innings, and he struck with his second delivery, yorking Richard Jones (8).
Eckersley was given good support by Shreck (0* off 15 balls) in progressing to a 223-ball century. The batsman then took his boundary account to 11 with a brace of fours in Broom’s second set.
He was the last man out with the score 20 shy of 400, driving to Alex Hughes at mid-on as Parkinson ended with excellent figures of 4-90 off 33.4 overs on debut.
Lunch was taken at that point and Slater and Godleman started with intent after the interval with boundaries predominantly arrived backward of point in their stand of 25.
However, Leicestershire hit back as three batsmen lost their off stump for the addition of 15 runs in the space of 27 deliveries.
Talisman McKay got the ball rolling when Godleman (12) opted to play no stroke and although Slater (15) sent Raine’s first delivery rocketing through mid-on, the all-rounder immediately produced an absolute jaffa to beat his defensive stroke.
Raine again disturbed the timber as Chesney Hughes (11) fell in his third over, and suddenly Derbyshire were at 40-3 in the 10th.
Madsen and Broom regrouped with some sensible strokeplay as they shared a partnership worth 82 in exactly 20 overs.
The former generally used the pace of the ball to steer away drives and late glances while number five Broom looked solid, just as he did during Monday’s innings of 90 when the sides met in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
It was the ninth time in 19 Specsavers County Championship innings that Madsen had posted a score in excess of 50 against Leicestershire, the latest milestone coming from 71 balls and including eight boundaries.
A key wicket arrived with tea on the horizon as Broom, who had looked largely untroubled, lofted Shreck high into the air into the grateful hands of Raine at mid-on.
One brought two as Shiv Thakor (0) fell lbw to McKay and Derbyshire went into the interval on 125-5, still 255 in arrears.
A sumptuous square drive recorded Madsen’s ninth four and the experienced batsman then passed a couple of landmarks.
His 60th run took him to the 1,000 mark against County in first-class innings and Madsen had recorded 9,000 runs in his first-class career upon registering the 68th of his innings.
Alex Hughes played some punchy strokes alongside Madsen as the duo shared the second 50 partnership of the innings but a key blow was made in the 52nd over.
Madsen fell into a trap set by Shreck, who angled a short ball well across the batsman from around the wicket. Just as Broom had done earlier, the delivery looped into the on-side, Cosgrove taking the catch running towards square leg from his mid-wicket position.
Shreck nearly made it three as a sharp chance was offered by Alex Hughes to a diving Cosgrove at cover but the skipper couldn’t quite get underneath the chance.
The two men called Alex, Hughes (40 not out) and Mellor (6 not out) saw Derbyshire through to stumps despite a couple of tidy overs of off-spin from Paul Horton but they will start day three still trailing by 181 runs with four second innings wickets intact.
Bowling figures for Leicestershire: McKay 15-3-34-2, Jones 6-1-29-0, Raine 13-0-42-2, Dexter 11-1-49-0, Shreck 17-5-37-2, Cosgrove 1-0-1-0, Horton 2-2-0-0.
