County ready for East Midlands derby

Leicestershire CCC are looking to build on some decent away form as they face a busy period of travelling for Specsavers County Championship fixtures. 

County have three consecutive trips in the four-day competition with tomorrow’s match at leaders Notts followed by Northants (Monday, June 26) as part of the floodlit round of fixtures and a game at Arundel (Wednesday, July 5) for a quick reunion with Sussex.

The team have tasted defeat in only two of the previous 12 Specsavers County Championship fixtures on their travels, including the game at Worcestershire in 2016 where Mark Cosgrove’s brave declaration set up a thrilling finale.

Coupled with that statistic, Leicestershire have established strong positions in their last four matches against Glamorgan, Kent, Derbyshire and, most recently, Sussex. 

So although there was understandable disappointment at not emerging victorious on Monday, Head Coach Pierre de Bruyn feels that success in the Specsavers County Championship is not too far away.

“It was very close and we were very disappointed,” said de Bruyn. “We missed a massive opportunity to get our first win under our belt at home against Sussex.

“We were driving the match more often than not but we let ourselves down. We could have easily made up another 100 runs in their first innings and our second innings. 

“But a key strength of the side has been to bounce back from a poor performance and we need to do that again at Notts. 

“The preparation has been very individually based. The guys have worked one to one with the specialist coach in their area, to have that connection and for the coaches to see where the player is and how he feels. 

“We have the ability to get in good positions and drive games but when there’s a key moment we seem to lose track. We have to be brutally honest about our weaknesses - the third innings of a game is an area where we’ve been really sloppy. 

“There is huge ability in this side and we know we’re nearly there. There are eight games left for us in this format, and I know once the players get that confidence and belief they’ll be very hard to beat.”

One example of Leicestershire paying a high price for failing to come out on top of a crucial period of the game came in the opening round of this season’s competition against their East Midlands rivals.

Notts were 167-7 on the second afternoon in reply to Leicestershire’s first innings score of 251 but James Pattinson (89 not out) and Stuart Broad (52) altered the course of the game with an eighth wicket partnership worth 122.

So a potential first innings lead turned into 78 runs worth of arrears and Leicestershire lost six wickets in halving that deficit.

Ben Raine took a career-best 6-66 against Notts at the Fischer County Ground in April and is Leicestershire’s leading wicket-taker in the competition.

His return for the Sussex game was a big boost; not only did Raine take six wickets in the match, he formed an effective partnership with Clint McKay, who produced his best performance of the campaign.

“It was great to have Ben (Raine) back,” said de Bruyn. “He has the ability to take wickets all the time. He wants to have his best season ever and is well on his way to do that.”

Raine said: “We’re looking forward to this game at Nottinghamshire. I enjoyed the first game against them earlier this season, and it’ll be a good measure of where we’re at, both individually and as a team. 

“You’re playing against test match quality bowlers and batters and you find out just how good you really are. Also I love playing at Trent Bridge and I’ve never actually played a four-day game there, so I’m excited about it and up for the challenge.”

Zak Chappell (groin) is ruled out of the match but Lewis Hill returns from injury to form part of a 13-man squad. Gavin Griffiths, Will Fazakerley and Rob Sayer are also in contention. Richard Jones and Neil Dexter are due to make their comebacks in the Second XI this week.

Nottinghamshire are boosted by the availability of three current international seamers as Pattinson and Broad, who took 12 Leicestershire wickets between them alongside their significant stand in April, are joined by Jake Ball in a 13-man squad.

Leicestershire (from): Cosgrove (capt), Ackermann, Dearden, Eckersley, Fazakerley, Griffiths, Hill, Horton, Klein, McKay, Pettini, Raine, Sayer.

Nottinghamshire (from): Read (capt & wk), Ball, Broad, Fletcher, Gurney, Hutton, Libby, Lumb, Mullaney, Patel, Pattinson, Taylor, Wessels.