County set for Surrey encounter
Sat 6 Jun 2015
Leicestershire go into the four-day game against Surrey on the back of a fantastic six-wicket LV=CC victory against Essex at Chelmsford, where the team performed superbly in all three departments across all four days.
Angus Robson made 191 runs in the match, while Ben Raine and Charlie Shreck each claimed five-fors and Lewis Hill had the great moment of hitting the winning runs.
Leicestershire Head Coach Andrew McDonald said: “Full credit to the guys, we played some good cricket throughout the game. We’ve had some chances to win games throughout the year, so to get over the line is fantastic. We stuck to the gameplan throughout.
“We’ve lost critical moments in previous matches but we were on the right side of those key moments during the Essex game. The lads were quite relaxed before the final morning, which is a good sign.”
County now take on Surrey in the LV=County Championship for the second time in a few weeks, having been edged out in the first meeting between the two sides.
It took Kevin Pietersen’s brilliant 355 not out and a dramatic last session run chase, led by openers Jason Roy and Steven Davies, to see the home side over the line at the Kia Oval.
Robson is Leicestershire’s leading run-scorer in the LV=CC with 499 at an impressive average of 41.58 while Ned Eckersley (484 at 40.33), Mark Cosgrove (397 at 36.09) and Niall O’Brien (256 at 42.66) have also been in excellent form.
Seam trio Shreck (27 wickets at 33.40), Clint McKay (24 wickets at 26.58) and Raine (24 wickets at 30.87) have all recorded five-fors in the LV=CC this summer and are in the top ten wicket-takers for the division.
Leicestershire welcome Niall O’Brien back into a 14-man squad for the game after Ireland wrapped up a convincing innings victory against United Arab Emirates in the ICC Continental Cup in Dublin yesterday.
Ed Joyce (231) and Paul Stirling (146) starred as Ireland made 492 and Craig Young and George Dockrell each took seven wickets in the match as UAE were bowled out for 213 and 253.
O’Brien joins the XI on duty at Essex plus Rob Taylor and Ollie Freckingham, who were part of the travelling party to Chelmsford.
Leics (from): Cosgrove (capt), Robson, Boyce, Eckersley, Agathangelou, Hill, O’Brien, McKay, Wells, Raine, Taylor, Naik, Shreck, Freckingham.
