Dramatic opening day for Seconds
Thu 30 Jul 2015
There was action aplenty on the first day of the Second XI Championship game between Leicestershire and Lancashire at Ashby Hastings CC.
Harry Dearden was one of Lancashire’s opening batsmen when the game got underway at 12 noon and had you said he would be at the crease at 8pm, the youngster would have no doubt snapped your hand off.
But it was not a conventional seven-hour innings around lunch and tea as twenty wickets fell from the point that Dearden faced the first ball of the day and Luis Reece the last.
With Lancashire on 38-0 after 16 overs following a delayed start due to a wet outfield, there was no sign of the drama to come.
Ollie Freckingham took season best figures of 5-30 and Lancashire were indebted to Rob Jones’s 51 in making 157 in 64.3 overs.
Liam Hurt and Andrea Agathangelou also took a brace of wickets against their former county, direct hit by Dan Redfern accounting for the other wicket.
Leicestershire would have been pleased with their work at that stage but soon found themselves in deep trouble on 11-6, George Edwards taking five of those wickets en route to returning figures of 5-3-7-5.
Contributions of 23 from Ben Bryant, 18 from Freckingham and 10 apiece from George Corbett and Hurt ensured County recovered to 72, Toby Lester backing up Edwards with 3-23.
That left Lancashire six overs to bat and they closed on ten without loss. The Red Rose county therefore take a lead of 95 into the second day of the encounter.
