Eckersley relishing Yorkshire challenge

Ned Eckersley said the Foxes are again looking forward to the experience of playing at Headingley as they look to qualify for the knockout stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup.

The team had an excellent NatWest T20 Blast success at the international venue last season and Eckersley, one of three half-centurions during yesterday's terrific win against Derbyshire, is looking for a repeat.

History is certainly on the Foxes side in this fixture, given the Foxes have won ten of their previous 12 List A trips to Yorkshire. However, our hosts have won all three home matches in the competition this season, so something has to give at Headingley tomorrow (2pm start).

There is certainly all to play for in the last round with Yorkshire Vikings chasing a victory to top the group, an important factor given the new qualification criteria of the competition rewards the divisional leaders with a home semi-final.

Leicestershire have to take care of their own result in the first instance and then hope that Northants Steelbacks and Lancashire Lightning can win their respective matches to allow the Foxes to claim the third and final qualifying position.

If the Foxes get through, they would face an away quarter-final at the team that finishes second in the South group, a match that is effectively a play-off.

“The most important thing is that we still have a chance of going through," said Eckersley. "Yorkshire are going well, and we’re going to have to be at our best again, but the atmosphere up there is great. The lads enjoyed playing there in T20 last season.

"With the win against Derbyshire, we’ll take a lot of confidence up to Leeds. They are a fine team so we'll need another good performance and then, fingers crossed, we'll get some help from elsewhere."

Eckersley, who led the team in the first three matches in the absence of injured captain Clint McKay, thought the Foxes were on top of their game in yesterday's success.

He said: “The bowlers bowled very well, and to have them four down at the start of the 15th over was a great start for us by the seamers.

"They had a partnership, but whenever we had a chance we took it, and to restrict them to that score on what is a good wicket was fantastic. The average score on a decent track is 300 plus now.

“At 102-4 we had to rebuild a little bit before counter-attacking at the end, but Hilly (Lewis Hill) came in and played a crucial innings."

Leicestershire have named a 13-man squad for the game with batsman Colin Ackermann, seamer Zak Chappell and slow left armer Callum Parkinson challenging for a place in the final XI. Rob Sayer picked up an injury during yesterday's game, while Ben Raine, Neil Dexter and Richard Jones remain on the sidelines.

Yorkshire are without England quintet Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Plunkett, David Willey and Adil Rashid due to impending England commitments against South Africa and in the ICC Champions Trophy. But the home side still have a talented squad led by the in-form Gary Ballance, who is averaging 75.20 in this competition.

Vikings (from): Ballance (capt), Bresnan, Carver, Coad, Fisher, Handscomb, Leaning, Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Rafiq, Rhodes, Tattersall, Waite.

Foxes (from): McKay (capt), Aadil, Ackermann, Chappell, Delport, Eckersley, Cosgrove, Griffiths, Hill, Klein, Parkinson, Pettini, Wells.