Entertaining last day but match ends as draw

REPORT | By Dominic Toner

Leicestershire and Gloucestershire tried to force victory but the lost time throughout the LV=CC match meant that honours ended even after a dramatic final day at Grace Road.

In the morning Gloucestershire made quick work of the 17 runs required to avoid the follow-on and Will Tavare immediately called his batsmen in with the score at 269-8.

Dan Redfern (74) led the way as Leicestershire made 151-9 before declaring their second innings after 31.3 overs to set Gloucestershire 302 to win off a minimum of 56 overs.

Openers Chris Dent and Tavare both hit identical scores of 52 in response, and Leicestershire took five wickets for 64 once their stand was broken, but bad light ended play 8.4 overs early as the match ended in stalemate.

“We set up a nice game with a reasonable chase, so it was unfortunate the conditions had the final say, but it's the third consecutive game we've driven and we have to be pleased about that,” said Leicestershire Head Coach Andrew McDonald.

With a lead of 146 the Leicestershire openers went about extending the lead quickly but both departed within the first six overs.

Ned Eckersley (6) skied one in the air from the bowling of Liam Norwell and Benny Howell made up the ground to take a superb catch at mid-wicket. Norwell soon picked up his second wicket of the innings, finding the edge of Angus Robson (4) with Gloucestershire’s wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick taking a regulation catch.

Skipper Mark Cosgrove hit a brisk 21 off 23 balls before he attempted a big hit and was lbw to Howell, although his side had now lengthened the lead to 200 at this stage.

Two big contributors from the first innings Redfern and Aadil Ali were now paired together and looked intent on scoring swiftly. Unfortunately Ali (12) could not repeat his first innings heroics as he went to Kieran Noema-Barnett, who took an instinctive return catch in the final over before lunch.

With a declaration looming in the near future the Foxes finished the first session 87-4 with a lead of 233 runs.

Redfern continued with his offensive approach after lunch and hit several boundaries that went crashing to the ropes. However he continued to lose partners as Niall O’Brien (2) was caught and bowled by David Payne while Norwell (10-1-48-3) struck for a third time in the innings, clean bowling Wayne White for 1.

One man who was not feeling the pressure was Redfern who reached an attractive 62-ball half-century that included seven fours but two more quick wickets fell in a Payne over to leave Leicestershire at 115-8.

First Ben Raine was run out for 6 when he called for a tight second run, however the fielder managed to quickly throw it in to the wicketkeeper to complete the dismissal. The very next ball saw Clint McKay go as Payne (10-0-43-2) broke his defences and took out the off stump.

Number 10 batsman Rob Taylor (17 not out) provided vital support to Redfern as the pair hit some valuable runs in extending the lead to 301. Redfern was eventually dismissed off the bowling of James Fuller when he edged behind to Roderick and that wicket brought about the declaration.

In response the visitors made a strong start with opening pairing Dent and Tavare bringing up their 50 partnership in the 12^th over to inject some real belief to their side.

They reached the tea interval at 58 without loss with a further 244 runs required to win the match. In the final session of the match the openers reached a 100 partnership without playing any extravagant shots along the way.

Dent soon moved on to make his second half-century of the match from just 68 balls before left arm seamer Taylor took the priceless wicket of Dent (52) caught and bowled. It halted the Gloucestershire momentum with the score at 108-1.

The new man in Roderick only managed 4 as Taylor struck again, this time trapping the batsman lbw and bringing Peter Handscomb in to bat next.

Tavare and Handscomb began to knuckle down and the captain reached a well deserved half-century from 104 balls to set his team a solid platform.

However they would have to up the run rate in the latter stages and the introduction of Raine brought about a wicket. The settled Tavare (52) edged a wide ball through to O’Brien behind the stumps.

Another change of bowler brought further joy as White dismissed Hamish Marshall for a duck, getting his man lbw to set up a pulsating final 20 overs in which the visitors required 139 more runs and the Foxes needed 6 wickets.

The hosts appeared to have the upper hand when Howell (7) edged one behind to O’Brien. The 'keeper claimed his 50th Championship dismissal of the season to give Raine (10-4-22-2) a second wicket of the innings with Gloucestershire still 130 runs shy of victory.

With just five wickets intact Handscomb (39 not out) and Kieran Noema-Barnett (22 not out) played sensibly to take their side to 212-5 when bad light ended proceedings.

So unfortunately there were not quite enough overs left in the day to force a result despite the best efforts of both teams, so Leicestershire took 11 points from another encouraging performance while Gloucestershire ended with nine.

Leicestershire’s next game is the LV=CC encounter with Essex at Grace Road which starts on Monday, September 14 (10.30am start).