Faultless Foxes land priceless win at leaders
Wed 22 Jun 2016
Essex versus Leicestershire, Specsavers County Championship, Day 4:
SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE
INTERVIEW | Elite Performance Director Andrew McDonald speaks to BBC Radio Leicester’s Richard Rae HERE
HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the final day are available HERE
REPORT | Leicestershire produced a magnificent final day performance to land a precious victory at Division Two leaders Essex.
The hosts resumed 47 ahead with nine second innings wickets intact and although ten overs were lost today to go with the second day washout, Leicestershire won by a four-wicket margin in the penultimate over of proceedings.
It was a success of all-round excellence as the bowlers consistently got the ball moving around before the batsmen knocked off a tricky target of 159 in 33 overs.
Clint McKay matched his first innings four-for to move to 31 Championship wickets while Ben Raine, Charlie Shreck and Rob Taylor offered terrific support by taking two wickets apiece. Essex, who had no answer to Leicestershire’s swing quartet, were dismissed for 133.
Angus Robson passed 50 for the fifth time in six innings on this ground and his partnership of 63 in just 7.1 overs for the third wicket with Mark Cosgrove (38 off 21 balls), who injected impetus at just the right time, went a long way to securing victory.
Essex kept fighting until the end but Leicestershire held their nerve to pick up 20 points and close the gap on their opponents to 14 points with a game in hand.
Leicestershire took three wickets for the addition of just 44 runs in the morning session but were frustrated by bad light with only 18 overs bowled either side of a 40-minute stoppage.
Nightwatchman Matt Quinn’s 43-ball vigil ended on 10 when he hooked McKay backward of square straight into Raine’s hands in the sixth over of the day.
The gloomy Chelmsford skies were then brightened by a blinding one-handed catch by Leicestershire wicket-keeper Ned Eckersley. Opener Jaik Mickleburgh (18) tried to flick a delivery from Raine down the leg-side, gloved it, and Eckersley raced 15 yards to his left, tumbling as the ball dropped to snatch it around leg gully.
The players then left the field with the light deteriorating further and the delay meant that 10 overs were deducted from the day’s allocation. Almost immediately Charlie Shreck found extravagant bounce and had dangerman Ravi Bopara (2) caught behind to a more routine catch by Eckersley.
The other first innings half-centurion, Tom Westley, was still there at lunch having found the boundary four times in his unbeaten 25. Essex were 66-4 at the interval, with Dan Lawrence yet to score.
Essex lost Westley without addition to the third ball after lunch, lbw to Taylor, and suddenly the home side were on the back foot - only 91 runs ahead with five wickets left and 67.3 overs still to be bowled.
Taylor nearly made it worse when Jesse Ryder, then on 20, drove back to the bowler but the chance went to ground. However, after adding one more run, Ryder was bowled middle stump, leaving alone McKay’s first ball of a new spell that cut back in at him.
McKay also accounted for captain Ryan ten Doeschate, caught at point by a diving Neil Dexter for a quickfire 17 while Lawrence’s steady 48-ball stay was ended on 22 when he edged Raine to Robson at first slip.
Essex led by 158 at tea with two wickets in hand and the start of the final session of the game could not have gone any better for Leicestershire as the hosts were dismissed quickly without adding to their score.
Firstly James Foster (3) left a Shreck delivery and saw it disturb the pegs before David Masters (4) became the second lbw victim of Taylor.
Leicestershire now had a chase that was testing but well within their sights given the form of the batsmen this term.
Robson had a couple of early scares but was soon playing a key role in a winning cause at Chelmsford for the second year in a row.
The openers rotated the strike and each struck two boundaries in an alliance of 37 in 11.4 overs that gave Leicestershire the platform they required. The first wicket fell when Paul Horton pulled Bopara to mid-on having made 15 and Taylor was promoted to bat at number three.
Although the 50 came up in the 14th over as Robson hit a calculated stroke over mid-wicket to pick up a brace off Bopara, Taylor fell in the next offering, bowled by Quinn for 4, with Leicestershire at 53-2.
The next partnership was key, Cosgrove providing the fireworks with six fours and a maximum while Robson continued to play sensibly and also found the fence on three occasions, starting with a stroke off Bopara that just cleared ten Doeschate at mid-on.
After the target came down into double figures, Cosgrove edged Quinn over the slips before smashing consecutive Bopara deliveries over mid-on and through mid-wicket at the end of the 18th over.
The opener then guided Quinn above the cordon while Cosgrove again struck through mid-wicket before Robson progressed to his second 50 of the game from 62 balls (4x4) with a comfortable single.
Robson clipped Masters to the ropes before Cosgrove hit successive Porter deliveries for four and six in the square-leg region at the start of the 21st over to record the 50 stand off just 33 deliveries.
Leicestershire’s target was suddenly under 50 with 12 overs to go and another four arrived as Cosgrove struck handsomely down the ground. Masters gained revenge before the over was out as the skipper top-edged to Mickleburgh, who took a low effort at long leg.
Mark Pettini hit an all-boundary 16 to keep the charge going but Essex did not give up. Their reward was two wickets with the score at 133, Pettini and Robson both held by ten Doeschate at mid-on from the respective bowling of Bopara and Masters to leave Leicestershire needing 25 off 7.5 overs.
Aadil Ali (7) picked up a boundary off Masters but was then strangled down the leg-side off Bopara with 17 still required off 4.5 overs.
Another important four arrived as Dexter nicked one over the cordon and the required total was into single figures by the end of the 30th over. Eckersley nervelessly dispatched the last ball of the next offering to the ropes before Dexter completed the job with a two at the start of the penultimate over.
The result means Leicestershire moved ahead of Worcestershire and are now joint third with Gloucestershire; those counties provide the opposition in the next three Specsavers County Championship matches.
Gloucestershire visit the Fischer County Ground on Monday before the Foxes head for New Road and Cheltenham College for their two four-day fixtures in July. It promises to be an exciting period of action.
Leicestershire bowling figures: McKay 20-9-37-4, Raine 18-6-41-2, Dexter 4-2-5-0, Shreck 10-4-13-2, Taylor 9.3-2-34-2
