Former-Fox leads Durham to victory in Leicestershire

BLAST 3 | Leicestershire Foxes 168 for 9 v Durham Cricket 170 for 8 “ Durham won by two wickets

SCORECARD | Available from Cricinfo HERE

POINTS | Leicestershire Foxes 0, Durham Cricket 2

REPORT | Arron Lilley recorded career-best bowling figures, Josh Inglis posted his 1,000th career T20 run, Scott Steel recorded his 500th career T20 run, and Louis Kimber became the 118th player to represent the Running Foxes in T20 cricket, on a day of cricket where former-players came back to haunt Leicestershire.

Colin Ackermann won the toss at a sun soaked Uptonsteel County Ground and opted to bat for the first time this Blast campaign.

The first ball of the day brought up the milestone of 1,000 T20 runs in his career as Josh Inglis turned Liam Trevaskis away for a quick single from the first ball of the day.

Seven runs were posted in the first over, with 11 coming in the second as both Inglis and Scott Steel recorded boundaries off the bowling of Potts.

Coughlin came in for his first over of the day and claimed his first wicket of the afternoon, with his second ball, as Inglis was pinned infront for a 6-ball 7.

Lilley joined Steel in the middle and it took just one over for the partnership to increase the rate with Lilley posting the first six of the game off the bowling of Coughling.

The powerplay then came to an end with the Running Foxes on 52 for one.

The second wicket partnership continued to score at a high rate, as Steel posted his first maximum of the afternoon. Lilley then replied in the next over with back-to-back sixes off Borthwick as the partnership neared its fifty.

The fifty for the duo was brought up in the seventh over as Lilley claimed a single off Ben Raine, with Leicestershire on 68 for one.

The wicket of Lilley fell two balls later as he was caught by Borthwick in the leg side as he looked to send Raine for six. Lilley’s innings came to an end on 31 from 21 balls.

Ackermann came in and posted an 8-ball 10 alongside Steel before being bowled by Raine who claimed his second of the afternoon.

The partnership of Hill and Steel then saw the former bring up his second half-century of the campaign, coming from 37 balls, including five fours and two sixes.

Steel reached 53, before falling to the bowling of Trevaskis.

Rishi Patel came in and joined Hill in the middle, with the latter going on to accelerate the rate for the Running Foxes. The Leicestershire-born batsmen recorded his first three boundaries of the afternoon in the fifteenth over, off the bowling of Coughlin.

Patel then chimed in with his first maximum of the afternoon, off the bowling of Potts “ this also saw the Running Foxes over the 150-run mark.

Patel went from the first ball of the next over as he was caught by Trevaskis off Raine for 17(13b).

Potts then claimed three wickets from the penultimate over, with Hill falling first for a 20-ball 29, followed by Mike (5, 5b) and Kimber on debut (0, 2b).

Callum Parkinson and Naveen began the final over, bowled by Raine. The duo didn’t manage to close out the innings though, as Parkinson was run-out for 2(3b).

Gavin Griffiths (0no, 1b) emerged and saw the final two balls out alongside Naveen (3no, 3b) as the Running Foxes ended on 168 for nine.

Durham got their reply underway as David Bedingham opened the batting and claimed his first maximum of the day off Callum Parkinson’s second delivery. Bedingham and Durham claimed 20 from the first over.

The first Durham wicket fell in the second over as Arron Lilley caught Graham Clark (1, 4b) at deep mid-wicket off Ackermann.

Durham fought back well in the next two overs, conceding a total of nine runs from both. Ben Raine then claimed his first six of the afternoon, off the bowling of Ackermann as Durham posted ten in the fourth.

Bedingham was going at a rate of knots but soon fell foul to Naveen as he looked to post his fifth six off the Afghani. Ben Mike was under the batsmen’s high drive at long on to see the Durham opener off for a 19-ball 38.

Durham's powerplay came to an end on 58 for two, six ahead of where the Running Foxes were at this point of their innings.

A single and two wickets from the eighth over saw the Running Foxes right back into the contest.

First, confusion in the middle between Bancroft (7, 7b) and Raine saw the Durham skipper run-out, after some reactive fielding from Parkinson. The skipper then stepped up to clatter Raine’s middle peg for a 14-ball 17.

Parkinson bowled a tight over, conceding just four runs from to try and put the squeeze on the batsmen in the middle.

The next over saw two further Durham wickets fall, as Lilley claimed his first and second wickets.

First, Burnham went for 2(5b) as he guided his reverse-sweep to Naveen who took the catch, diving forward at short third man. The Foxes man then brought his second over to an end with his second wicket, pinning Coughlin infront for 3(3b).

Another wicket fell in the next over, this time it was Parkinson, who claimed his first wicket of the 2021 Vitality Blast campaign.

Brydon Carse (1, 3b) was the man to go as he clipped one straight to Ackermann at mid-wicket who took the simple catch. Durham were 85 for seven with nine overs remaining.

A sixteen run over was followed by Durham’s eighth wicket which saw Lilley record career-best T20 bowling figures of 4-0-26-3.

Lilley’s third wicket was Scott Borthwick as the Foxes man pinned the batsman infront for 12(6b).

The Running Foxes were squeezing Durham with their attack as Parkinson and Ackermann recorded consecutive overs of just four conceded runs each.

Parkinson brought his allotted overs to an end on 4-0-35-1, and Ackermann finished with figures of 4-0-19-2.

With four overs remaining, the visitors required 49 runs with an all-seam attack remaining.

An over of nine, followed by 15 meant that Durham headed into the penultimate over requiring 23 for the win.

Naveen began the nineteenth over with a no-ball, conceding three runs it. A four followed from the third ball of the over, and then gets banned from finishing his final over of the innings following two beamers.

Ben Mike stepped up to finish off the over with Eckersley recording his first six of the innings when Durham required five.

Eckersley (50no, 36b) and Trevaskis (30no, 20) saw the visitors home, after coming together in the fourteenth over with Durham sitting on 108, requiring a further 61 runs with just two wickets remaining.

FIGURES | Trevaskis 4-0-30-1, Potts 4-0-27-3, Coughlin 3-0-30-1, Carse 3-0-39-0, Borthwick 2-0-20-0, Raine 4-0-19-3

Parkinson 4-0-35-1, Ackermann 4-0-19-2, Naveen 3.5-0-46-1, Griffiths 2-0-21-0, Lilley 4-0-26-3, Mike 1.1-0-22-0

FOXES | Ackermann (C), Griffiths, Hill, Inglis (wk), Kimber, Lilley, Mike, Naveen, Patel, Parkinson, Steel

DURHAM | Clark, Bedingham, Raine, Bancroft (C), Borthwick, Burnham, Eckersley (wk), Coughlin, Carse, Trevaskis, Potts

IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallet of Outside Off for supplying images throughout the game.

MATCH SPONSOR | We would like to thank Wasteline Services for sponsoring our Vitality Blast fixture against Durham Cricket.