Foxes build lead of 194 against Middlesex

SCORE | Day 2 of 4, Specsavers County Championship: Leicestershire CCC 427 and 0-1 v Middlesex CCC 233

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REACTION | Gavin Griffiths spoke to BBC Radio Leicester's Rob Jones at stumps

REPORT | Leicestershire CCC produced another strong day of cricket to take a 194-run lead at the halfway stage of the Specsavers County Championship game against Middlesex CCC.

The Foxes extended their overnight total of 353 for 8 to 427 as Colin Ackermann and Gavin Griffiths posted career-best scores of 196 not out and 40 respectively.

And the team was batting again before the day was out as Middlesex CCC was bowled out for 233 after an excellent combined effort by the seam attack.

Zak Chappell took 4 for 61, Ben Raine picked up 3-49 while Griffiths and Muhammad Abbas chipped in with 2 for 63 and 1 for 29 respectively. Although a wicket was lost in the final over of the day, Leicestershire CCC will start day three in an excellent position.

Unbeaten batsmen Ackermann (151*) and Griffiths continued to play well to see off the threat posed by Tim Murtagh and Steven Finn in stretching their alliance to 90.

Griffiths collected a couple of boundaries through the off-side and also sent a ball racing through mid-wicket as in building on his overnight 18. The score was 391 for 8 at the end of 110 overs, so the bonus points went 4-2 in favour of Leicestershire CCC.

No.10 Griffiths departed ten runs short of a maiden first-class half-century when James Harris bowled a great ball that extracted some extra bounce, took the glove, and ballooned to Hilton Cartwright at point.

That wicket gave Ackermann licence to go for his strokes, and he struck the slow left arm of Ravi Patel for a delightful four through extra immediately followed by six over the head of the fielder on the long-on boundary.

Ackermann glanced a four down to fine-leg to post his highest total before sending a lovely drive rocketing through mid-on to move within one stroke of a double century.

It was not to be, however, as Abbas (1) edged Cartwright to Dawid Malan at second slip to leave the visitors a testing four-over batting period before lunch.

Despite narrowly missing out on a landmark, Ackermann’s brilliant knock beat the 187 posted for Warriors against Knights last year, and his innings means he is now the leading scorer across both divisions with 596 runs at a highly impressive 85.14.

Openers Sam Robson and Max Holden came through unscathed but the openers were dismissed as part of high-quality spells for Abbas and Raine.

Holden (16) was trapped in front by an Abbas delivery that nipped back off the seam while the consistent Raine extracted the edge of Robson (15) and Neil Dexter took the catch low at third slip.

Stevie Eskinazi came through the new ball test but Leicestershire CCC’s change bowlers kept the pressure on. Chappell bowled a terrific delivery to break the middle stump of Eskinazi (10) while Griffiths and Neil Dexter went close on a number of occasions.

Seamer Griffiths found the edges of Paul Stirling when on 1, the ball bursting the hands of Dexter at fourth slip, and Malan, on 15, with the ball dipping on Cosgrove at second slip. He also had a couple of lbw appeals, while Malan drove at Dexter but saw the chance go down at gully.

Runs started to flow as Stirling put bat to ball, including a number of handsome cover drives, while Malan also latched on to overpitched deliveries as the stand reached 76 by tea.

A further four runs were added after the interval as Stirling reached 50 before Raine struck for a second time, enticing the batsman to pull to Dearden at mid-wicket.

Malan battled his way to a 77-ball 50 (8x4) as part of a 60-run stand with Cartwright which saw Middlesex to 200 for 4.

But an inspired period by Chappell and Griffiths saw the Foxes get on top as five wickets were claimed for the addition of only 13 runs.

Cartwright (33) skied an attempted pull off Chappell to Cosgrove, John Simpson (2) was pinned in front by a Griffiths yorker, Chappell brought successive deliveries back to trap Harris (5) and Finn (0) lbw, and Patel was bowled by Griffiths.

Malan and Murtagh, who earlier finished with figures of 5 for 60 off 28 overs, added 20 more runs but Murtagh was bowled by Raine, leaving the England batsman unbeaten on 78.

Facing the final twelve balls was never going to be an easy assignment for the Leicestershire CCC openers, and Paul Horton played the 11th delivery of the innings on to his stumps.

TEAM | Dearden, Horton (capt), Ackermann, Cosgrove, Dexter, Hill (wk), Raine, Chappell, Parkinson, Griffiths, Abbas.

FIGURES | Raine 17.2-4-53-3, Abbas 13-4-29-1, Griffiths 15-2-63-2, Chappell 14-0-65-4, Dexter 5-0-17-0.

PHOTO | Thanks to John Mallett for the photo of Colin Ackermann.

* Admission to the third day's play against Middlesex CCC costs £12 for adults and £3 for under 16s. You can also follow the Foxes at the Fischer County Ground for the rest of 2018 with a Half Season Membership. For further details on the advantages of joining us, please follow the link HERE