Foxes Claim Victory in the North via DLS

BLAST 12 | Durham Cricket 115 for four v Leicestershire Foxes 88 for two “ Foxes won by 8 wickets (DLS method)

SCORECARD | Available from Cricinfo HERE

POINTS | Durham Cricket 0, Leicestershire Foxes 2

REPORT | Gavin Griffiths claimed his 50^th career T20 wicket as the Running Foxes claimed victory in the North via the DLS method.

The news from the middle at Emirates Riverside is that Colin Ackermann won the toss and put the hosts in to open the batting.

The Running Foxes got off to a quick start with Parkinson claiming a wicket from the fourth ball of the contest. Bedingham (1, 2b) was the man to go after lofting the left-arm spinners delivery straight to the hands of Ackermann in the covers.

The wicket of Bedingham meant that Parkinson had recorded his best wicket-taking season in T20 cricket, surpassing the 15 scalps he claimed in both the 2017 and 2018 campaigns.

The wickets kept falling in the powerplay for the home side, as Naveen chipped in with two of his own in the fourth over, in similar fashion to last night.

Stokes (8, 12b) was the first to go as he clipped one down to the hands of Parkinson at fine leg.

Durham Skipper, Bancroft, then came and went without troubling the scorers as he ramped one high into the sky down to deep third man where Parkinson ran in to pouch comfortably.

The hosts managed to make it through to the end of the powerplay with their fourth wicket intact, as Clark and Dickson occupied the crease with Durham on 36 for three.

The halfway point was reached in the hosts’ innings with them sitting on 69 for three, and the fourth wicket partnership adding a sense of stability following the three early wickets.

The 45-run stand was then brought to an end, though, from the third ball of the eleventh over as Patel caught Clark’s low drive for 40(33b) at cover off the bowling of Griffiths, who claimed his 50^th T20 career wicket in 58 games.

The hosts’ first two overs of double figure scores helped them on their way to bringing up their ton on 13.1, as Eckersley turned Mike’s first delivery of the evening into the leg side for a quick single.

Parkinson’s spell then came to an end with an over of six, to finish his four with figures of 4-0-23-1.

Play then came to a halt after Griffiths bowled the first ball of his third over as the umpire’s pulled the players off the field as a result of the persistent rainfall. Play was officially stopped at 19:24.

Time was eventually called on the Durham innings at 20:30, with DLS equating that the Running Foxes required 88 from 9 over with play due to restart and 9:10pm.

Play restarted in Durham with Steel and Inglis at the crease with the latter on strike, as Crawshaw opened the bowling for the hosts.

Two fours from Inglis from the first two balls of the over set the Foxes on their way with 10 recorded from the first over.

The second over then brought the first Foxes’ wicket as Steel was run out by a combination of Dickson and Eckersley from the final ball of the over, with four recorded off it leaving Leicestershire on 14 for one.

The Foxes powerplay came to an end after 2.4 overs with Leicestershire on 17 for one and Stokes finishing off his first over of the evening.

Fourteen runs were recorded from the fourth over as Inglis hooked Carse for a huge maximum on to the top of the pavilion.

Lilley (5, 8b) lost his wicket from the first ball of the fifth over, caught and bowled “ at the second attempt “ by Stokes.

Inglis brought the innings to an end with his second six of the evening bringing the Foxes total to 43 for two after five.

Ackermann then posted his first three boundaries of the evening off the bowling of Potts to help the Foxes to 14 off it, sitting on 57 for two, off six.

Inglis was caught off the first ball of Raine’s first over, however, it was signalled a no ball by the umpires, rewarding the Foxes two further runs in addition to the one run ran.

Raine went on to bowl two wides in what ended up as a 9-ball over which saw the Foxes record sixteen off it, after Inglis brought it to a close with his fourth four of the innings.

With two overs remaining, the Foxes required 15 further runs.

A fortuitous top-edge from Ackermann sent the ball flying over the head of Eckersley and away for four as the Foxes recorded seven from the penultimate over, leaving themselves eight more runs for the win.

Raine took the ball for the final over and watched as Ackermann recorded back-to-back boundaries from the first two balls of it to steer the Running Foxes to their fourth victory of the 2021 Vitality Blast competition.

FIGURES | Parkinson 4-0-23-1, Ackermann 3-0-31-0, Naveen 2-0-14-2, Griffiths 2.1-0-8-1, Steel 3-0-29-0, Mike 1-0-10-0

Crawshaw 1-0-10-0, Carse 2-0-18-1, Stokes 2-0-15-1, Potts 2-0-21-0, Raine 1.2-0-24-0

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

DURHAM | Bedingham, Clark, Stokes, Bancroft (C), Dickson, Eckersley (wk), Carse, Raine, Potts, Crawshaw, Campbell

IMAGES | Thanks to Will Matthews for supplying images throughout the game.