Foxes edged out by Jets
Sun 5 Jun 2016
Royal London One-Day Cup Matchday 1: Leicestershire Foxes v Durham Jets
Leicestershire Foxes and Durham Jets were involved in a great advert for the Royal London One-Day Cup game, the visitors edging a high-scoring thriller on a terrific wicket by a 11-run margin.
A total of 669 runs were amassed on a glorious day in an opening 50-over game of the season that could have gone either way at the Fischer County Ground.
Durham’s top three made sizeable contributions in a total of 340-6, captain Mark Stoneman (93, 113b) and Phil Mustard (88, 70b) sharing an opening stand of 180 and Scott Borthwick (63, 53b) also posting a half-century.
The Foxes deserve credit for sticking to their task in the field and Rob Taylor was particularly impressive in taking a career-best 4-58 from his allocation.
Kevin O’Brien struck a brilliant 89 off 84 balls as he put on 115 for the third wicket with Mark Cosgrove and 71 with brother Niall O'Brien for the fourth.
But although the Foxes gave it everything and came close, Durham bowled impressively with their left arm seamer also returning record figures. Jamie Harrison took 4-40 from nine overs, including two maidens, as the Jets restricted the Foxes to 329-9.
The Foxes made one adjustment to the side that played against the Jets in NatWest T20 Blast yesterday as Taylor came in for Umar Akmal. Durham welcomed back Paul Collingwood and also brought in Harrison in place of Michael Richardson and Barry McCarthy.
Mark Pettini won the toss for the second day in succession and again invited Durham to bat first. At the time it was cool with some cloud cover but conditions soon brightened up.
The openers gave the Jets a flying start by bringing up the 100 in the 19th over. The left-handed duo were quick to latch into anything either overpitched or fractionally short with captain Stoneman facing more of the bowling in the early exchanges.
His half-century came from 57 deliveries and included seven boundaries, including three in an over from the bowling of Tom Wells.
Mustard hit the game’s first maximum in the next over, the 15th of the innings, and a flurry of runs in the 19th over saw him through to 50.
The left-hander struck Naik for four and six off consecutive deliveries before a single from the next ball took him to the landmark off just 48 deliveries (6x4, 2x6).
Mustard continued to cut loose, striking three fours and a maximum in the space of seven deliveries he faced as Durham’s 150 came up at the end of the 24th over. Stoneman then hit Kevin O’Brien for a brace of fours to join his opening colleague on 80 in the 26th over.
A fourth six from Mustard nestled on the top of the netting on the Geary Bar but he was dismissed in the 28th over, picking out Taylor at long-on from the bowling of Kevin O’Brien.
That brought another left-hander to the crease in Borthwick and the duo recorded the 200 in the 32nd over. The Foxes kept plugging away and a second wicket arrived when Stoneman drove back to Taylor with the score at 211 in the 34th over.
Those breakthroughs allowed the Foxes to regain some control, although Borthwick and Graham Clark (19) started to pick up the pace after getting settled. A timely third wicket arrived at the end of the 41st over as Taylor bowled Clark, the duo having added 48 in 7.1 overs.
Borthwick collected the fifth boundary of his innings off the returning Raine and progressed to 50 from the 43rd ball faced. He then drilled a further brace of fours through the leg side in the 43rd over.
The Foxes kept chipping away as Borthwick lost his middle stump to the impressive Taylor and Collingwood (9) drilled Clint McKay toCosgrove at backward point. Taylor completed his four-for as Ryan Pringle (1) holed out to Lewis Hill at deep mid-wicket.
Calum MacLeod (29*, 11b) and Keaton Jennings (22*, 11b), who played well for the Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast match yesterday evening, added 48 from the last 25 balls of the innings, including 16 off the final over.
Durham’s new ball attack of Chris Rushworth and Harrison made life tough and picked up a wicket apiece in the first powerplay. Pettini lost his middle stump to Rushworth having scored 9 before Neil Dexter nicked behind to ‘keeper Mustard.
Kevin O’Brien got off the mark between those wickets with a powerful pull for six and he also sent a drive racing to the cover boundary. Cosgrove then struck three successive fours as Usman Arshad entered the attack to record the Foxes’ 50 in the 12th over.
Spin was introduced at both ends and there were three successive fours in Borthwick’s first over - two coming from Kevin O’Brien’s blade including a beautiful inside-out shot over extra cover – while another delivery beat both batsman and ‘keeper.
Kevin O’Brien drove for four to record the team’s 100 and swept to the fence to join Cosgrove in the forties. The Ireland international won the race to 50 from 41 balls (6x4, 1x6) and after the stand moved into three figures, Cosgrove joined him from 48 deliveries (6x4).
The left-hander then produced fine pieces of timing off Borthwick to hit a four through the covers and a six over mid-off but the leggie gained revenge before the over was out, the left-hander striking to Collingwood at point.
That paired the O’Brien brothers together and the score progressed to 146-3 at halfway. Boundaries continued to flow as Kevin O’Brien cut firmly through backward point before Niall O’Brien tickled a couple off his pads and struck over mid-on.
A T20 scenario presented itself with 160 required off the final fifth of the game and though the team were three down, the O’Briens were well set.
Niall O’Brien struck back over the bowler’s head to bring up the 50 partnership with a four. A clip from the left hander in the same over from Jennings also raced down to fine leg.
It brought the target down to 142 off 18 overs when drinks were taken but although Niall O’Brien went on to hit his sixth four at the start of the 35th over, he fell to the very next delivery from Pringle as Borthwick took the catch at long-off.
Lewis Hill glanced Harrison away a four before a clean six over mid-off from the bowling of Rushworth meant the Foxes required 100 off 11.5 overs.
Hill carved backward of point for four in the next over but Harrison delivered a big blow, the left armer having Kevin O’Brien safely held by Jennings at long-off.
Durham reintroduced their spin twins with ten overs to go and although Hill swept a four off Borthwick in the 42nd, he departed for 31 in the next over, clean bowled by Pringle.
The Foxes needed 73 off the final seven overs with two new men at the crease – but you wouldn’t have known it as Raine struck a six in the 45th over before Wells planted two maximums and a one-bounce four to the on-side as 18 came from the next offering.
Suddenly Leicestershire now required 40 off 24 balls but the return of the seamers proved problematic. A Rushworth over yielded just five and Raine (16) was then well held by Usman Arshad at short fine leg off Harrison.
The bowler nearly claimed a second wicket in the over but Wells was dropped by Stoneman at cover, and although the batsman also narrowly survived a run out, he was trapped lbw by Rushworth at the start of the penultimate over with 29 still required.
It proved to be just too much for the Foxes, McKay perishing in the final over to Harrison courtesy of a catch by Pringle at long-off with Taylor ending 12 not out (7b), but they can take a lot of pride in the performance as they head to Edgbaston to take on Warwickshire in the competition on Tuesday (2pm).
Bowling figures for Leicestershire: McKay 10-0-55-1, Raine 10-0-61-0, Taylor 10-0-58-4, Wells 2-0-25-0, Naik 7-0-52-0, Dexter 9-0-56-0, K O’Brien 2-0-23-1.
