Foxes fall to defeat at New Road

BLAST 9 | Worcestershire Rapids 157 for three v Leicestershire Foxes 156 for seven “ Rapids won by seven wickets

SCORECARD | Available from Cricinfo HERE

POINTS | Worcestershire Rapids 2, Leicestershire Foxes 0

REPORT | Lewis Hill records a new career-best score in T20 cricket as he finishes with a flourish helping the Running Foxes to a competitive score following a testing innings at New Road.

A record stand for any wicket for Worcestershire against Leicestershire laid solid foundations for the hosts to claim victory.

The Running Foxes travelled across the Midlands to take on Worcestershire Rapids at New Road as they were on the hunt for their fourth victory in a row.

Both teams headed into the fixture on the back of victories, with the victor this afternoon looking to make moves up the North Group table.

The news from the middle at New Road was that the Running Foxes lost the toss with the hosts opting to field.

The Foxes got the batting underway, on a hybrid wicket that was being used for the third time in succession, following Rapids’ fixtures against Durham Cricket (June 25) and Yorkshire Vikings (June 16).

The first four overs yielded 34 runs for the Running Foxes with Inglis having posted five fours so far, including a three boundary over, off the bowling of Morris.

Steel had posted 13 runs from 15 balls before his wicket was up, as Pennington found the edge and Cox caught the Foxes man behind early in the fifth over.

Four balls later and Pennington had his second of the over, bowling Inglis for a 13-ball 21.

The Foxes’ third wicket was up in the next over, as Morris bowled Ackermann for 2(3b) with Rishi Patel joining Lilley (2no, 2b) in the middle.

The powerplay came to an end with the Foxes on 39 for three following three Leicestershire wickets for four runs across the fifth and sixth overs.

Lilley and Patel were restrained for the entirety of their 22-ball partnership recording just nine runs between them, before the Foxes’ fourth wicket fell. The man to go was Lilley (6, 9b) who looked to send Sodhi for the first maximum of the afternoon but was caught at long on by Wessels.

The halfway mark of the Foxes’ innings was up with them having posted 50 for four, with Patel and Hill in the middle.

After posting his first boundary of the afternoon from the first ball of the eleventh over, Patel guided a drive to Whiteley at deep midwicket from the first ball of the twelfth over and was dismissed for a 23-ball 14.

Louis Kimber recorded the first maximum of the afternoon, after crashing Sodhi away over midwicket and into the stands.

An over later, and Kimber and Hill both posted maximums with Hill’s bringing up the ton for the Running Foxes after 15.5 overs.

Hill went on to record successive sixes off Morris to begin the seventeenth over, with one crashed over long on and the other pulled down to fine leg and over the rope.

The sixty-run fifth wicket stand soon came to an end as Kimber (23, 17b) looked to send Dwarshius over midwicket for his third maximum but, was caught by Whiteley on the rope.

Lewis Hill was on his way to firing the Running Foxes to a competitive score in the end, but first brought up his maiden fifty of the season, coming from 28 balls, including 2 fours and four sixes.

Moments later, following two further fours, Hill recorded his career-best T20 score surpassing the previous record of 58 by just one.

His wicket was up on 19.4 before the Running Foxes recorded an innings score of 156 for seven, following 91 runs posted from the final seven overs of the innings.

The Foxes attack began the Rapids’ innings well, with the combination of Parkinson, Ackermann, Naveen and Griffiths holding the hosts to 42 runs in the first six overs, though, Worcestershire had all 10 wickets intact whereas the Foxes were three wickets down at the same point.

The halfway mark was reached in the hosts’ innings as a maximum from Wessels’ helped record their second double-figure over of the innings.

Rapids ended their first 10 overs on 76 without loss, below the rate but crucially, with their full 10 wickets still intact.

The partnership remained as it reached its hundredth run, becoming the highest ever wicket partnership for Worcestershire Rapids against Leicestershire Foxes.

Moments later and D’Oliveira posted his half-century, coming from 40 balls including six fours.

The very next ball saw the record-breaking first wicket partnership broken, as Lilley was underneath Wessels’ (46, 34b) slog sweep off the bowling of Parkinson, whose overs came to an end with figures of 4-0-20-1.

With five overs of the tie remaining, the hosts sat on 125 for one, requiring 32 further runs to claim the victory.

A second Rapids wicket fell in the sixteenth over as Libby (11, 10b) looked to pull Naveen away, but could only top-edge high into the sky down to third man, where Parkinson was running in to take the catch.

A third followed in the next over, as D’Oliveira (69, 53b) guided a Griffiths delivery to the hands of Lilley on the leg-side rope who took the catch.

Rapids required 15 runs from the final three overs.

An over of four from Steel followed by an over of six from Naveen, left the hosts requiring four from the final over of the day.

Griffiths was the man to bowl it, with Cox pulling his first delivery away for the four runs required.

Rapids cemented their seven wicket victory with five balls of the day remaining, as Cox (11no, 12b) and Whiteley (6no, 7b) saw the hosts through.

FIGURES | Dwarshius 4-0-23-2, Pennington 4-0-20-2, Morris 4-0-54-1, Sodhi 3-0-16-1, Barnard 2-0-11-0, Mitchell 3-0-29-1

Parkinson 4-0-20-1, Ackermann 4-0-31-0, Naveen 4-0-28-1, Griffiths 3.1-0-37-1, Steel 3-0-24-0, Lilley 1-0-9-0

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

RAPIDS | Wessels, D’Oliveira, Libby, Cox (C, wk), Mitchell, Whiteley, Dwarshius, Barnard, Sodhi, Pennington, Morris

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