Foxes fall to defeat to group leaders

 BLAST 5 | Leicestershire Foxes 155 v Birmingham Bears 190 for seven “ Birmingham Bears win by 35 runs.

SCORECARD | Available from Cricinfo HERE

POINTS | Leicestershire Foxes 0, Birmingham Bears 2

REPORT | Ben Mike claims career-best figures in T20 cricket with the ball however, the Running Foxes fail to chase Birmingham Bears' target. 

Leicestershire Foxes returned to the Uptonsteel County Ground on the back of four straight defeats in the 2021 Vitality Blast competition.

The opponents, Birmingham Bears, visited Leicestershire having won three of the four opening fixtures.

The news from the middle was that the Running Foxes won and opted to bowl, as Head Coach Paul Nixon made one change to the XI with Ed Barnes coming in to make his T20 debut for Leicestershire, with Gavin Griffiths the man missing out.

Scott Steel opened the bowling from the Pavilion End, with his first over with the ball in hand for Leicestershire.

Colin Ackermann took the ball from the Bennett End for his first over of the evening, and Naveen bowled the first over of pace of the evening in the third over.

Pace did the trick, or lack of, as Pollock (8, 6b) lofted Naveen’s slower ball high into the sky down to short fine-leg. Ed Barnes was on hand to take the impressive grab on debut.

Naveen claimed his second wicket from his second over, as the slower ball now deceived danger-man Pieter Malan as he guided his drive straight to the hands of Louis Kimber at mid-on for 22(20b).

The powerplay came to an end for the Bears following Barnes’ first over of the evening. The visitors sat on 42 for two after the first six.

Bears posted their first double figure over in the seventh, culminating in Will Rhodes cracking a four down to long off and into the Sky Sports pod based in front of the Pavilion. Parkinson responded in the next over, conceding just three from it.

At the halfway mark, Bears had posted 81 runs for two wickets with Rhodes (34no, 22b) and Hain (16no,12b).

An expensive over followed for the Foxes with 14 coming off it, though, Lilley followed up with a tight over, restricting the batsmen to just six.

Rhodes brought up his fifty in the fourteenth over with his third six coming in 31 balls, along with four fours.

A series of expensive overs for the Running Foxes ended with the big wicket of Will Rhodes, after the batsmen pulled Parkinson straight to the hands of Ben Mike deep in the leg side for 79(40b).

Carlos Brathwaite replaced the Bears skipper and brought an end to the sixteenth over with his first six off Parkinson.

Two wickets in the eighteenth over for Ben Mike saw Haine (45, 34b) and Brathwaite (9, 6b) off thanks to safe hands from both Lewis Hill and Louis Kimber.

Naveen finished his four overs in the penultimate over, finishing with superb figures of 4-0-20-2.

Mike then brought the game to a close with two further wickets, bringing his total to four for the evening, following a caught and bowled of Burgess (7, 7b) and a catch by Lilley at deep point of Mousley for 3(5b).

Bears brought their innings to an end on 190 for seven with Bresnan on 6(2b) and Briggs on 4(1b).

The Running Foxes posted twelve off the first over, thanks to two fours from Inglis, though, the Leicestershire-man lost his wicket from the fourth ball of the innings for 8(4b). Bowled by Briggs.

Lilley got off the mark with a four straight away off Briggs. Back-to-back overs of nine runs, both concluding with a Scott Steel four then followed, before the second wicket fell for Leicestershire in the fourth.

Lilley was the man to go, stumped by Burgess for 8(9b) off the bowling of Briggs. Ackermann then got his innings underway with an immediate boundary off the Birmingham man.

The Foxes then lost their third wicket, just before the powerplay came to a close. The wicket to fall was Ackermann 9(4b), caught by Hain off Bresnan.

The Foxes reached the halfway point in their innings on 77 for three, after Rishi Patel swept Lintott away for his first boundary of the evening.

The ton was then brought up for the Running Foxes, as Lewis Hill flicked Brathwaite into the leg side for a single off his first ball faced “ the ball prior saw the wicket of Patel (30, 25b) claimed by the Bears' overseas man, caught by Lintott at deep square leg.

Two wickets in the same over saw Steel’s innings come to an end first, stumped by Burgess off Briggs for 46(38b). Louis Kimber (2, 2b) was then ran out four balls later following some impressive fielding by Miles.

The wickets of Ben Mike (9, 6b), Callum Parkinson (1, 2b), Naveen (4, 3b) and Ed Barnes (7, 6b) fell in consecutive overs with the Running Foxes falling 35 runs short.  

FIGURES | Steel 2-0-18-0, Ackermann 2-0-28-0, Naveen 4-0-20-2, Parkinson 4-0-32-1, Barnes 3-0-34-0, Lilley 3-0-34-0, Mike 2-0-22-4

Briggs 4-0-35-3, Bresnan 4-0-29-3, Brathwaite 4-0-28-2, Miles 3-0-21-1, Lintott 4-0-26-0, Rhodes 1-0-12-0

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

BEARS | Malan, Pollock, Rhodes (C), Hain, Brathwaite, Burgess (wk), Mousley, Bresnan, Briggs, Lintott, Miles

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

MATCH SPONSOR | We would like to thank The Commercial Flooring Company for sponsoring our Vitality Blast fixture against Birmingham Bears.