Foxes fire to first 50-over win
Tue 26 Jul 2016
Royal London One-Day Cup Matchday 6: Leicestershire Foxes v Lancashire Lightning
REPORT | Leicestershire Foxes performed extremely well in all three disciplines to open their Royal London One-Day Cup account with a 131-run win against Lancashire Lightning at the Fischer County Ground.
Mark Pettini (92, 99b) and Mark Cosgrove (91, 81b) led from the front with scores in the 90s and their alliance of 140 for the third wicket in 19.1 overs helped the Foxes put a healthy 307-8 on the board.
Lightning moved to 74-0 in reply but a period in which they then lost four wickets for 30 in nine overs proved decisive.
Neil Dexter was in the thick of the action, taking a career-best 4-22 after making useful runs at the end of the Foxes innings, while Rob Sayer (8-0-31-1) also bowled beautifully.
Leicestershire handed a debut to left arm seamer Dieter Klein as one of four changes to the side that lost to Yorkshire Vikings at the weekend. Cameron Delport, Michael Burgess and Ollie Freckingham also came in with Angus Robson, Ben Raine, Clint McKay and Kevin O’Brien not playing.
Horton and Pettini immediately struck up a rapport at the top of the order as they shared 50 inside 11 overs.
The duo were quick to seize on anything loose with Horton (32, 41b) finding the fence on five occasions before being trapped lbw by former teammate Tom Smith.
The wicket did not check progress as Delport (25, 27b) quickly got into his stride, including an imperious drive through extra that was one of three early boundaries.
Steven Croft introduced spin from both ends – including himself down the hill – and Pettini guided a couple of fours down to third man as he closed in on 50, a landmark he would reach off 65 balls (5x4).
The opener went on to pull Smith away to bring up the 150 when Croft switched back to seam from the Bennett End while Cosgrove used his feet to plant through extra before sweeping to collect boundaries off the slow left arm of Stephen Parry.
The duo continued to up the ante with Cosgrove again penetrating the off-side field before striking over mid-on in recording a 51-ball half-century (5x4) while Pettini also struck in that region between those strokes.
Cosgrove and Pettini took their alliance to 100 in 15.1 overs and the left-hander belted Clark through mid-on to take the score to 200 in the next over, the 36th of the innings.
There was the odd moment of fortune, as Pettini nicked past the ‘keeper and an inside edge from Cosgrove found its way to fine leg, but most of the shots were played with great authority and Leicestershire had a perfect platform.
To their credit, Lightning stuck to their task, with Nathan Buck (10-0-55-2) particularly impressive on his return to the FCG.
Pettini looked set for three figures but narrowly missed out when Smith returned to dismiss him in identical fashion to opening partner Horton.
The score progressed to 236-3 with ten overs to go and another powerful stroke down the ground from Cosgrove brought an 11th four while Hill picked up his first boundary down to backward square leg.
Buck then collected a big wicket courtesy of one of the catches of the season after Cosgrove (91) looked to have done enough to clear long-off. An outstanding piece of work saw Croft keep the ball in play in mid-air from outside the rope before returning to the field to take the catch.
The seamer claimed a second wicket by bowling Hill (15) and Parry pinned Burgess (1) leg before on the sweep as the visitors kept a lid on the rate.
Impetus was injected by Niall O’Brien (21 not out, 15b) and Dexter, who added 37 for the seventh wicket in just 19 deliveries. O’Brien struck two clean strokes back over the head of bowler Kyle Jarvis, the second of which umpire Paul Baldwin did extremely well to get out of the way of.
Dexter launched a four and two sixes in Parry’s last offering including one huge maximum that cleared the Illingworth Suite, his entertaining cameo off 21 off 10 balls ending when a perfect yorker from Jarvis uprooted middle stump.
The paceman then claimed a second wicket when Sayer (1) holed out to Croft, who never looked like dropping the ball despite having to make up a lot of ground coming in from long-on.
The Lightning openers responded with a 50 partnership of their own, Smith twice finding the ropes in the opening over off Freckingham before taking Klein for three fours in the fourth.
Peterson, who made a terrific NatWest T20 Blast century against the Foxes earlier this month, also got into his stride, so it was a huge boost when Sayer beat an attempted reverse sweep and O’Brien took the bails off to end his stay at 24 (40b).
The off-spinner again caught the eye this afternoon, mixing his pace and length nicely to make scoring difficult for the visiting batsmen.
Smith moved to 50 from 47 balls, hitting eight fours along the way, but the Foxes had an opening and made the most of it.
Karl Brown (11) struck Dexter to Freckingham at deep mid-wicket before a great moment for Horton, who claimed his first ever wicket against his old county. It was a crucial one too, Smith driving to Hill at mid-off having scored 56 off 58 balls.
Lightning lost another wicket when Luke Procter (8) dragged Dexter on to his off stump and from 74 without loss, Lancashire were now at 104-4.
Croft and England Lions international Liam Livingstone are both dangerous – the latter proving that with two pulled fours in the 30th over - but the run rate had crept up and Lightning required 168 with 20 overs to go.
Now was the time for a breakthrough and It was Dexter’s golden arm that again did the trick, the all-rounder finding the outside edge of Livingstone (28, 34b) that O’Brien took nonchalantly standing up to the wicket.
Delport built on his good work by taking another two key wickets in the space of two deliveries. Clark (14) was well-held by a diving Horton at long-on before Croft was lured into a drive, the ball finding its way into the stumps off a thick inside edge.
Lightning were now in trouble at 162-7 in the 35th over and they could not recover. Klein collected his first Foxes wicket when disturbing Parry’s stumps and went on to dismiss Tom Moores, smartly caught by Cosgrove at cover, while Dexter made it four inbetween his strikes by bowling Jarvis.
It was the Foxes first win in the competition since the 2014 season and they now face Notts Outlaws twice at the end of this week, firstly in NatWest T20 Blast on Friday night at Trent Bridge before an FCG meeting in the Royal London One-Day Cup on Sunday.
Bowling figures for Leicestershire: Freckingham 7-0-36-0, Klein 7.3-0-38-2, Sayer 8-0-31-1, Delport 8-0-41-2, Dexter 7-0-22-4, Horton 2-0-7-1.
