Foxes take charge at halfway stage

Worcestershire versus Leicestershire, Specsavers County Championship, Day 2:

SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE

INTERVIEW | Ned Eckersley spoke to BBC Radio Leicester's Richard Rae at stumps HERE

HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the second day are available HERE

REPORT | Ned Eckersley continued his fine career record against Worcestershire before Leicestershire’s seamers took advantage of his work on an excellent day for the Foxes at New Road.

Eckersley has made three of his 10 first-class centuries against the Pears – all during a prolific 2013 season where he scored 1,302 first-class runs – and went very close to adding another in this Specsavers County Championship encounter, scoring 92 not out as Leicestershire posted 409 all out in their first innings.

The batsman, who has scored 515 runs at an average of 73.57 in eight first-class cricket versus Worcestershire, today shared useful stands of 55 and 69 for the eighth and ninth wickets with Ben Raine and Richard Jones respectively.

Worcestershire started with promise and were 135-1 at one stage of the final session with Daryl Mitchell and Tom Fell each having registered half-centuries but the Foxes stormed back to leave their hosts 193-7 at stumps, still 65 short of avoiding the follow-on.

A single from Raine in the first over of the morning had recorded Leicestershire’s third batting point and Eckersley then progressed to 50 from 99 balls with the ninth four of an important innings.

The duo extended their alliance with Eckersley beyond 50 and Leicestershire were at 334-7 after 110 overs, meaning the visitors claimed three batting points while Worcestershire took two bowling points.

Progress was checked two balls later as Raine, who struck three fours in 25, was caught and bowled by D’Oliveira.

Leicestershire kept accumulating as Eckersley, whose tenth four was only the fourth conceded by Shantry in 20 parsimonious overs, found another willing ally in Jones (33). The former Worcestershire seamer injected impetus with four boundaries in the space of five overs and Eckersley also added another four in that period.

After the stand reached 50 at the start of the 122nd, Eckersley upped the ante by striking a trio of fours off the remainder of Joe Leach’s over to take the score beyond 400.

The alliance was ended as Ed Barnard ended Jones's fun to end with a career-best 4-62, and D’Oliveira also claimed his fourth wicket by trapping Charlie Shreck leg before, leaving Eckersley eight short of reaching three figures.  

Pears openers Mitchell and D’Oliveira took the score to 38 before Clint McKay struck for a 32nd time in the competition in 2016, having the latter caught for 18 at mid-on by Jones.

That brought Fell to the wicket and the 22-year-old, batting for the first time in a senior match after recovering from two battles with cancer, was warmly greeted on his home ground with applause ringing out on the long walk to the middle.

Fell was the dominant scorer in a stand that yielded 69 before the break with Mitchell. The number three batsman found the boundary on eight occasions to go in on 44.

That was two ahead of Mitchell with Worcestershire’s score at 107-1, the skipper showing the patience and determination that he has become renowned for.

Fell was first to a fluent 50 after the interval with a brace of fours in the 37^th over bowled by Raine, while Mitchell’s patient effort, coming from 124 balls, was brought up courtesy of his fourth boundary.

The duo looked set to register a 100 partnership but a much-needed breakthrough arrived courtesy of a sharp piece of work by Horton, whose throw from point accounted for Mitchell.

As so often happens, one set batsman quickly followed the other as Fell (61) nicked Raine to Eckersley.

Suddenly Leicestershire had opened both ends up with the score at 140-3 and although Clarke settled quickly with three fours in Jones’ eighth over, Tom Kohler-Cadmore was lbw to Shreck for 8 and Ross Whiteley (5) fell in similar fashion to McKay.

The Foxes did not stop there as Mark Cosgrove and Neil Dexter, who have developed a canny knack of picking up wickets at key times this term, both struck before stumps.

Ollie Cox (2) edged the captain to Robson at slip while Clarke, who had seen four wickets fall while he compiled a composed 34, was then bowled by Dexter as the final act of a good day for Leicestershire.

Bowling figures for Leicestershire: McKay 14-5-32-2, Jones 9-1-47-0, Raine 11-3-35-1, Dexter 11.4-3-27-1, Shreck 16-5-29-1, Taylor 3-1-6-0, Robson 1-0-7-0, Cosgrove 1-0-1-1.