Hampshire CCC Match Preview - 19/5/21

The Running Foxes continue their 2021 LV= County Championship campaign after a week’s hiatus, and travel down to Southampton to take on Hampshire CCC at the Ageas Bowl.

Last time County took to the field, they earned a draw at the Uptonsteel County Ground during a weather-affected four days against Surrey CCC.

The fixture saw Sam Evans, Marcus Harris, Lewis Hill and Chris Wright update the Honours Boards with three centuries and a five-fer posted in the innings.

The hosts head into the fixture on the back of a seven wicket victory against Middlesex last week, in a fixture that saw only 588 runs posted across the four days with 33 wickets taken.

The Season So Far:

After a rest week last week, the Running Foxes will be looking to build upon a very positive last outing in Group Two against Surrey.  We drew that rain-affected match in a dominant position, amassing 496 all out in our first innings and taking a 172-run lead following Surrey’s first innings. Fifteen points from the match was our highest return so far. 

Leicestershire’s record so far this season is two draws and three losses from our five matches, which have all been against Division One opposition, and again we face Division One opposition this week against Hampshire.

Our opponents have won three, drawn one and lost two of their six matches to date, and have accumulated 82 points so far this season - good enough for third place in a tightly contested top of the table. Last week, Hampshire defeated Middlesex by seven wickets at Lord’s, dismissing them for 172 and 101 in a low-scoring match, with Kyle Abbott taking 11 wickets. 

Last Time We Met:

The two teams met in the opening round of the season at the Uptonsteel County Ground, with Hampshire posting 612-5 on a flat pitch batting first. There were centuries from James Vince (231), Liam Dawson (152*) and Tom Alsop (119) in that innings from our visitors. 

Scoreboard pressure subsequently told, with Hassan Azad, Harry Dearden, Colin Ackermann and Harry Swindells all getting starts but unable to convert into a big score in our first innings 202. We made a better impression in our second innings, with fifties from Harry Dearden and Lewis Hill getting us to 305, but we eventually lost by an innings and 105 runs.

The Running Foxes:

After a lot of rain in the last week, our batting needs to be strong against Hampshire’s excellent bowling group and our overseas batsman, Marcus Harris, will be looking to add to his first century for the club in our draw with Surrey. Harris' 101 against Surrey last time out sees his average for the season rise to 42.40 and another strong display in Southampton would be huge for the Running Foxes.

Top of our run scoring charts is Lewis Hill, with our number five just one short of 500 runs already for the season - a superb achievement after just five matches and eight completed innings. Hill has scored one century (121) and four fifties so far already this season and will be keen to continue his strong start to the campaign which sees him 8th in the run-scorers list at the time of writing, and third of all players who have played just five matches.

Sam Evans was the first player in the country to score three centuries this season and our home-grown opener has arguably been the breakthrough young player of the season in the County Championship so far. He’s hit 407 runs at an average of 58.14 prior to the Hampshire match, and a good display will see him push past the 500-run mark for the season. Evans is the highest run-scorer in the country for players who have played four matches in the County Championship so far.

Opposition players to watch:

Following his 231 against us in round one, Hampshire’s captain, James Vince, will be a key wicket for us to take. The 30-year-old is their second-top scorer this season so far with 412 runs, at an average of 45.77, and is renowned as a batsman of high quality.

Kyle Abbott’s 11 wickets last week sees him on 26 wickets already for the season in six matches at an average of 18.92. The South African overseas player is also running at a strong economy rate of just 2.91, and Hampshire will be hoping for him to continue his good start to the season. Our success in the match will be strongly influenced by our batting performances against Abbott and his fellow overseas bowler, Mohammad Abbas.

Former Fox Abbas has taken two fewer wickets (24) than Abbott this season so far but has done so at a marginally lower 16.83 runs per wicket bowling average, and also at an even tighter 2.25 runs per over economy rate. Leicestershire supporters will need no introduction to the Pakistan international, who took 79 County Championship wickets for us across the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Leicestershire Squad:

Paul Nixon has named a 13-man squad for the trip down to Southampton.

Only one change to the squad as new man Louis Kimber slots straight into the squad, with Ben Mike being rested.

Leicestershire CCC from 13: Colin Ackermann (C), Hassan Azad, Ed Barnes, Alex Evans, Sam Evans, Gavin Griffiths, Marcus Harris, Lewis Hill, Louis Kimber, Callum Parkinson, Rishi Patel, Harry Swindells (wk), Chris Wright.