Javid and Azad set second wicket record
Wed 27 Mar 2019
DAY 2 | Leicestershire CCC 463 for four v Loughborough MCCU 153
REPORT | Ateeq Javid and Hassan Azad broke the all-time second wicket partnership record as Leicestershire CCC piled on the runs against Loughborough MCCU on the second day of the first-class fixture.
The pair put on 309, eclipsing the 289* that Chris Balderstone and David Gower shared against Essex at Grace Road in 1981.
Both batsmen recorded their highest first-class scores as well as their maiden centuries for the Foxes, who closed at 463 for four at the Fischer County Ground.
For Azad, it beat his previous first-class best of 99, while Javid went past the 133 he scored for Warwickshire CCC against Somerset CCC at Edgbaston in 2013.
There were striking similarities between the duo’s innings. Both fifties contained eight fours, the hundreds each included 14 boundaries, and there were just three deliveries and four minutes difference in terms of compilation at that point.
By the time they retired their innings during the tea interval, Javid had 143 from 328 balls and Azad 139 from 281 deliveries.
The day started under heavy cloud and Javid and Azad initially adopted a watchful approach in the face of some good seam bowling from the Students.
Javid recorded 50 from the 118th ball faced with his eighth four, and the alliance then moved into three figures.
Milestones continued to be reached as Azad recorded his maiden first-class half-century for the Foxes from 134 deliveries (8x4).
The batsmen continued to play the ball around well around and an Azad nudge down through backward point ensured the stand went past 150.
Lunch was taken with the score at 188 for one and the duo continued to rack up the runs after the break.
Javid, who was prepared to take on the short ball throughout this innings, flicked the slow left arm of Adam Tillcock to the fence to record his century from 238 balls.
Loughborough MCCU took the new ball immediately, but not only did it fail to yield the breakthrough, runs also started to flow.
The opener sent two deliveries from Chris Sanders crashing to the cover boundary as ten runs were gathered from the first over of the new cherry, and nine came off the 82nd.
A classy punch through the off-side from Azad took him to a well-constructed 100 from 235 balls (14x4), and the 250 partnership came up in the 89th over.
The visitors opted for an all-spin attack before tea, and Javid and Azad were willing to work the ball around against the slow men.
That meant the batsmen continued to be neck and neck in terms of runs gathered, and the rotation of strike caused problems both in field setting and line and length.
After beating the 30-year record of Balderstone and Gower, Javid and Azad became the 13th pair to score more than 300 in Leicestershire CCC’s first-class history.
It became the 11th all-time highest stand for any Leicestershire CCC wicket in first-class cricket, and both batsmen retired at tea to allow Harry Dearden and Neil Dexter some valuable time at the crease.
They wasted little time to get settled, with a number of drives being pierced through the off-side as the score moved beyond 400.
Dexter posted a half-century from 61 balls with nine fours, and Dearden followed suit from 77 deliveries with eight boundaries, the landmark arriving with a deft lapped sweep.
Dearden (56) drove back to Louis Kimber with the score at 453, the bowler taking a smart low catch in his follow through, so Lewis Hill (4*) saw the Foxes to stumps alongside Dexter (69*).
TEAM | Horton (capt), Javid, Azad, Dearden, Dexter, Hill (wk), Lilley, Taylor, Davis, Griffiths, Wright.
PHOTO | Thanks to John Mallett for the photo of Ateeq Javid and Hassan Azad.
