Kent CCC Match Preview - 30/8/21

Division Three of the LV= County Championship gets underway as the Running Foxes welcome Kent CCC to the Uptonsteel County Ground for the first time in three seasons.

Colin Ackermann and Callum Parkinson return to the Leicestershire squad, with both having missed the entirety of the Royal London Cup due to their involvement in The Hundred. A notable omission from the Leicestershire squad is the loss of  Marcus Harris whose 2021 in England came to a premature end.

The season so far:

Following the end of the group stages in the LV= Insurance County Championship, Leicestershire narrowly missed out on qualification for Division Two, reaching 111 points from their 10 matches. Our opponents in the coming week, Kent, were winless in their ten matches (three defeats, seven draws) and accumulated 97 points from their 10 matches.

The Running Foxes have now subsequently been placed in Division Three with our opponents, Kent, plus Sussex, Middlesex, Worcestershire and Derbyshire. We had the best points total from the initial group stages across these six teams, so should be approaching Division Three in confident mood as the season draws towards a close.

Last time we met:

Leicestershire last faced Kent in County Championship action in 2018, which was Kent’s promotion season. At the Uptonsteel County Ground, we lost by eight wickets, taking just four points from the fixture in August 2018.

Batting first, we posted 220, with no player passing fifty - Paul Horton top-scored with 49, as Ivan Thomas (4-35) and Harry Podmore (3-68) caused our batters difficulty. Things were looking positive at the halfway point in the match, with Mohammad Abbas (6-48) and Ben Raine (4-62) causing carnage against the Kent batters, with only Joe Denly (62) passing 30, and we took a 25 run lead into our second innings.

Harry Dearden’s 74 helped us manage 227 with Thomas (5-91) again doing the damage for Kent with the ball, setting Kent a target of 253 to win, which they chased in just 54.2 overs, despite the early wickets of Daniel Bell-Drummond and nightwatchman Grant Stewart. Sean Dickson’s unbeaten 134, and a further 96* from Heino Kuhn meant that Leicestershire recorded a loss despite arguably being the better team for three out of the four days.

Colin Ackermann, Callum Parkinson and Gavin Griffiths are three players who could feature for the Running Foxes in the upcoming fixture who played in that match, while Kent, in theory, could still call on nine players from their starting XI from this match in 2018 to compete against us again.

Our players to watch:

With overseas batter Marcus Harris returning to Australia, Lewis Hill is our top run scorer among the existing squad with 639 County Championship runs at an average of 42.60. In something of a breakthrough season for Hill, he’s also enjoyed a successful Royal London Cup in the 50-over competition, amassing 322 runs at an average of 46, and strike rate of 94.42 - including two centuries as he captained the side throughout, in the absence of Colin Ackermann.

After missing the defeat at Middlesex in the last match of the first red ball group stage, Foxes fans will be delighted to have Chris Wright returning to the starting line up for this fixture. Our attack leader has taken 32 wickets this season at an average of just 22.50 runs per wicket so far, including three five-wicket hauls and a career-best 7-53 as well. 

Both Wright and Callum Parkinson have taken the same number of wickets so far, and both will be hoping to push towards the 50 wicket mark with four matches remaining in the season. This year has been a really strong one for Parkinson as well, with his red ball bowling now proving he’s not just a white-ball specialist - his 10 wickets in the match against Gloucestershire (10-108) was a real highlight for us this season. Following several impressive performances for Northern Superchargers in The Hundred, Parkinson will be looking to get back among the wickets for the Running Foxes as the season continues.

Opposition players to watch:

Ollie Robinson has accumulated the most runs for Kent in the County Championship this season, having so far hit 536 runs at an average of 38.28, with one century and two fifties. The wicket-keeper batter is still just 22 years of age, and is a talented young player on an upward curve.

The next player to watch for our opponents is rather at the other end of the age scale, with 45-year-old Darren Stevens still doing Darren Stevens things  The veteran has hit 459 runs this season at an average of 41.72, including two tons, as well as taking 28 wickets at a cost of exactly 20. Foxes fans need no introduction to Stevens, who featured for Leicestershire from 1997 to 2004.

Joining Stevens as a threat with the ball for Kent is Matt Milnes. Injury has disrupted Milnes’ red ball season, but he subsequently earned a contract for Welsh Fire in The Hundred and impressed with four wickets (4-24 from four overs) in Kent’s T20 quarter-final victory over Birmingham Bears on Friday night. Milnes also received an England Lions call-up in recent times, and has been a consistent wicket-taking option for Kent since he joined from Nottinghamshire at the end of the 2018 season.

Leicestershire CCC Squad:

Head Coach Paul Nixon names a 13-man squad for the return of the LV= County Championship, with the notable omission from the squad being Marcus Harris who has travelled back to Australia.

Leicestershire CCC from 13: Colin Ackermann (C), Hassan Azad, Ed Barnes, Sam Evans, Gavin Griffiths, Lewis Hill, Louis Kimber, Ben Mike, Callum Parkinson, Abi Sakande, Scott Steel, Harry Swindells (wk), Chris Wright

Match Sponsor: We would like to thanks Dandelion for being our match sponsor against Kent CCC.