Klein: "Let's learn from outground experience"

Leicestershire seamer Dieter Klein feels the team can learn from their outground experience as they enter a vital Royal London One-Day Cup fixture at Notts Outlaws tomorrow.

After tackling Durham Jets at the picturesque home of South Northumberland CC, the Foxes are again facing a team away from their normal venue as they travel to Welbeck (11am start).

Klein accepts it was not a great performance by Leicestershire but said that it is important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"We didn't play very good cricket at Durham, we could have been a lot smarter in our decision-making," said Klein. "But we have played very good cricket in the last three games so we are not going to let it affect us too much, the most important thing is to learn from it.

"It wasn't your typical stadium ground wicket, it was very hard to drive on it, it needed time to get used to. But we spent a lot of time on Thursday practising on the side nets, which were quite similar. So we don't have any excuses, we knew what we were going to get.

"We can possibly expect this tomorrow as well, when we play on another club ground, and we have to be a lot smarter."

It is fair to say that the toss proved a good one to win for Keaton Jennings. The wicket in Gosforth offered good pace and carry for the seamers, and Chris Rushworth and James Weighell moved the ball around in early morning conditions that often prove tricky for the top order in the North East.

As the day wore on, there was plenty of attractive strokeplay including from Zak Chappell, who Klein shared an enterprising ninth wicket stand with. Chappell, like Durham trio Stephen Cook, Michael Richardson and Paul Collingwood, made a half-century full of good shots.

Chappell and Klein both posted List A career-bests with the bat, and the latter’s left arm seamers were again quick and accurate, which are all positives that the Foxes can take those into tomorrow's game.

Klein said: "Zak (Chappell) paced it very well, it's hard to be aggressive with no wickets in hand, and Lewis Hill and Mark Cosgrove also played well. We're not going to say we were going to get 300, but we could have been closer to 270, which would have been something more to bowl at.

"It wasn't our day, but we have to move on and bounce back quickly because the next game is coming around tomorrow and we know it will be another tough one at Notts.

"We definitely need to win another two or three games as it looks like it is going to be quite tight. The players have recovered well and at least we came through the game without any more injuries."

The game at Durham came a bit too soon for white ball captain Clint McKay, but he will again travel to Welbeck as part of an unchanged 14-man squad. Colin Ackermann, Ben Raine, Neil Dexter and Richard Jones continue to miss out through injury.

There was a good crowd in at South Northumberland yesterday and the same is expected at Welbeck, a ground that Outlaws batsman Riki Wessels has enjoyed in the past. He scored an unbeaten 85 against Warwickshire and followed it with 114 versus Derbyshire, two games the Outlaws won.

“It’s been quite a generous ground to me over the last two years, so it will be nice to get back there again,” said Wessels.

“It’s strange having a home ground that we don’t actually train on regularly or become familiar with the conditions, like we do at Trent Bridge, but it’s nice to have a strong support base. Perhaps by going there, we are introducing more people to the club.

“It’s sort of crunch time in the competition now, we need to kick on and start winning games if we want to be involved at the back end of the tournament. Leicestershire aren’t to be under-estimated so we’ll have to come out firing.”

Foxes (from): Ali, Chappell, Cosgrove, Delport, Eckersley, Griffiths, Hill, Klein, McKay, Parkinson, Pettini, Sayer, Sykes, Wells.