Let's learn our lessons - Nixon
Mon 30 Jul 2018
Head Coach Paul Nixon wants Leicestershire Foxes to be more streetwise as his side faces a crunch fortnight in the Vitality Blast campaign.
The Foxes will twice play three games in four days, with the first of those blocks seeing a trip to Yorkshire Vikings tomorrow night (6.30pm start) followed by a home fixture with Birmingham Bears (Thursday) and a match at Lancashire Lightning on Friday evening.
Defeat to Derbyshire Falcons on Friday left the Foxes in sixth place after collecting six points at the halfway mark - but the team is not too far off the top four.
Results over the weekend mean that the Foxes currently sit two points behind the Vikings (4th place: 8 points from 7 games), who face the Falcons (7th place: 6 points from 7 games) tonight for the second time in three days.
If tonight’s game is anything like the first meeting of the teams at Queen’s Park on Saturday, the crowd will be in for a treat; with 19 needed off the last over, Matthew Critchley scored 22 runs to get the Chesterfield festival hosts over the line.
The North Division’s top two – Lightning and Worcestershire Rapids – have 11 points apiece, although they have played a game more than the Foxes following their washout at Blackfinch New Road yesterday.
Rather than looking too closely at points and the table at this stage, Nixon first wants his charges to learn the lessons from the setback to the Falcons and produce a more disciplined all-round performance at Emerald Headingley.
“T20 is full of stats and they tell you all about a game,” said Nixon. “There were 51 dot balls in our innings, which is way too many.
“We scored 38 in the powerplay, and 54 at halfway, which is not enough. We faced 33 dots out of the first 60 balls – so didn’t score off more half of the balls we faced in the first ten overs.
“I reckon we could have gone harder at times - we left a few singles out there, and could have had a few more twos, and it all adds up because there are fine margins in T20. It's a different game if you add another 10 to 15 runs to the target in those closing overs.
“But having said all of that, fair play to Derbyshire, they outplayed us and deserved their victory. They bowled with good pace, executed their yorkers well, out-hustled us in the field, and their running between the wickets was outstanding.
“At times we sat a bit too deep in the field, and they got too many twos and easy ones. We didn’t squeeze tight enough, and it was summed up at the end – they needed one to win, played tap and run, which is disappointing. We need to put it right at Yorkshire.”
Although it was a generally difficult evening for the Foxes, Nixon reserved praise for the way the batsmen upped the tempo, and the manner that the bowlers did their best to defend what proved to be an under-par total.
“We almost scored 100 off the second half of the innings, which is great credit to the batsmen,” said Nixon. “But we needed at least 160 to be able to put them under pressure.
“Cozzie [Mark Cosgrove] played a great innings, knocking the ball around and producing boundaries when they were needed, and [Mohammad] Nabi again played a cracking little cameo to get us up to 150.
“Gavin Griffiths came in and bowled beautifully in his first game in the competition, he got his slower ball working really well and put it in a good area. He’s been high-class this season.
“We gave ourselves a chance as they weren’t that far ahead after the powerplay, and we had a really good spell outside the first six overs, which resulted in a wicket, but overall we didn’t bowl enough dots, so were not able to build any pressure.
“They were in control all of the way, and although we had some tight overs from six to 10, they could milk it and play low-risk cricket.”
The Foxes face their three longest trips of the T20 campaign in the coming days, with games at Emerald Headingley and Emirates Old Trafford followed by a match at Durham Jets (3rd place: 10 points from 7 games) on Wednesday week.
There is also a home game against the Rapids (Friday, August 10) immediately followed by the match at the Falcons (Saturday, August 11); so all told, there are six games in 12 days.
A schedule that presents four away games in that time won’t faze the Foxes. The team travel well, with nine away Vitality Blast group wins recorded from the last ten matches over the last two seasons.
Nixon said: “We’ve had some great performances away from home and we’ll need that to continue. We have some exciting games in the next few days with a few trips to test match grounds, and that has brought the best the best out of us so far. We have everything to play for.
“We’re all gutted that it hasn’t happened for us so far at home, and we desperately want to put that right against the Bears - but first things first, we have to concentrate on performing well against a good Yorkshire side.
“They have several players unavailable due to the test match being played on Wednesday, but Yorkshire are a quality side. They’ve had a number of good wins so far, so we’ll need to be at our best.”
In squad news, Zak Chappell missed Friday's game with a hamstring niggle but is part of a 13-man squad alongside all-rounder Ateeq Javid and the XI that played against the Falcons.
Foxes (from 13): Ackermann (capt), Abbas, Chappell, Cosgrove, Delport, Dexter, Eckersley, Griffiths, Javid, Nabi, Parkinson, Raine, Wells.
* See the Foxes in our next Vitality Blast home game against Birmingham Bears on Thursday! The best value tickets are available in advance – a family ticket for 2 adults and 3 under 16s is available for £37 before 11.59pm tonight. Secure your seat today HERE
