McDonald: "We have to deliver"
Sat 25 Jun 2016
Leicestershire CCC Elite Performance Director Andrew McDonald gave an honest assessment of last night’s NatWest T20 Blast defeat to Birmingham Bears.
The Foxes lost by a nine-wicket to Warwickshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup meeting earlier this month and suffered a setback of a similar nature on Friday, the Bears getting home with eight wickets in hand on this occasion.
McDonald felt that the Bears were again the better side in all three disciplines but is backing his side to produce a reaction at Northants Steelbacks tomorrow afternoon (2.30pm start).
“We were outclassed in all departments,” said McDonald. “We made a poor start, and from 25-4 it’s always going to be hard to build a total that’s going to be defendable. We were well short of the mark and Ian Bell was able to control the run-chase.
“They did the basics better than us and it was our worst night at the T20 office this season. It was really disappointing after a great victory at Essex in the County Championship.
“We have a lot of thinking to do now, and we have to rebound against Northants on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve put ourselves in a precarious position, well behind the rate in terms of points needed to qualify for the quarter-finals. We’re responsible for our own actions and we have to come out and win the game at Northampton.
“I’m confident these boys can lift, there’s a lot of quality in that room. When you look at the players from 1-11, and you match it up against other sides, it’s more than competitive. We have to deliver.”
The Foxes have made a few adjustments to the squad selected for the Birmingham Bears fixture. Umar Akmal played his final group game for the team yesterday while Ben Raine is being rested over the next few days.
Leicestershire has called up Paul Horton, Aadil Ali and James Sykes to increase their options so will travel with 14 players to Wantage Road.
Foxes (from): Pettini (capt), Cosgrove, Delport, K O’Brien, Hill (w/k), Horton, Dexter, Ali, Burgess, Wells, Taylor, McKay, Naik, Sykes
* Thanks to BBC Radio Leicester's Jason Bourne and Richard Rae for the quotes and to Ed Melia for the photograph
