McDonald: "We must look ahead"

Head Coach Andrew McDonald has urged his players to put the Royal London One Day Cup behind them when they make the short trip to face Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in the LV=CC tomorrow.

Leicestershire landed a terrific victory at home to Derbyshire in their last Championship outing and McDonald wants the team to maintain the level of performance they demonstrated in that match.

“The real challenge as a first-class cricketer is to front up and perform,” said McDonald. “That is not only to perform once, not only to perform twice but to perform week-in, week-out. We’ll be looking to make sure that we back up a very good performance against Derbyshire.

“There has been a bit of a dampener with the two one-day games between the four-day games but let’s not forget that we won our last Championship game and we’ll take plenty of confidence forward to Northamptonshire.

“The beauty of cricket is that you shift formats and we’ll shift our focus. We’ll also bring in some players, including four members of our frontline bowling attack in Clint McKay, Ben Raine, Charlie Shreck and Rob Sayer.

“Our captain Mark Cosgrove will return to the side too and he is coming into the game on the back of a Championship hundred. There is a big turnover of players from the one-day format to the four-day game and that will help to freshen us up.”

There are only 16 days of action left this season and McDonald wants his team to make the absolute most out of every available opportunity.

He said: “The challenge for the group is to finish off the season well. I know that people will reflect on last year but we don’t want to be in the same boat. We have to win games, move forward as a group, and keep improving.

“That will come from hard work and a little bit of belief, but most importantly we must bring effort to every contest. If we present that effort, then we’ll get good results.

“That’s all I ask of the guys; some days you bring the energy and effort and you come up short, but if you leave 100% out there, then nobody can question you.”

A huge positive this season has been the form of Leicestershire’s seam trio of McKay, Shreck and Raine, who had a deserved rest at various stages of the RLODC.

Shreck (54) and Raine (51) have already reached the 50-wicket mark in first-class cricket with the all-rounder needing one more victim to move to 50 competition wickets. McKay is also closing in on the landmark having taken 48 LV=CC wickets in ten matches at an impressive average of 25.70.

All three bowlers have claimed a brace of five-wicket hauls this term, and Raine (452) and McKay (372) could also make it a 500-run/50-wicket season if they continue to add useful runs.

On the batting front, Angus Robson (883) and Cosgrove (789) are leading the way while vice-captain Ned Eckersley (684) and Niall O’Brien (593) have also played important innings this campaign.

Leicestershire have named a 13-man squad for the game with the XI on duty against Derbyshire being joined by all-rounders Rob Taylor and Wayne White.

Leicestershire (from): Cosgrove (capt), Agathangelou, Ali, Eckersley, Hill, McKay, O’Brien (w/k), Raine, Robson, Sayer, Shreck, Taylor, White.