Nixon: "Let's show how good we are"

Paul Nixon does not want his Leicestershire CCC charges to look beyond the first ball of their latest Specsavers County Championship encounter - a big game at third-placed Sussex CCC tomorrow (10.30am start).

Defeat for the fifth-placed Foxes at Gloucestershire CCC was disappointing, but no ground was lost on our next opponents, who also took three points from their defeat at Lord’s.

Kent CCC joined Warwickshire in the top two after grinding out a win in the last session at Derbyshire CCC, so the fixture at Hove takes greater significance for both sides.

However, rather than focussing on the league table, Nixon has urged his players to prepare for each individual delivery in order to build a solid performance on the south coast.

“I said before the last game that there would be some twists and turns, and we saw that with Middlesex beating Sussex, and Derbyshire nearly holding on against Kent,” said Nixon.

“But promotion is not really in our thoughts, we have to start the game well at Sussex and take it one ball at a time. Promotion is a by-product; it’s easy to get giddy about it, but as a management group we’re desperate to bring expectations back down.

“We can only control what we can control, and we either have to bowl well or start against the new ball well, whatever we’re doing first. We started preparing for the Sussex game as soon as we lost to Gloucestershire, we can’t wait to start the game and show how good our players are.

“It’s been a good season to his point with winning four games out of ten, but we could have had more wins, and we want to end the season on a high note by getting back to producing solid cricket for long periods of time.”

Two major positives from the game at the Brightside Ground was a half-century for Mark Cosgrove and the continued excellence of overseas star Muhammad Abbas.

Nixon said that Cosgrove has been putting in huge amounts of hard work in the nets, and the Head Coach was pleased to see those efforts pay off.

He said: “Cozzie [Mark Cosgrove] has been doing everything right and working so hard off the pitch. He cares passionately about the lads and gives 100 per cent every day.

“He’s a very driven man and wants to do the best he can for Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Cozzie wants to score more hundreds and put in matchwinning performances for us.

“He’s in early every morning, he’s a high-class operator with top-class skill levels, and has just experienced the first blip of his career really, which we all have. He’s a strong character and is hitting form at the right time.

“Muhammad Abbas was world-class again at Gloucestershire, he was bowling a maiden every second over. It was another high-class five-for, and 35 wickets in seven games is testament to his skill levels.”

On the bowling front, there are a couple of doubts ahead of the game with Zak Chappell and Gavin Griffiths nursing side issues, so young all-rounder Ben Mike is part of a 14-man squad.

The bowling unit has been outstanding for much of the season, but the second innings of the games against Kent CCC and Gloucestershire CCC proved to be hard work.

Nixon wants the bowlers to keep learning from the approach of Abbas, who took wickets in the first innings of both of those matches and was then highly economical as conditions started to favour the batsmen.

Nixon said: “We have some niggles in the bowling unit with Zak Chappell and Gavin Griffiths and we’ll keep monitoring those ahead of the game.

“We’re pretty much unchanged from Bristol but young Ben Mike is added to the squad, he’s done really well in the Second XI and is an exciting young all-rounder.

“He came down to be part of the trip on Thursday and is loving every minute of it. You know you’re getting old when you’re including someone whose old man [Greg Mike] used to play against you many years ago!

“We have to make sure that we back Mo [Muhammad Abbas] up. We need to go back to bowling brave lengths and in good areas for long periods to build sustained pressure. We need to tighten our belts and do the basics well, and we can get back on the right side of the result at Sussex then.”

Leicestershire CCC (from 14): Horton (capt), Abbas, Ackermann, Chappell, Cosgrove, Dearden, Dexter, Eckersley, Griffiths, Javid, Klein, Mike, Parkinson, Raine.

* Leicestershire CCC’s next Specsavers County Championship home game is against leaders Warwickshire CCC on Monday, September 10 (10.30am start). Tickets cost £12 for adults and £2 for under 16s and are available for all four days HERE