Overseas stars fire Foxes to win
Fri 5 Jun 2015
Umar Akmal hit a stunning unbeaten 76 off 49 balls on debut and fellow overseas player Clint McKay was also in red-hot form as Leicestershire Foxes landed a brilliant six-wicket NatWest T20 Blast victory under the floodlights at Nottinghamshire Outlaws.
Alex Hales (54 from 42 balls) and Brendan Taylor (47 off 39) played well but the Foxes limited the Outlaws to 148-7 as McKay produced a masterful display at Trent Bridge.
The Australian seamer mixed his length and pace beautifully to claim a career-best 4-24 from his four overs while Jigar Naik (4-0-23-1), Ben Raine (4-0-27-0) and Atif Sheikh (4-0-30-1) also completed solid allocations.
Leicestershire were 53-4 after eight overs of the chase before Akmal, who hit three sixes in the penultimate over, and Matthew Boyce (21 not out) put on an unbroken 99 for the fifth wicket in 10.5 overs.
Victory was confirmed by the award of six penalty runs for the Outlaws’ failure to be in a positon to bowl the final over in the allotted time.
The Foxes made four changes to the side that lost to Worcestershire Rapids last Friday night. Akmal and Andrea Agathangelou came in for their Foxes T20 debuts along with Boyce and Sheikh. The quartet replaced the O’Brien brothers and Grant Elliott, who were on international duty, and Neil Pinner.
The Outlaws included former Leicestershire trio James Taylor, Harry Gurney and Stuart Broad with the latter facing his old teammates for the first time in making his first domestic T20 appearance for five years.
Mark Cosgrove invited the Outlaws to bat first and Riki Wessels struck two fours and a six in the opening exchanges. But he fell the ball after hitting the maximum for 18, McKay exacting revenge by removing his middle stump with a beauty.
Nottinghamshire promoted Steven Mullaney to bat at three and he departed in the next over from Sheikh for four, Agathangelou pouching a tremendous catch over his shoulder at mid-wicket.
Raine was excellent in the powerplay, recording figures of 2-0-6-0 as the Outlaws moved to 36-2. Hales had been contained to that point but he pulled a maximum in the seventh over, took ten runs off the first two balls of the ninth over and then struck two consecutive fours in the 11th.
Brendan Taylor swept for four to record the 50 stand off 39 balls and Hales then recorded his half-century from the same amount of deliveries as he pulled a six at the end of the 13th. The Foxes badly needed his wicket and claimed it in the next over as Naik picked up a deserved success, Rob Taylor taking a well-judged catch at long-on.
A straight four at the end of the 15th over from Brendan Taylor took the score to 113-3 and the former Zimbabwe international then delicately dabbed over third man to the fence in the next offering.
Raine and McKay came back to finish the innings and the latter bowled a superb antepenultimate over. Three came off it along with the wicket of Samit Patel (12), who struck a slow, short ball high into the air and Cosgrove took a safe catch despite the awkward position of the sun.
Two successive fours arrived in fortuitous fashion for Brendan Taylor in Raine’s final over as a mis-hit somehow found its way between two fielders and squirmed down to fine leg before an outside edge evaded the diving wicket-keeper Ned Eckersley and ran away.
The Foxes kept their cool and there was a fantastic end to the innings as three wickets came off the final three balls. McKay bowled a perfect yorker to pin Brendan Taylor in front, James Taylor went first ball as he top-edged a reverse-sweep to Eckersley, and Broad was run out without facing as Eckersley threw down the stumps after Darren Sammy missed another clever slower ball.
The chase had an eventful start with Ball in the thick of the action. The young seamer started with three wides in his first four balls but went on to claim wickets in each of his first three overs. Eckersley (4) miscued to James Taylor at backward point while Raine (5) and Cosgrove, who smoked three off-side boundaries in his 18 off 12 balls, were both bowled by the young seamer.
Agathangelou and Akmal looked in good touch, the former driving Ball through the covers before Akmal sent a powerful cut to the ropes off the last ball of the powerplay bowled by Broad. The Foxes were 48-3 at that point but lost a fourth wicket at the end of the 8th as Agathangelou (14) pulled Broad to Patel at mid-wicket.
A mighty six was struck from Akmal off Luke Fletcher but Broad (4-0-20-1) generally kept the shackles on as the Foxes moved to 65-4 at halfway. Akmal and Boyce, who was put down by fellow Oakham School alumnae Broad in the deep in the 12th over, kept the board ticking over before the Pakistan international cut loose.
Momentum was gained as Sammy overstepped in the 14th over and Akmal struck the free hit behind square for four. Fifteen then came off the following over, including a classic cover drive for four and a huge six over mid-wicket from Akmal.
That maximum took the partnership past 50 and the target was down to 42 off 30 balls. Sammy’s next over went for just five before Gurney conceded six, including a three when Akmal was put down by Fletcher running backwards at fine leg, and the single that took Akmal to a 41-ball 50 that included three fours and two sixes.
Akmal then squeezed the ball down to the third man boundary in Broad’s last over as the Foxes gathered eight, so 23 were needed off 12 balls.
Then came the dramatic finale as Akmal clattered three leg-side sixes off the first five balls of the over and the Foxes were within three runs of victory when umpires Paul Baldwin and Peter Hartley awarded the penalty runs, so the job was done. Akmal's final boundary count was four fours and five sixes as he ended with a strike rate of 155.10.
Leicestershire’s next game comes against New Zealand at Grace Road tomorrow. The 50-over game starts at 10.30amand the team then face Surrey in the LV=CC on Sunday and Northamptonshire Steelbacks at home in the NatWest T20 Blast a week tonight (5.30pm start).
Bowling figures: Sheikh 4-0-30-1, Raine 4-0-27-0, McKay 4-0-24-4, Naik 4-0-23-1, Wells 2-0-20-0, Rob Taylor 2-0-17-0.
