Pre-season Diary 2016 - Part 5

Leicestershire CCC players, coaches and backroom staff are back from Dubai after their 2016 pre-season tour and games are now being played in the UK. We'll keep you updated with the latest from pre-season, and the fifth part of the diary is available here: 

Monday, April 4

Leicestershire CCC is continuing with pre-season plans by playing a three-day intra-squad friendly that is being spread over the week at Loughborough University.

In total, 25 players have been split between two sides being led by Andrew McDonald and Keith Piper, and Pierre de Bruyn and Nic Pothas, respectively.

The two teams were named as follows:

Team de Bruyn/Pothas (13 players named): Robson, Horton (c), Ali, O’Brien (w/k), Raine, Taylor, Sayer, Cammish, Sykes, Sandhu, Shreck, Odedra, Sheikh.

Team McDonald/Piper (12 players named): Dearden, Hill (w/k), Pettini (c), White, Wells, Chappell, Tillcock, Naik, Evans, Swindells, Freckingham, Hurt.

Paul Horton won the toss and invited Team McDonald/Piper to bat first. Between a couple of showers, the side posted 217-7 from 89 overs on the day.

Wayne White top-scored with 46 while Mark Pettini and Adam Tillcock each made 34. Lewis Hill (29), Harry Dearden (27) and Sam Evans (17 not out) also made contributions.

There were two wickets apiece for James Sykes (20-9-45-2) and Gurjit Sandhu (19-3-47-2) while Ben Raine (16-5-48-1), Charlie Shreck (12-6-16-1) and Rob Sayer (9-4-15-1). Atif Sheikh (6-0-33-0) and Rob Taylor (7-4-6-0) also bowled for Team de Bruyn/Pothas.

Wednesday, April 6

Rain restricted the players to 57 overs on the second day of the intra-squad match at the Brockington ground at Loughborough University.

Team McDonald/Piper had eight additional overs and progressed their score to 244-8 declared. Rob Sayer bowled Sam Evans (18) in the second over of the day while Jigar Naik ended 23 not out and Harry Swindells scored 6 not out.

The bowlers for Team de Bruyn/Pothas on day two were Atif Sheikh (10-0-43-0) and Sayer (13-6-27-2), who had four overs apiece.

Paul Horton, Angus Robson and Aadil Ali then gave Team de Bruyn/Pothas an extremely solid platform with a score of 140-1 from 49 overs.

Horton (42) and Robson (72 not out) had a gritty opening partnership of 108 while Ali (12 not out) helped Robson add a further unbroken 32 before stumps.

Bowling figures for Team McDonald/Piper were: Chappell 9-2-28-0, Hurt 9-0-29-0, Freckingham 7-0-26-0, White 6-1-17-0, Naik 13-2-21-1, Tillcock 5-2-9-0.

Thursday, April 7

Team de Bruyn/Pothas extended their overnight score of 140-1 to 386-6 declared with Niall O’Brien and Angus Robson continuing their excellent pre-season form.

Robson moved to 101 (194 balls, 9x4, 1x6) while O’Brien built on two half-centuries at Nottinghamshire by posting 128 from 149 deliveries, including nine fours and an octet of maximums.

There were also contributions from Aadil Ali (34), Ben Raine (29) and Rob Taylor (20), while Jigar Naik (26-3-77-2) and Tom Wells (8-3-24-2) each claimed a brace of wickets.

Other bowling figures were: Chappell 15-2-69-0, Hurt 13-0-56-0, Freckingham 13-0-65-1, White 16.3-1-37-1, Tillcock 7-2-36-0.

The match continued to be one where batsmen dominated as Harry Dearden (39 not out) and Lewis Hill (49 not out) took Team McDonald/Piper to 102-0 in their second innings.

Bowling figures: Raine 8-1-27-0. Sandhu 4-0-20-0, Shreck 8-0-23-0, Odedra 4-0-30-0.

Leicestershire’s next challenge is the first game of the 2016 season proper with a trip back to Loughborough University, this time to the Haslegrave Ground for a three-day match on Monday (11am start).