Rapids T20 Match Preview - 17/06/2022

When we last met:

The two teams met several weeks ago at New Road, Worcester, with the Running Foxes emerging victorious by 26 runs.

Batting first, Leicestershire posted 162-6, courtesy of some lower-order hitting from Rishi Patel, Lewis Hill and Ben Mike, while Ed Barnard was the pick of the Worcestershire bowlers with 2-17 from his three overs. 

In reply, Worcestershire raced to 47-1 from 25 balls but from there, the wheels fell off our opposition's innings.  Regular wickets through the middle overs saw the required scoring rate increase, with our spinners Callum Parkinson (2-23) and Rehan Ahmed (2-25) doing a great job in that phase.  It was left to Naveen ul Haq to produce a match-winning effort to close the game out, taking 5-11, claiming the wickets of Ed Pollock, Colin Munro, Ed Barnard, Dwayne Bravo and Dillon Pennington to record magnificent figures.

Head to Head:

Ben Mike vs Ed Barnard:

Foxes all-rounder Ben Mike showed a glimpse of his hitting ability in the previous fixture with Worcestershire, making 12 not out from 7 balls in the death overs, and this season, he's striking at 150.48, and hitting almost 20% of balls faced to the boundary - showing real evidence of his hitting power and attacking intent.  To go with this, Mike has taken 9 wickets at 25.22 apiece, and at an economy rate of 8.73 runs per over.

Opposition all-rounder Barnard tried his best to salvage a losing cause for Worcestershire at New Road, with two wickets and a valiant 27 with the bat, so he will be one of the danger men for our visitors.  Barnard has taken 7 wickets this season at 33 apiece, while scoring 113 runs with the bat at a strike rate a shade below 125.

Squad: Ackermann *, Ahmed, Davis, Griffiths, Hill, Lilley, Mike, Mulder, Naveen, Parkinson, Patel, Swindells +, Walker, Welch.