Salisbury Holds Nerve As Foxes Beat Durham In High-Scoring Thriller

By Jon Culley, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

Leicestershire Foxes picked up a third Vitality Blast win in four matches to keep their place among the front-runners in the North Group, defeating Durham by six runs in a tight finish at the Uptonsteel County Ground.

Ben Raine took five for 23 against his former team-mates, with four wickets in his final two overs, but the Foxes still posted 193 for eight, their highest Blast score against Durham after skipper Louis Kimber made 51 off 27 balls and Lewis Hill 47 off 30.

Graham Clark’s 29 from 12 balls in the powerplay suggested Durham would make a fight of it but after collapsing from 65 for one to 94 for six they looked out of the game, Tom Scriven taking two for 25.

Yet Kasey Aldridge (44 not out) and Will Rhodes (43) shared a 91-run partnership that took Durham into the last over needing 13 to win before ex-Durham bowled Matt Salisbury kept his nerve to concede just six

Sol Budinger followed his stunning 15-ball half-century in the Foxes’ season-opener here last month with a first-ball duck as Zak Foulkes nipped one back to take off stump. Yet the home side, having been put in, recovered to be 65 for two in the powerplay, Jimmy Neesham conceding 17 and Aldridge 23 off their respective opening overs.

Rishi Patel, fell for 36 (18 balls), caught at mid-off as Foulkes struck again with a slower ball, the Kiwi coming out of the powerplay with two for 19 from three overs.

Patel’s tally of two sixes was doubled by Kimber, whose muscular 27-ball 51 ended with a miscued pull to long“on to leave Leicestershire 98 for three in the 10th, before Shan Masood hit Raine straight to mid-off.

Leicestershire had their eyes on 200-plus as Hill led a 50-run partnership in 34 balls with Ben Cox but fell short thanks to two superb ‘death’ overs from Raine, the former Foxes all-rounder taking the pace off to claim two wickets in each at a cost of just 13 runs as Hill, Cox and Logan Van Beek failed to clear fielders before Scriven was stumped.

Durham’s batting powerplay almost mirrored the Foxes’ at 66 for two but lost two batters who looked in good touch as Graham Clark (29 from 13) and former Leicestershire skipper Colin Ackermann (18 from 11) fell to well-judged catches at mid-wicket and mid-off, the former having lofted Roman Walker for consecutive sixes.

The home bowlers then pinned their opponents down, going five overs without conceding a boundary, which may have played a part in Alex Lees and Ollie Robinson both finding fielders as Scriven and Kimber picked up wickets, with Durham’s woes quickly compounded as Raine mistimed Scriven to mid-on and Neesham’s reverse sweep looped straight to cover, 65 for one having turned to 94 for six.

But Aldridge and Rhodes were able not only to staunch the flow of wickets but build a partnership that almost threatened to pull off an unlikely victory after Van Beek had conceded two sixes in a final over costing 20. Yet Salisbury came up with what was required by his skipper in the last over, Durham’s last hope disappearing when Rhodes was run out with three balls remaining.