Swindells posts maiden first-class ton for County on day two
Fri 7 May 2021
DAY TWO | Leicestershire CCC 496 v Surrey CCC 146 without loss
SCORECARD | Available HERE
REPORT | Harry Swindells posts his maiden first-class century as Leicestershire maintained their dominance with the bat into day two.
Ben Mike posted his second half-century of the season, and a first-class best as the Running Foxes set the visitors an impressive total of 496 to chase down.
Day two commenced under glorious sunshine at the Uptonsteel County Ground with Leicestershire looking to build on the successes of day one with the forecasted day three washout looming.
The duo of Harry Swindells (25*) and Ben Mike (0*) continued at the crease to form the seventh wicket partnership for County, and both got off to an assured start.
Swindells, who ended day one with a strike-rate of over 100 continued that form as he cut Rikki Clarke away through the offside for his fourth boundary of the innings, from the day’s second over.
Mike then got off the mark, joining in on the boundaries as both batsmen posted a four off the bowling of Reece Topley in an over that yielded 12 runs.
After the first half-hour of play, Leicestershire had successfully picked up where they left off yesterday with Swindells nearing his second half-century of the campaign.
Just past the first hour of the day, and Swindells became County’s third half-centurion of the innings as an outside edge off Clark ran away for his seventh boundary, bringing up his second fifty of the season. The half-century came from 68 balls.
Nine balls later and the 110 allotted overs to accrue bonus points was up with the Running Foxes falling 20 runs short of claiming all five available. Leicestershire sat on 380 for six, with the seventh wicket partnership currently 75 runs strong.
Mike then went up another gear in the 114th over as he brought up his fifty with two huge sixes and a four off the bowling of Amar Virdi.
The fifty came from 71 balls and included four fours and one six as he joined his teammate at the crease in posting his second half-century of the season.
It was Swindells’ turn to eclipse a milestone next, as he surpassed his first-class career best of 59 “ posted against Hampshire CCC three games ago “ as he dropped Jamie Overton out into the offside for a quick single.
This was not long after the seventh wicket partnership’s 100th run was up, coming from 134 balls.
Mike, again, was soon to follow the footsteps of his teammate at the crease as he went on to set a new first-class best as a single off Virdi took him into 73*.
The allrounder though, fell eight minutes short of making it through to lunch after hooking an Overton delivery to Clark at deep mid-wicket. Mike departed for a new first-class best of 74 after putting on a valuable seventh wicket partnership of 128 with Swindells.
Callum Parkinson joined Swindells (69*) in the middle to see out the remaining minutes of the second days first session.
Lunch came with Swindells 71 not out, Parkinson 3 not out and Leicestershire 439 for seven.
Swindells and Parkinson came out firing in the opening overs of the second session as Swindells sent Virdi down to long on twice to post a multiple boundary over.
Parkinson then backed up his teammates impetus by claiming back-to-back boundaries off Topley in the next over to open his boundary account for the game.
With Swindells’ maiden first-class century impending, the Running Foxes lost two quick wickets as Parkinson directed Virdi’s delivery to Smith at short-leg and departed for 25.
Chris Wright joined Swindells in the middle with the wicketkeeper batsman on 95*, but only lasted one delivery as Virdi pinned the County seamer infront for 0.
Virdi had claimed his five-fer with figures of 43.3-3-168-5, and sat on a hat-trick ball as Alex Evans joined Swindells in the middle to form the final partnership for County.
Evans successfully navigated the remaining three balls of the over putting Swindells back on strike for the next over from Overton.
Swindells immediately put himself in the front foot, sending the bowler back over his head for a one bounce four at long off to put himself on 99.
Two balls later, and thanks to his thirteenth four of the innings, the Leicestershire Academy graduate posted his maiden first-class century for his home county after flicking Overton down to fine leg and over the rope.
The century came from 148 balls as Leicestershire recorded their third ton of the innings, the first time three Leicestershire centuries were recorded in the same innings since May 2017 against Derbyshire.
Swindells faced four more balls before he travelled down the track as he looked to send Virdi away, but missed the ball, leaving Ben Foakes with a simple stumping.
The Running Foxes ended the innings on 496 with Alex Evans the man not out on 1.
Leicestershire then opened the bowling with the pace of Chris Wright and Alex Evans with Rory Burns and Mark Stoneman opening the batting for Surrey.
With 13 overs left to play until tea, the Running Foxes were keen to make an early breakthrough as the visitors began their reply to County’s mammoth first innings total.
The duo of Burns (17*) and Stoneman (19*) saw Surrey through to tea with the visitors on 41 without loss.
The third session got underway, and the County attack struggled to put the Surrey batsmen under any kind of pressure.
In a day where the bat had already dominated for Leicestershire, the visitors found themselves playing with the same ease at the crease shown by Swindells and co earlier in the day.
Soon, both batsman recorded their half-centuries within the same over with Stoneman the first one to bring up the milestone from 95 balls including six fours, swiftly followed by his skipper Burns who posted his fifty in 81 balls including eight fours.
Day two then came to an end with both opening batsmen remaining at the crease for the visitors, with Burns on 74* and Stoneman on 59*, as Surrey headed into stumps on 146 without loss.
FIGURES (1st inns) | Topley 29-6-110-2, Overton 21-2-65-1, Clarke 22-8-45-1, Clark 23-1-85-0, Virdi 44.2-3-171-6, Burns 2-0-5-0
Wright 12-3-32-0, Evans 5-0-18-0, Parkinson 8-1-28-0, Ackermann 8-0-27-0, Barnes 5-0-21-0, Mike
TEAM | Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, Marcus Harris, Colin Ackermann (C), Lewis Hill, Harry Swindells (wk), Ben Mike, Callum Parkinson, Chris Wright, Ed Barnes, Alex Evans.
SURREY CCC | Rory Burns (C), Hashim Amla, Jordan Clark, Rikki Clarke, Ben Foakes (wk), Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Mark Stoneman, Reece Topley, Amar Virdi
IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallett of Outside Off for providing the images throughout the game.
MATCH SPONSOR | Thanks to The Commercial Flooring Company for sponsoring round five of the 2021 LV= County Championship.
