Taylor continues to impress
Thu 13 Aug 2015
REPORT | By Pete Johnson
Rob Taylor continued his terrific game as Leicestershire Second XI battled hard on the second day of the Championship encounter at Nottinghamshire.
A grey overcast morning greeted us upon our arrival and the early morning weather forecast was predicting that rain may play some part in the proceedings today.
The boundary’s edge was extremely sparsely populated with spectators at the start of play, but there was a small knot of spectators adjacent to the sightscreen at the River End. You don’t need to guess which two of them were in pole position.
Leicestershire resumed on their overnight 37-2 trailing Nottinghamshire by 327 runs. The unbeaten batsmen were Dan Redfern 26 and Alex Thomson 0.
Redfern was dismissed from the fifth ball of the morning, caught in the slip cordon by Matt Carter off the bowling of Luke Wood without adding to his overnight score. Taylor joined Thomson, and the pair looked comfortable against the seam attack of Fletcher and Wood.
I half expected to see Dougie Freedman’s head appear between the bushes bordering the Lady Bay Road, that backs up to the Forest Ground, upon hearing the names of Taylor and Fletcher mentioned in the same breath. (Gary Taylor-Fletcher ex LCFC and NFFC for the uninitiated).
Taylor was playing a dominant role in the partnership and found the ropes on regular occasions. He raced to his 50 from 37 balls (10x4), by smashing seamer Andy Carter through the covers for four from three consecutive balls.
Taylor had certainly got the measurements of Carter and it was a solid half-century from the left-hander, who was fitting in well to the situation.
Thomson (11) finally departed when he edged the first delivery of Will Gidman’s spell to Dan Christian at first slip. A good effort from Thomson as nightwatchman, who had put plenty of oil in his lamp in soaking up 56 balls.
Seriously Thomson has much more to his armoury as a batsman than nightwatchman, which is evident when watching him bat, a proper player! Michael Burgess joined Taylor and became the third batsman to perish with his score on 11 when he was caught behind by keeper Tom Moores off the bowling of Gidman.
Will Gidman was bowling a very impressive spell from the River End, returning figures of 2-26 off 11 overs at lunch. County went into lunch on 152-5 from 43 overs, Taylor 67* and Wells 16*.
Cloud cover hung over the ground as play resumed after lunch but for now the rain was keeping away. Taylor and Wells continued to build a good partnership after lunch but immediately after the score had reached 200, Taylor (86) was bowled by spinner Matt Carter.
Tom Cullen joined Wells, and the pair added 42 for the seventh wicket. Wells went to his 50 (7x4,1x6) from 79 balls when he deposited Matt Carter for a huge maximum. Wells was made sure to Get Carter (and my name is not Michael Caine!)
Three overs later, Wells (64) went lbw to Luke Wood. Cullen had to face a barrage of short pitched bowling from Andy Carter and stuck manfully to the task despite receiving a clattering blow on the helmet.
Cullen (19) was eventually undone by Carter, when one of his stumps wheeled out of the ground, leaving County at 264-8 from 69.2 overs.
Wayne White had entered the fray earlier and was circumspectly accumulating runs around the wicket. Jigar Naik (8) went bowled by Matt Carter and last man Connor Harvey (11) was lbw to Adam Tillcock. White was unbeaten on 24 from 62 balls with Leicestershire all out for 268, giving Notts a lead of 66 runs. Tea was taken.
Notts resumed after the interval with 35 overs left in the day. There was a brief stoppage of 12 minutes for bad light after two overs. The players returned to the field and County made inroads into the Notts batting.
Jake Libby (5) was caught behind by Burgess of Connor Harvey in the 8th over. In the next over Greg Smith (1) went caught at second slip by Taylor off Atif Sheikh, and three overs later Billy Root (14) went caught in the gully by Eben Kurtz off Harvey.
The umpires took the players from the field at 5.49pm after 11.3 overs because of bad light. Notts on 46-3, Sam Wood 11* Dan Christian 0*.
The umpires then proceeded to go on and off the field taking more readings than meter reading operatives of the big six Energy Companies would take in a day. Play was finally abandoned for the day at 6.50pm, and the spectators that had remained at the ground during the hour-long stoppage for bad light finally drifted off home, all three of them!
