Top two clash develops into intriguing contest
Tue 23 Aug 2016
Leicestershire versus Essex, Specsavers County Championship, Day 1:
SCORECARD | Available through ESPN Cricinfo HERE
HIGHLIGHTS | The highlights of the first day are available HERE
REPORT | Half-centuries from Mark Cosgrove and Angus Robson, and the vital wicket of England captain Alastair Cook for Dieter Klein, were key components of a battling Leicestershire performance on the first day of the top-of-the-table contest against Essex.
County were 2-2 after five balls before Cosgrove shared 129 for the third wicket with Angus Robson, moving to the verge of 1,000 Specsavers County Championship runs for the season in the process.
Robson posted his eighth competition fifty of the campaign while Lewis Hill scored 36 but Essex’s bowlers plugged away in the heat to dismiss Leicestershire for 238, the lively Jamie Porter ending with 4-50.
Leicestershire first-class debutant Klein then provided a timely boost by bowling Cook and dismissing nightwatchman Porter in the nine remaining overs, leaving Essex at 13-2 at stumps.
Cosgrove said: "It’s pretty even. We’d have liked more runs, obviously, because the pitch is pretty good, but we recovered well from 2-2, and picking up Alastair Cook relatively cheaply probably evens things up.
“If we can knock them over for roughly the same in their first innings it’ll be game on. Dieter Klein bowled like the wind at the end - I knew he was quick, but I didn’t know he was rapid, probably in the high 80s [mph].”
The Foxes showed three changes to the side that drew at Northants last week as Hill, Klein and Richard Jones came into the XI.
Essex welcomed back Cook, batsman Dan Lawrence and former Foxes seamer David Masters, and there was an uncontested toss on a beautiful morning at the Fischer County Ground.
Ryan ten Doeschate's decision immediately reaped its rewards as Porter trapped both Paul Horton (1) and Neil Dexter (0) in front with consecutive deliveries in the first over.
If you had to single out one bowler today then Porter, who charged in relentlessly during various spells from the Bennett End, would have taken the accolade - but a well-drilled visiting attack all played their part by keeping things tight and chipping in with wickets.
Robson and Cosgrove rebuilt impressively against some accurate new ball bowling from Porter and Masters with the skipper driving the former imperiously down the ground to underline that point in the eighth over.
The opener showed real patience and after scoring three runs in the first 13 overs, glanced a boundary off his pads in Graham Napier’s second set.
Cosgrove continued to play well and sent a couple of well-timed boundaries down to third man and through cover point respectively as the alliance passed 50 in the 16th over.
ten Doeschate opted not to have a bowl himself, using his five other seamers before lunch in a bid to make the third breakthrough. Masters also had a second burst, this time from the Bennett End, but the duo stood firm.
The captain had struck six boundaries in moving to 42 by the interval, Robson (32*) offering vital support as the duo steered the Leicestershire ship into safer waters at 84-2.
Both batsmen registered fifties after the interval with Cosgrove first to the milestone from 92 balls by striking his seventh four.
The alliance reached three figures as Cosgrove collected two off the next ball before Robson posted a sixth half-century in seven innings against Essex with a trademark cut through backward point, the seventh four of his innings.
Unfortunately Robson was dismissed by the very next delivery, the 117th of his stay, after being yorked by a quick ball from Napier.
Essex had worked themselves an opening and claimed three further wickets before tea. The returning Masters nipped one back to bowl Mark Pettini (7), who lost his off stump after offering no stroke.
Cosgrove moved to 996 Specsavers County Championship runs in 2016 but was bowled by a full delivery from Rhodes for 71 and although Ned Eckersley and Hill started to regroup, a change of tack, combined with a piece of bad luck, accounted for the former.
An off-break from Tom Westley was blocked by Eckersley (11), who saw the ball roll backwards on to his leg stump with just enough force to disturb a bail. From a position of 131-2, Leicestershire were now at 172-6 after the visitors’ purple patch.
Hill and Ben Raine advanced the score by 11 before tea but the session belonged to Essex, who had taken 4-99 in 36 overs.
The leaders were now looking to press home the advantage gained between lunch and tea, and although Raine again looked in good touch in hammering a short Porter delivery to the mid-wicket boundary, the seamer struck with the following ball of the 67th over.
Porter enticed the left-hander into a stroke outside off stump and James Foster completed the dismissal, the first catch of the innings.
Hill continued to look in good touch and the glance off his hips that recorded his second boundary also ensured Leicestershire banked a batting point.
A cut and a further glance both rocketed across the dry outfield as Hill moved towards 50 but he fell with the score at double nelson, leg before to Bopara.
Jones had helped Hill add 31 but was the ninth batsman to be dismissed, caught by ten Doeschate at cover when driving at Napier, and Klein was castled by Porter after making a useful 15.
That left Essex nine overs to bat and they lost key man Cook (4), who saw a Klein yorker disturb the off stump via a combination of bat and pad in the sixth over, and Porter (0), caught behind by Eckersley in fending at a rising delivery from the left armer.
It was part of a hugely impressive display by Klein and Raine, who got the ball moving in conditions that were still humid despite the sun disappearing behind the clouds in the latter stages of the day.
Bowling figures for Leicestershire: Raine 5-3-2-0, Klein 4-2-7-2.
* Thanks to Ed Melia for the photo of Mark Cosgrove acknowledging his half-century at the FCG today.
