Wells claims best in Loughborough draw

Leicestershire CCC v Loughborough MCCU: Day 3 at the Fischer County Ground

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REPORT | Leicestershire continued to be given an examination by Loughborough MCCU as the first-class fixture ended in a draw at the Fischer County Ground.

A fantastic four-wicket burst from Tom Wells early in the afternoon session helped the Foxes dismiss the students for 278 while fellow seamer Gavin Griffiths (15-4-31-3) also excelled.

Leicestershire progressed to 113-3 in their second innings with Mark Cosgrove (40*), Harry Dearden (30) and Ned Eckersley (22*) the leading scorers.

The morning session was one of general frustration for the Foxes through a combination of Loughborough’s stubborn batting and the weather.

An early shower put paid to pressure that Leicestershire’s seamers were building and when the players returned to the field, Loughborough maintained the method that had worked well for them yesterday.

Opener Hasan Azad dropped anchor with the batsman at the other end looking to take the attack to the bowlers. On this occasion it was Basil Akram, who took a five-for in the Leicestershire first innings.

The all-rounder showed he was equally capable with the bat, including hitting three boundaries in the 73rd over of the innings and a maximum in the 80th to take the stand to 50.

That prompted Leicestershire to take the new ball with Zak Chappell and Griffiths re-entering the attack.

It had the desired effect as Azad’s extremely watchful innings of 80 came to an end shortly before lunch. Eckersley took the catch off Griffiths' bowling to end a stay that lasted more than five hours.

Loughborough MCCU went in at 248-5 from 86 overs but Leicestershire, inspired by Wells, claimed the last five wickets for just 30 runs inside an hour.

Chappell got the ball rolling by trapping Charlie Thurston (2) lbw and Wells then took the final four wickets with a highly accurate display of bowling, ending with career-best figures of 4-46.

Akram (44) fended a brute of a ball to Dearden, stationed in a fourth slip position, Bobby Gamble (2) was bowled before the final pair of Sam Cook (3) and Ben Ladd-Gibbon (4) were pinned right in front.

Leicestershire were trailing by 84 runs at that point and suffered a double early blow inflicted by Gamble, Paul Horton (10) and Lewis Hill (4) being caught at the wicket by Hill.

Dearden and Cosgrove calmly steered the team to 45-2 at tea, and the young left-hander continued on his way in the final session, including back-to-back boundaries in the 18th over.

But Dearden then perished in the next offering, being victim to a third successive catch for the ‘keeper as Cook found the edge.

Cosgrove and Eckersley guided Leicestershire into the lead and with the Foxes forming a 29-run advantage by 5pm, the captains shook hands.

Leicestershire’s next challenge is the opening Specsavers County Championship match of the 2017 season against Nottinghamshire at the Fischer County Ground on Friday, April 7.

Bowling figures – Leicestershire: Chappell 19-4-53-1, Griffiths 15-4-31-3, Sayer 18-7-31-1, Shreck 21-8-42-1, Burke 10-0-57-0, Horton 1-0-8-0, Wells 11.4-1-46-4.

Loughborough MCCU: Gamble 6-2-16-2, Cook 11-2-28-1, Akram 4-1-16-0, Ladd-Gibbon 3-0-13-0, Tillcock 5-0-33-0, Kumar 1-0-2-0.

* Thanks to Ed Melia for the photograph of Tom Wells.