Wright steals the headlines on historic second day in Derbyshire

DAY TWO | Derbyshire CCC 41 for three v Leicestershire CCC 528

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REPORT | Leicestershire record their fifth highest score against Derbyshire CCC in first-class cricket, as they pass 500 for the seventh time against the East Midlands club.

Lewis Hill recorded his second century of the 2021 LV= County Championship campaign on the same day that Chris Wright passed 500 first-class runs for the Running Foxes following a career best innings.

Wright also recorded his 500th career first-class wicket as the Running Foxes make in-roads into the Derbyshire line up.

The sun shone strongly once again in the East Midlands, as the Incora County Ground prepared for day two action of LV= County Championship Division Three action.

Leicestershire re-emerged to the crease with Lewis Hill leading the way on 86no, joined by nightwatchman Chris Wright on 13no.

After facing 19 balls in the day, Hill went on to record his century after dropping Moulton into the leg side for the single required.

The ton came from 143 balls and included 11 fours, as the Foxes man celebrated his second first-class hundred of the season with his usual pirouette.

Despite increasing their lead during the first session of the second day, the duo of Hill and Wright approached every delivery with the caution it deserved as neither batsman looked like they were going to give up their wicket cheaply.

Wright began to find the boundary with added ease as his total neared his first half-century of the season in all formats.

The nightwatchman clipped Aitchison out through midwicket for his sixth boundary of the day two balls before Aitchison then responded with the wicket of Hill (113, 174b).

The Derbyshire seamer found the edge of Hill as Guest took the simple catch behind to see the Foxes man off.

Louis Kimber emerged to join Wright (44no) in the middle with Leicestershire on 348 for four.

That score soon became 348 for five, as Kimber failed to trouble the scorers. Guest and Aitchison combined again just 13 balls later as Kimber fell for 0(7b).

Harry Swindells was Wright’s next partner in the middle with the lunch interval coming into sight.

Swindells immediately got off the mark following a slight edge into the offside, with his next run bringing up the Leicestershire 350 after 119.3 overs.

Three overs later saw Wright record his first half-century of the season after driving Aitchison through midwicket for his eighth four of the innings. The fifty coming from 106 balls.

Lunch followed two overs later as the Running Foxes entered the first interval of the day on 363 for five, Wright 55no and Swindells 4no in the middle.  

The sun welcomed the players back out onto the pitch for the afternoon session as Wright got off to an emphatic start, recording boundaries from the first and last ball balls of the first afternoon session over.

Wright then seemed to begin to free himself up somewhat, as he danced down the track to Critchley’s flighted delivery to smack him back over his head for the first maximum of the game.

Moments later, and Wright surpassed his previous career best first-class score of 77 with a lofted four over the covers, again off Critchley.

Wright’s total went as high as 87 before Thomson beat the bat of the Foxes seamer, leaving Guest a stumping.

The dismissal prompted Ben Mike to the middle, to join Swindells with the latter immediately taking the reins with back-to-back fours off the bowling of Moulton from the next over.

Swindells soon moved on to his half-century, becoming the fifth Leicestershire man onto the milestone, with it coming from 115 balls, including six fours.

The duo then went into tea with the Running Foxes on 475 for six, with Swindells on 57 and Mike on 27.

Mike came out in the final session of the day firing, as he cracked Thomson back over his head from the first ball of the second over of the final session.

Two overs later, and the seventh wicket partnership came to a close - after recording 73 runs - as impressive fielding off his own bowling by Critchley saw Mike off for 37, caught and bowled.

Ed Barnes joined Swindells in the middle with former getting off to a quick start, recording boundaries off the bowling of Critchley.

The Foxes’ 500 was brought up by the new man in the middle after sending Critchley back over his head, from the first of two fours from the over.

Leicestershire were looking to accelerate the scoring as much as possible as the evening session grew older, yielding wickets for the hosts.

Two Foxes wickets fell in two overs, first Swindells’ classy innings ended on 76 after guiding a Thomson delivery straight to the hands of Critchley at long on.

His replacement, Callum Parkinson (1, 2b) went in similar fashion as he was caught by Aitchison off the bowling of Critchley.

Will Davis joined Barnes in the middle to form the final partnership for Leicestershire, as the final duo recorded five runs before Aitchison was under the lofted offside drive from Barnes (22, 28b), off the bowling of Thomson.

Leicestershire’s innings came to a close on 528 with 20 overs remaining in the day at the Incora County Ground.

Chris Wright took the new ball for Leicestershire as Tom Wood and Billy Godleman made their way out to the middle for the hosts.

The Running Foxes made the breakthrough in Derbyshire’s first innings after just four overs, as Wright claimed his 500th career first-class wicket.

The wicket came in the form of Wood (13), after his back-of-a-length delivery swung away from the batsman who could only feather it through to Swindells behind the stumps.

Leus du Plooy joined Godleman in the middle with the hosts on 18 for one.

The second wicket stand could only muster a further five runs before Will Davis claimed his first wicket of the day.

Swindells was on hand to take his second catch of the innings after Davis found the edge of du Plooy to see him off for four.

Wayne Madsen emerged to join Godleman in the middle with Derbyshire on 23 for two.

There was a slight chance to see Madsen off at the end of the Davis’ over, however, his volley towards Parkinson at mid-off fell agonisingly short of the Foxes captain who was diving forwards.

The Derbyshire number three batsman failed to make use of his wicket following that though, as Davis soon struck for his second of the day.

The combination of Davis and Swindells joined forces once again as the former found the edge and the latter took the grab. Madsen departed for 2 with Derbyshire on 31 for three as Matt Critchley joined Godleman.

The fourth wicket stand then saw the hosts successfully through to the end of the second day with their wicket intact, as Derbyshire close the day on 41 for three, Godleman 12no, Critchley 9no.

FIGURES (1st inns) | Conners 24-6-68-0, Aitchison 28-6-71-3, Moulton 24-4-85-1, Critchley 45-5-144-3, Dal 21-4-56-0, Thomson 27.2-4-84-3

Wright 6-3-11-1, Davis 8-3-16-2, Mike 3-2-4-0, Barnes 2-0-9-0, Parkinson 1-1-0-0

TEAM | Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, George Rhodes, Lewis Hill, Louis Kimber, Harry Swindells (wk), Ben Mike, Callum Parkinson (C), Ed Barnes, Chris Wright, Will Davis.

DERBYSHIRE CCC | Billy Godleman (C), Tom Wood, Leus Du Plooy, Wayne Madsen, Brooke Guest (wk), Matt Critchley, Alex Thomson, Anuj Dal, Ben Aitchison, Sam Conners, Ed Moulton.

IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallett of Outside Off for providing the images throughout the game.