Leicestershire under GrahamB

[GrahamB]

Well wouldn't this just rip your undies!

We batted first and declared at a massive 456/4 declared.
Gloucestershire fell short of the follow-on mark, but we opted not to enforce it, again putting our faith in bowling last on a sharply turning pitch.

Who could have believed that less than a session later, we'd have been torn apart at 44/7!
Needless to say, we couldn't recover and eventually left the visitors needing 263 for victory.
Still a challenge, but they have a long batting lineup and managed to obtain an unlikely victory.

[GrahamB]

Following another Twenty Over Cup win (now 3 wins, 1 loss), we have a chance to appease our home fans in our County Championship match against Derbyshire.

Both of our regular openers have been pretty consistent this season, but Angus Robson's form in the second team has just been too good to ignore.
The solution is to try him out at number 3, so it means that Niall O'Brien is again relegated to the second team.

Likewise, since dropping Alec Wyatt after the first three matches, his second team and 20/20 form have just been too difficult to ignore. He comes back in, meaning that Charlie Shreck and Ollie Freckingham miss the cut for this game.

G.Smith
M.Thornely
A.Robson
S.Thakor
R.Sarwan (captain)
M.Boyce
N.Eckersley (wk)
B.Wadlan
J.Naik
A.Wyatt
A.Ireland

[DaveK93]

Following another Twenty Over Cup win (now 3 wins, 1 loss), we have a chance to appease our home fans in our County Championship match against Derbyshire.

Both of our regular openers have been pretty consistent this season, but Angus Robson's form in the second team has just been too good to ignore.
The solution is to try him out at number 3, so it means that Niall O'Brien is again relegated to the second team.

Likewise, since dropping Alec Wyatt after the first three matches, his second team and 20/20 form have just been too difficult to ignore. He comes back in, meaning that Charlie Shreck and Ollie Freckingham miss the cut for this game.

I like Wyatt, best bowler first season, he's now the spearhead of my attack.

[GrahamB]

We balanced the ledger in our home record with a great victory over Derbyshire.
I took a huge risk in Cricket Captain terms by declaring shortly before stumps on Day 3, leaving the visitors just over 380 to win. Fortunately, it didn't backfire this time!
Angus Robson proved to be a more than useful part-time spinner, taking two wickets in each innings at crucial times.

[GrahamB]

Following a loss to Lancashire in the Twenty Over Cup (where our record is now 3 wins, 2 losses), we have another County Championship game at home, this time against Worcestershire.

Just one change to the batting line-up, O'Brien included ahead of Boyce with a view to a slightly higher scoring rate in the middle order.
Anthony Ireland needs a rest, so Shreck takes his place ahead of Freckingham, decided purely on conditions being expected to stay fine throughout the match. Normally, medium pacers lose their effectiveness without some cloud cover and I don't want to destroy Freckingham's confidence returning under such conditions.

G.Smith
M.Thornely
A.Robson
S.Thakor
R.Sarwan (captain)
N.Eckersley (wk)
N.O'Brien
B.Wadlan
J.Naik
A.Wyatt
C.Shreck

[GrahamB]

Highlights for us in this drawn match were Jigar Naik's 7/44 haul in the first innings and Michael Thornely's second century of the season.
Getting the timing of a declaration right can be a tricky thing and I've been burnt so many times before by the match engine, that perhaps I'm overly cautious. However, I don't think that Worcestershire were in any real danger of defeat in their fourth innings.

[GrahamB]

Hmmm - two losses in the Twenty Over Cup leaves us with a 3 win, 4 loss record for now.
Now we're off to Surrey for a County Championship match.

Boyce comes back into the side to replace O'Brien, who is still badly out of form. I'm giving Boyce (and Thornely) some aggression training, as very defensive batsmen don't do much for the scoring rate.
Ireland and Wadlan are both down on form too, but with less choice in the bowling stakes for suitable back-ups coupled with their excellent season so far, they keep their spots.

G.Smith
M.Thornely
A.Robson
S.Thakor
R.Sarwan (captain)
M.Boyce
N.Eckersley (wk)
J.Naik
B.Wadlan
A.Wyatt
A.Ireland

[GrahamB]

What an awesome pace attack Surrey have!
We did well to reach just under 300, but conceded a first innings lead of close to 200.
With no chance of setting up a declaration, it was then a case of batting out the draw, which we managed to do, thanks to contributions from all of our top order batsmen.

[GrahamB]

Next we have a three day match against the visiting Indian side.
Rather than field our strongest playing eleven, I opted to rest some of our usual first eleven players (Thakor, Boyce, Eckersley, Ireland and Wadlan).
Should be interesting to see how much resistance we can put up, as our pitch will obviously suit their spin attack.

G.Smith
A.Robson
M.Thornely
R.Sarwan (captain)
J.Cobb
N.O'Brien (wk)
T.Wells
J.Naik
O.Freckingham
A.Wyatt
C.Shreck

[GrahamB]

As expected, a full strength Indian side were clearly too strong for us, managing to wrap up victory with an hour to spare.
Positives for us were the continuation of Greg Smith's growth in stature as an opening batsman, plus a fine first innings knock from Josh Cobb.

[GrahamB]

Three further games in the Twenty Over Cup, with 2 wins and a loss seeing us on the fringes of quarter-final contention with a 50% record.

Now we have a home match in the County Championship against Kent.

The experiment to bat Angus Robson at three was deemed a failure, and because he can't take an opening spot from either Greg Smith or Michael Thornely, there's currently not a spot for him in the first eleven.
Josh Cobb impressed against India and has also had a few promising knocks in the Twenty Over Cup. Today he gets his chance to show what he can do for us in this competition.

Anthony Ireland still needs a little rest, but to be honest, it's hard to leave either Alec Wyatt or Ollie Freckingham out of the side at present, so whether it's the right call to leave him out will become apparent soon enough. There is likely to be plenty of cloud cover during this game which should hopefully suit Freckingham in particular.
Bradley Wadlan has suffered a drop in form since his sensational start to the season, and I did consider leaving him out of the side to give James Sykes a run. However, I couldn't ignore the old "form is temporary, class is permanent" adage, and so I'm hoping his luck will turn.

G.Smith
M.Thornely
S.Thakor
R.Sarwan (captain)
M.Boyce
J.Cobb
N.Eckersley (wk)
J.Naik
B.Wadlan
O.Freckingham
A.Wyatt

[GrahamB]

A heavy defeat at home is just what we could have done without at this stage of the season.

After seeing that rain was on the horizon later in Day 1, we opted to bowl first. That proved to be a terrible mistake as the Kent batsmen prospered. The only bowler to impress was Ollie Freckingham. Poor old Alec Wyatt just doesn't seem to fire for us in the longer form of the game, despite being lethal in the shorter form.

Facing such a huge total with our pitch deteriorating was always going to be a big ask and it proved to be so.
We were forced to follow on and although we scored over 300 in our second innings, we just couldn't quite manage to save the match.

[GrahamB]

A quick look at how our key players are performing in First Class cricket so far this season.


Batting (averages higher than 30.00)

Greg Smith averaging 42.00 with 1 century and 5 fifties (11 matches).

Michael Thornely - averaging 36.43 with 2 centuries and 5 fifties (11 matches).

Shiv Thakor - averaging 56.39 with 3 centuries and 4 fifties (10 matches).

Ravnaresh Sarwan - averaging 40.79 with 2 centuries and 3 fifties (11 matches).

Ned Eckersley - averaging 39.65 with 1 century and 3 fifties (10 matches).

Matthew Boyce - averaging 47.00 with 0 centuries and 4 fifties (7 matches).

Josh Cobb - averaging 35.50 with 0 centuries and 2 fifties (2 matches).


Bowling (averages less than 40.00)

Anthony Ireland - 29 wickets at 27.46 (8 matches).

Jigar Naik - 37 wickets at 30.16 (10 matches).

Bradley Wadlan - 36 wickets at 36.16 (10 matches).

Michael Thornley - 2 wickets at 33.00 (11 matches)

[GrahamB]

Following a 20/20 loss to Lancashire, we're of to Worcestershire for our next County Championship match.

Despite our heavy defeat to Kent, we've only made one change to our side, with Anthony Ireland coming back in at the expense of Alec Wyatt.
Bradley Wadlan has been given a reprieve based on the fact that the pitch is expected to turn early. Failure for Bradley to return to form in this game could well see him axed for the next.

G.Smith
M.Thornely
S.Thakor
R.Sarwan (captain)
M'Boyce
J.Cobb
N.Eckersley (wk)
J.Naik
B.Wadlan
O.Freckingham
A.Ireland

[GrahamB]

Centuries in each innings from Shiv Thakor (taking his total for the season so far to 5!), plus a welcome return to form from spin bowler Bradley Wadlan were the keys to our magnificent win at Worcestershire.
Two run outs in the first innings and one in the second innings didn't help the home side at all. The one in the second set the scene for the collapse when Pardoe and Fell looked well set to perhaps lead the charge to what for all and sundry seemed an impossible victory target of 420+.