Leicestershire under GrahamB

[GrahamB]

CONTRACT RE-NEGOTIATIONS for current squad members

Retirements
Charlie Shreck

Not Renewed
Andy Robson
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Niall O'Brien
Scott Styris
Timothy Wells
Rob Taylor
Nathan Buck

Renewed Contracts
Matthew Boyce
Anthony Ireland
Alec Wyatt

Although Ramnaresh Sarwan had performed consistently well with the bat and been a useful third spinner with the ball, we decided we'd either like a batsman who might add a little extra firepower to the team or a classy pace bowler, whichever became necessary after perusing the local scene.

Niall O'Brien is a useful second keeper, but couldn't hold his place in the side as a batsman. We figured we may as well pick up somebody else as a back-up to Ned Eckersley.

The others who didn't have their contracts renewed either performed poorly when given the opportunity or were deemed as not good enough to stay in our squad.

Matthew Boyce was a steady middle order batsman and was offered a new contract on merit.
Likewise, Anthony Ireland was our best bowler, so deserved a new contract.
Alec Wyatt was superb for us in the T20 competition, but had a poor season in the County Championship. His second team bowling average throughout the season remained below 20, and so I've kept him on the basis that he might yet deliver on the promise that he undoubtedly has.

[GrahamB]

NEW SQUAD MEMBERS SIGNED for 2015

We would be looking for:

- an extra opening batsman
- one or two extra top order/middle order batsmen
- a back-up keeper
- at least two good pace bowlers

Looking at the domestic players available, the only options for pace bowlers were Moin Ashraf or the talented all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate.
Sadly, we have a limited budget to work with and so ten Doeschate was out of our price range.
We took a huge gamble by signing a couple of handy youth players, RMF bowler Steve Durrant and RMF bowler Marcus Clarkson, ahead of the more expensive Ashraf.

We looked at the overseas options available to us in the mid price range and ended up signing Pakistani opener Ahmed Shehzad for a good price. He won't be required for the IPL which was another of our requirements. We had looked at Adam Lythe as an option, but he was more expensive.
Zimbabwean, Sean Williams, is our reserve overseas player.

We went after Carl Cachopa as our back-up keeping option, although he would obviously have commanded a first team spot on his batting alone.
Unfortunately, he received a better offer and we missed out. Due to this setback, we had to look at a cheap youngster as back-up keeper and try for an extra batsman.
As a result 18 year old Patrick Grieshaber comes into our squad as our back-up keeper.

That left batsmen to fill out our squad.
We were extremely pleased to pick up James Hildreth without too much fuss, but the options aside from him were slim.
In the end, we weren't left with any choice and had to bring in Dawid Malan. Dawid has solid stats, but had a pretty disappointing season last year. Normally I'd not go for a new player on that basis as I see it as a sign that he's not rated by the ICC engine. However, I really hope I'm proven wrong.

[GrahamB]

LEICESTERSHIRE SQUAD for 2015

Opening Batsmen

Ahmed Shehzad (Pakistan)
Greg Smith
Michael Thornely

Other Batsmen

Shiv Thakor
James Hildreth
Ned Eckersley (wk) (captain)
Dawid Malan
Dan Redfern
Matthew Boyce
Josh Cobb
Patrick Grieshaber (wk)

Pace Bowlers

Anthony Ireland
Alec Wyatt
Ollie Freckingham
Steve Durrant
Marcus Clarkson
Ben Raine

Spin Bowlers

Jigar Naik
Bradley Wadlan
James Sykes

Reserve Overseas Player
Sean Williams (Zimbabwe)

[GrahamB]

GLOUCESTERSHIRE v LEICESTERSHIRE (County Championship D2)

[GrahamB]

Considering that we had to bat first when the conditions were very cloudy for the whole of the first day, I thought that we did very well.
The pitch never at any stage favoured the bowlers, so a result was always unlikely after we got through that first day intact.

Dan Redfern chimed in with a three figure knock in our first innings, while Hildreth, Dawid Malan and Ned Eckersley all picked up half centuries.

New youngsters, Durrant and Clarkson picked up a couple of wickets each, while one useful thing that we discovered is that James Hildreth looks as though he might be quite useful as a fourth seamer.

Shiv Thakor started off where he left off last season, with yet another century in our second innings.

[GrahamB]

LEICESTERSHIRE V DERBYSHIRE (County Championship D2)

Next up is our first match at home.
As Derbyshire rely on their pace attack, we've prepared a wicket to favour our spin duo of Wadlan and Naik.
Young RMF bowler Marcus Clarkson is left out for this match.

[GrahamB]

Derbyshire won the toss and predictably decided to bat first.

After dismissing the visitors for 322, with Naik and Wadlan snaffling 4 wickets each, we were cruising at 164/1. Then the conditions became very cloudy and the bowling suddenly seemed unplayable. We collapsed to 204/7 and not looking too healthy.
Thankfully, Redfern and Naik put together 72 for the eight wicket, then Naik and Wadlan had a record ninth wicket partnership of 100 to put us back in the box seat at 376/9!
However, disaster struck and turned the match. Jonathan Clare let loose with a ferocious bouncer at our number 11, Anthony Ireland. It reared up nastily and smashed Anthony's forearm. In obvious pain, he had to leave the field and x-rays confirmed a fracture, putting him out of action for at least seven weeks.

Now with only one frontline pace bowler, youngster Steve Durrant, we were in big trouble. James Hildreth would have to take the new ball with Durrant, with Thakor having to make up a few overs as well.
We would be relying heavily on our spinners, but we still held hopes with the ball starting to turn sharply.
However, Derbyshire felt that they now had a chance to get back into the game, and Chesney Hughes and David Lennon both delivered with centuries.
Although Durrant and Wadlan bowled well to take three wickets each, there was no back-up from Naik, who got bashed for plenty.
The visitors declared just before stumps on Day 3, setting us the almost impossible task of chasing 382 for victory on a pitch which now favoured the pacemen as well as the spinners.

Losing Ahmed Shehzad for a duck before the end of Day 3 made our task all the harder.
Sadly, we lost wickets at regular intervals throughout the final day, with only Smith (47), Malan (39) and Redfern (54) putting up a good fight.

So losing our frontline pace bowler, plus losing our first match at home was a double blow that we could have done without.

[GrahamB]

GLAMORGAN v LEICESTERSHIRE (County Championship D2)

Off to Glamorgan now to try and get things back on track.
With cloudy/very cloudy conditions and possible rain expected during the match, Naik drops out of the playing eleven, with both Alec Wyatt and Marcus Clarkson joining Steve Durrant to bolster the pace attack.

[KGKOOLKAT777]

I found Naik to be amazing. I had such a weak batting line up that I had Eckersley batting 3 but he scored the most runs of anyone in the championship with 4 double hundreds in a season! Really enjoying your story.

[GrahamB]

Oh dear! The most inept display of batting since I took charge at Leicestershire saw us plunge to a big defeat at Glamorgan.
Our new batsmen have yet to live up to their billing and changes may need to be made fairly soon.

On the positive front, Steve Durrant took 11 wickets in the match, not a bad effort in only his third first class match.
He was ably supported by Alec Wyatt, who looks to have put a poor last season behind him.

[GrahamB]

I found Naik to be amazing. I had such a weak batting line up that I had Eckersley batting 3 but he scored the most runs of anyone in the championship with 4 double hundreds in a season! Really enjoying your story.

Cheers for that.
Hopefully I'll be able to report on more successful times at Leicestershire soon!

[GrahamB]

LEICESTERSHIRE v DERBYSHIRE (Twenty Over Cup)

I thought that we'd put up a competitive total, with Ahmed Shehzad leading from the front.

However, Chesney Hughes came out and blasted 45 off just 17 balls to bring the required run rate right down. He took to Shiv Thakor, pounding 37 off two of his overs and forcing him to be removed from the attack. The visitors pretty much cruised from that point and secured victory with a couple of overs to spare.



A disappointing start to our 20/20 campaign.

[GrahamB]

LEICESTERSHIRE v SURREY (County Championship D2)

No changes to the batting line-up yet, but Shehzad, Hildreth and Malan are all under pressure to perform in this match.
With conditions at home favouring spin over pace, Marcus Clarkson again makes way for Jigar Naik to come back into the side.

[GrahamB]

We responded to fierce criticism in the press by bouncing back with a decisive thrashing of the strong Surrey side in front of excited home fans.

After the visitors won the toss and chose to bat, we had them on the ropes at 169/8, before their young pace bowler Justin Christie smashed a career best 70 to get them through to a respectable 268 all out.
Bradley Wadlan revelled on a favourable pitch to snare 7/89.

At 308/7, it looked as though our first innings lead would be fairly small. However, Wadlan joined up with Naik to put together a partnership of 102 for the eighth wicket, putting us well on top.
James Hildreth had earlier laid the foundation in a welcome return to form, scoring 139 before being run out.

Coming in to bat with 163 runs to make up before getting back into credit on the scoreboard, Graeme Smith looked threatening as he played positively to get Surrey through to 69/1.
However, once Smith fell, there was a steady procession of wickets as we rolled them for a paltry 193 all out.
It was Naik's turn to shine with 5/44, while Wadlan took his match tally to 10 with figures of 3/35.

Requiring only 30 to win, Shehzad continued his shocking run by falling cheaply yet again, but a win by 9 wickets was still very impressive!



Still not looking overly wonderful on the points table, but we've played a game less than most of our opponents.

[GrahamB]

INJURIES HIT US HARD AGAIN

With pace bowler Anthony Ireland out for another 6 weeks, our bowling stocks have been further depleted by the loss of spin bowler Jigar Naik (broken finger) for 4 weeks.

Better give James Sykes some extra training, as he may be required for a first eleven turnout.