The Foxes Rise- A Leicestershire CCC save

[BLM]

I thought one of the best (and toughest) saves to start with would be with Leicestershire CCC. As many of you probably know Leicestershire went all of the 2014 County Championship campaign without a win and they also struggled into the shorter formats of the game.

Aims for the save-
Build in the first year, making a couple of additions to the side whilst bringing through quite a few youngsters.

[GrahamB]

Looking forward to your adventures.

[BLM]

We managed to get in one senior player for the side and that was spinner, Tom Craddock. Hopefully he'll be a vital player for us.

Leicestershire CCC vs Cambridge UCCE

Day One-
Cambridge won the toss and decided to bat, they put up a fairly decent effort for their standard but just inside of two sessions we managed to get them all out for 170 with James Sykes the pick of the bowlers picking up figures of 3-38.
After a quite woeful start to our innings with both openers, Cosgrove and Robson, getting out for 1 we found ourselves 2-2 but a steady partnership between Andrea Agathangelou and Niall O'Brien saw us rebuild and they batted out the day to see us on 104-2 at stumps.

Day Two-
Andrea Agathangelou and Niall O'Brien continued their solid partnership and put on a staggering 304 partnership before O'Brien departed for 129. Andrea Agathangelou continued putting on the runs and he reached his double century, we declared on 404-3 overnight.

Day Three-
Tom Craddock tore into the Cambridge upper order quickly and left them 83-5 with him getting four of the wickets. A late bowling performance from Wyatt was sensational, his fitness was poor so I only gave him four overs at the end and in those four overs he picked up four wickets to see them all out for 135, seeing us win by an inninngs and 99 runs.

A solid start of us meeting expectations and giving them a real beating, hopefully will give the side a bit of confidence going into the season.

Cricket captain man of the match- Andrea Agathangelou
My man of the match- Andrea Agathangelou

[BLM]

Leicestershire CCC vs Glamorgan CCC

Side to face Glamorgan:
Cosgrove(c)
Robson
Agathangelou
Niall O'Brien
Eckersley (wk)
Hill
Kevin O'Brien
McKay
Sykes
Wyatt
Craddock

Day One-
We started the 2015 campaign with a fixture against Glamorgan at Grace Road. With it looking like ideal batting conditions we chose to bat after winning the toss. A solid start from Angus Robson and Mark Cosgrove saw us race to 50 without loss inside 45 minutes but Robson fell for 35(64) which left us 74-1. After taking 19 balls to get of the dreaded 0 Andrea Agathangelou batted through till lunch with captain Mark Cosgrove. We came out after lunch 104-1 but Andrea Agathangelou didn't last long and fell for 13(46) a truely shocking, slow innings. O'Brien fell cheaply for 8(22) before Cosgrove reached his century off 157 balls. Cosgrove and Eckersley batted well through till tea and left us 223-3. Eckersley 42(103) and debutant Lewis Hill 50(51) gave Cosgrove great support through until stumps where we finished 343-5.

Day Two-
In a dreadful three overs to start the day we lost two wickets, O'Brien for 7(16) and Cosgrove for a brilliant 178(274) which left us 348-7. McKay and Craddock put on a valueable 54 runs to see us finish on 406-10. Glamorgan had to face eight overs before lunch on day two and the batted solidly and went to lunch on 13-0. A brilliant session of bowling from us left Glamorgan on 113-3 but with one player out retired giving us an advantage going into the tea break. Some fantastic batting from Colin Ingram lead Glamorgan to 233-4 at stumps.

Day Three-
With Ingram reaching 129 and Mark Wallace also passing his century Glamorgan batted through till almost tea and they finished on 424 all out, with a lead of 18, poor bowling from us admittedly though. In 40 minutes before tea Cosgrove and Robson smashed their way to 68-0 at tea on day three. We finished day three on 175-1 with Cosgrove being bowled for 82(137.)

Day Four-
We batted aggressively in the morning session and we made it to 301-5 at Lunch, where we declared with a lead of 284. Wyatt bowled beautifully at the start of Glamorgan's second innings which left them 48-3 with Wyatt taking all three wickets. But Glamorgan then batted out the day and finished on 191-3 with the match finishing as a draw.

A decent result and something to build on for the season, delighted with Cosgrove's innings in both innings and great to see 20 year-old debutant Lewis Hill getting some runs, 50(51) and 25(30), a very attacking player as well.


Cricket captain man of the match- Michael Cosgrove
My man of the match- Michael Cosgrove

[BLM]

Leicestershire CCC vs Northamptonshire CCC

Side to face Northamptonshire
Cosgrove(c)
Robson
Agathangelou
Niall O'Brien
Eckersley (wk)
Hill
Kevin O'Brien
McKay
Sheikh
Wyatt
Craddock

Day One-
We won the toss again and chose to bat as the batting conditions didn't look great but day two looked much worse. We started incredibly slowly and Robson got out for 16 off of an abysmal 70 balls. Cosgrove 40*(79) and Agathangelou 20*(37) steadied the ship and we went to lunch on 84-1. After a great session Cosgrove fell just before tea on 78(130), we went to tea on 194-2 with Agathangelou and O'Brien batting well. O'Brien fell third ball after lunch and after some rebuilding from Agathangelou and Lewis Hill we collapsed and found ourselves 288-7, with Agathangelou out for 113(212). Sheikh and Mckay batted well up till stumps where we finished on 318-7. Even contest so far.

Day Two-
With no resistance from the bowlers in the first 15 minutes of play we were all out for 323. The rest of the session was pretty even and Northamptonshire played pretty aggressively, the score at lunch was 115-3. A superb session from Northamptonshire left them 273-4 at tea. They then batted out the day to leave the on 454-6, some truely brilliant batting from Richard Levi who scored 160(176).

Day Three-
Northamptonshire batted for 45 minutes before declaring on 501-8, with a lead of 178. We batted well until lunch where we finished on 78-1, with Northamptonshire leading by 100 runs. Agathangelou and Robson went past their fifties before getting out just before tea to leave us 184-3, effectively 6-3. O'Brien, Hill and Eckersley batted well before stumps but we ended on 302-7, a lead of 124. Hopefully be able to get a lead of 160+.

Day Four-
We batted for half an hour before being bowled out for 325, Northamptonshire needing 148 to win. Despite bowling much better than the first innings Northamptonshire won by five wickets with 20 minutes left of the second session.

Cricket captain man of the match- Richard Levi
My man of the match- Richard Levi
Funnily enough I've agreed with cricket captain so far on all man of the matches, been pretty obvious so far though.

[BLM]

Kent CCC vs Leicestershire CCC
Side to face Kent-
Cosgrove(c)
Robson
Agathangelou
Niall O'Brien
Eckersley (wk)
Hill
Kevin O'Brien
McKay
Shreck
Wyatt
Craddock

Day One-
We won the toss and we once again chose to bat, we batted aggressively first session and went to lunch on 129-1, Cosgrove being the highlight on 88*(112). We batted fairly aggressively once again in the second session but this time it came at the price, we went into the tea break on 250-5 with Agathangelou 100*. Kevin O'Brien fell shortly after tea and Agathangelou and McKay put on a unbeaten 94 run partnership.

Day Two-
Agathangelou and McKay batted brilliantly in the morning of day two and they put on a partnership of 179 runs with Agathangelou getting out on 191(323). We batted up until Lunch and declared on 479-9 with McKay reaching his first ever first class century. Kent batted defensively and reached 59-1 at tea. Kent batted much better after tea and went to stumps on 165-1.

Day Three-
We bowled much better than yesterday as Kent reached 270-4 at lunch. The bowlers continued to do well after lunch with Tom Craddock bowling beautifully to restrict Kent to 380-7 at tea. Kent batted brilliantly whilst being aggressive after tea and in an hour despite us bowling them all out they finished on 454-10, with us having a lead of 25. With an hour to bat before stumps we wanted to bat agressively and we ended the day on 58-2.

Day Four-
Angus Robson continued to play superbly on day four and hit 108(136) leaving us on 205-7 at lunch. We batted until we reached 225-8 and then we declared with a lead of 250, hopefully get some quick wickets before tea. Sadly for us, Kent batted brilliantly and went to tea on 116-1, needing 135 in the final session to grab an unlikely victory. Craddock bowled sensationally in the first hour after tea giving us a slight chance of victory with them being on 183-5. With one over left we needed two wickets whilst Kent needed 12 runs, the over had no wickets and three runs so we drew once again.

Cricket captain Man Of The Match- Andrea Agathangelou
My Man Of The Match- Angus Robson
Despite Andrea Agathangelou scoring 191 I thought Robson's second innings score of 108 was much more important as the next top run scorer was Kevin O'Brien on 31. Without Robson's runs we'd have definitely lost.

....Will edit this post later when I finish the game.

[BLM]

Frustratingly the game is saying I've played three games in the County Championship and lost the game I actually haven't played. Very annoying.

[BLM]

Surrey CCC vs Leicestershire CCC

Side to face Surrey-
Cosgrove(c)
Robson
Agathangelou
Niall O'Brien
Eckersley (wk)
Hill
Kevin O'Brien
McKay
Sheikh
Wyatt
Craddock

Day One-
Surrey won the toss and chose to bat, with players such as Sangakkara and Kevin Pietersen it looked like a daunting task. Clint McKay bowled Sangakkara inside the first hour to leave Surrey 45-2 but Pietersen steadied the ship and they went into lunch on 92-2. Rory Burns went past his century whilst Kevin Pietersen got out on 75 but ensured that Surrey had a great afternoon session, leaving them on 220-3 at tea. A woeful last session and some great batting from Burns saw Surrey reach 348-4 at stumps.

Day Two-
Burns on 162*(311). Surrey continued to dominate as they went to lunch on 510-5 meaning it was just a matter of when they'd declare. Surrey declared on 605-6 meaning we'd have to defend an awkard couple of overs before tea on day two, but we do so successfully going into tea on 3-0. For three overs after lunch we batted aggressively and it worked a treat putting on 22 runs to get to 25-0, then rain stopped play for 45minutes meaning that only 18 overs would be bowled after the stoppage. 16 overs were bowled before rain interrupted play again which meant the day finished early, we ended the day on 91-1.

Day Three-
Robson and Agathangelou continued to bat superbly and batted out the first session of the day, leaving us 170-1. Robson passed his century and Lewis Hill gave him some good support to get us to 284-4 at tea. We then had bit of a collapse which left us 380-9 at stumps. With us needing an unlikely 66 runs to avoid the follow on.

Day four-
Kevin O'Brien showed some resistance but we were bowled all out for 399. Surrey enforced the follow on with us being 206 behind, needing to bat out most of the day.We had to bat for 40 minutes before Lunch and the openers did that brilliantly, leaving us 45-0 at Lunch. The afternoon session was a washout which was good for us and then the evening session also had quite a bit of rain. Leaving us just 20 overs to bat. We batted well for the remaining overs and ended on 120-2, another draw.

Cricket captain man of the match- Angus Robson
My man of the match-Rory Burns.

[BLM]

T20- Lancashire vs Leicestershire

Side to face Lancashire-
Cosgrove(C)
Niall O'Brien
Robson
Hill
Akmal(WK)
Ali
Elliot
Kevin O'Brien
Sheikh
Raine
Craddock


The Match-
Lancashire won the toss and chose to bat, it didn't start well for us with Sheikh getting smacked for 18 in his first over. Sheikh continued to get smacked around after his three overs and they went at 14 per over. Craddock and Ben Raine bowled superbly but Lancashire still managed to post 157-6.
After 10 overs we were well behind the rate and we were on 59-3. 111-6 is what we finished on, a quite shocking effort.

Cricket captain man of the match-Luke Procter
My man of the match-Luke Procter

[BLM]

Leicestershire CCC v Lancashire

Side to face Lancashire-
Cosgrove(c)
Robson
Agathangelou
Niall O'Brien
Eckersley (wk)
Hill
Kevin O'Brien
McKay
Sheikh
Wyatt
Craddock

Day One-
We won the toss and chose to bat, a slow but solid first session saw us go into lunch on 79 without loss. The partnership continued until halfway through the second session when Cosgrove went for 59 (136) then we collapsed and lost another three wickets for no runs. Disaster as we were 139-1 and then 139-4. Eckersley and Kevin O'Brien steadied the ship and took us to 187-5 at tea. We batted much better after tea and reached 290-10 by stumps with our innings finishing in the final ball of the day.

Day Two-
The first session of day two was interrupted by rain and we failed to get a wicket, 51-0 at lunch. Once again another session was affected by rain, we bowled better and Craddock picked up two wickets to make it 170-2. Lancashire continued to dominate the game and at stumps they were 328-2.

Day Three-
After getting the new ball 20 minutes into the day we bowled much better and they went to lunch on 451-5, still a very commanding position. After failing to continue some much better bowling Lancashire smashed a quick 50 odd runs after lunch and declared on 507-5, with a lead of 217. Alviro Petersen top scored with 168(210). To make matters worse, we got off to a dreadful start, despite picking up 52 runs from seven overs we lost three wickets, including both openers. Eckersley showed some resistance 38*(47) and we went to tea on 123-5. We ended up 223 all out, with a laughable lead of 6 runs. Lancashire got the 7 runs they needed in 11 balls and won by 10 tickets.

A truly woeful match performance with no real bright sparks.

Cricket captain man of the match-Alviro Petersen
My man of the match-Alviro Petersen

[BLM]

T20- Leicestershire vs Derbyshire

Side to face Lancashire-
Cosgrove(C)
Niall O'Brien
Robson
Hill(WK)
Burns
Ali
Elliot
Kevin O'Brien
Sheikh
Raine
Craddock

The match-
The two openers started brilliantly, smashing 36 off of 4 overs but sadly Cosgrove fell the next ball. We batted well for the rest of the innings reaching 149-6 after 20 overs. Craddock and Raine bowled sensationally inside the first 4 overs, reducing them to 20-5, two of them run-outs. We bowled them all out for 62. Grant Elliot bowling just one over at the end but picking up three wickets, beautiful spin bowling.

Great win!

Cricket captain man of the match- Grant Eilliot
My man of the match-Grant Eilliot

With figures of 3-1 there was no debate.

[BLM]

T20- Leicestershire vs Durham

Side to face Durham
Cosgrove(C)
Niall O'Brien
Robson
Hill(WK)
Burns
Ali
Elliot
Kevin O'Brien
Sheikh
Raine
Craddock

The Match-
After a quite brilliant bowling performance in the last match what happened in Durham's innings was not expected, they smashed an emphatic 212-6, Shreyas Iyer 86(48) top scorer for the side. Our batting was almost as bad as our bowling as we reached 89-8 after 20 overs, Lost by 123 runs.

It can't get any worse than that.

Cricket captain man of the match-Shreyas Iyer
My man of the match-Shreyas Iyer

[BLM]

T20- Leicestershire vs Worcestershire

Side to face Worcestershire
Cosgrove(C)
Niall O'Brien
Agathangelou
Hill(WK)
Burns
Ali
Elliot
Kevin O'Brien
Sykes
Raine
Craddock

The match-
The first ten overs were a disaster from our bowlers, with Worcestershire being on 110-3, but a hat-trick from Grant Eliiot six overs later reduced them to 141-5. Worcestershire finished on 172-5, a much improved final ten overs. We batted dreadfully in this one, 95-6 after 20, shocking.

Cricket captain man of the match-Colin Munro
My man of the match-Colin Munro

[GrahamB]

Hopefully things will start to improve for you. All the best.

[BLM]

Hopefully things will start to improve for you. All the best.

Cheers, struggling with the bowling without McKay but he's back soon.