18th to 1st - Creating A Dynasty - Leicestershire CCC

[Joe Baldwin]

Leicestershire County Cricket Club were founded in 1879 and entered the County Championship for the first time in 1895, having been promoted to first-class status. In their 127-year history as a first-class county, however, the club have very little to show for it in terms of silverware, winning just three County Championship titles, the most recent of which was in 1998. In the shorter formats of the game, three Benson & Hedges Cups and three T20 titles, the latest of which was in 2011, are starting to gather dust in the cabinet more than a decade on.

And if you have to look well down the list of domestic honours achieved before you find the name of Leicestershire CCC, you’ll have to look even further to find them in the league tables in 2022. The club finished bottom of the County Championship without even winning a match – five draws and nine defeats the sum total of their efforts, failing even to reach 100 points in 14 fixtures.

The Foxes did fare better in the Vitality T20 Blast, finishing 6th in the North Group, just one point behind the top four, and the Royal London Cup was better still – the club finishing 2nd in their group before losing to Kent in the Quarter-Final by 81 runs. This does suggest a group that can compete in white-ball cricket.

However, ambitions of a fourth County Championship seem a very long way away at the moment – and this is the main aim of the challenge. Can we take a club that didn’t win a single Division Two fixture in 2022 and turn them into Division One Champions?

[Joe Baldwin]

There is a modicum of talent available to me as I start our mission. Peter Handscomb and Wiaan Mulder make up our Overseas talent for the 2023 campaign, but with only £31K in the budget, we didn’t have enough in the bank for a third player. We’ve also got Colin Ackermann, a Dutch all-rounder who has become a cult figure at the club since his arrival in 2017, and the entire nation has very high hopes for 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed, already an England Test international.

I opted not to sign any new talent at the start of the season, instead preferring to increase our Youth budget to the maximum of £50k and the Coaching budget to £40K with the remainder. Just like that, the season was upon us – we’d begin with a trip to Yorkshire.

[Joe Baldwin]

April 2023

The barren County Championship run from 2022 came to a sensational, immediate end on our opening-day trip to a Yorkshire side shorn of most of their big guns. They did field international talent in Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan and Dom Bess, with overseas players Saud Shakil and Neil Wagner adding some star power to their lineup. Our opening day team was as follows:

1. Nick Welch
2. Sam Evans
3. Colin Ackermann
4. Peter Handscomb (wk)
5. Wiaan Mulder
6. Louis Kimber
7. Lewis Hill (c)
8. Rehan Ahmed
9. Callum Parkinson
10. Roman Walker
11. Chris Wright

In a stunning start, we reduced Yorkshire to 76-7 with our trio of seamers causing carnage. Dom Bess (48) and Matt Milnes (38) made lower order runs but when we polished the innings off for 154, we were well ahead of the game, and despite losing Welch for a duck in the first over of our reply, a 160-run stand for the 2nd wicket between Evans and Ackermann really put us in complete control. The latter made 93, only to be outdone by skipper Lewis Hill who scored our first century of the campaign with 103, as we declared on 439-8.

It wasn't completely straightforward as Saud Shakil dug in for 75 in their second dig, but our spinners took centre stage with three wickets each for Ahmed and Parkinson, rolling through their lower order as they lost their last six wickets for just 31 runs. Leicestershire won by an innings and 54 runs.

Next up was Derbyshire at home, and a brilliant 132 from Mulder helped us to 421 batting first, made possible by a first-wicket partnership of 140 from Welch (61) and Evans (78). In reply, only Luis Reece (78) offered any resistance and the spinners again caused carnage as the visitors could only muster 199. We enforced the follow-on, but 149* from Leus du Plooy helped them to a team total of 322 and gave us a potentially tricky target of 101 to win batting last on a spinners paradise.

We fell to 3-2 and 54-4, but a steady 29 from Handscomb and 24 from Mulder helped eke us over the line. Leicestershire won by 5 wickets.

Our final County Championship fixture in April saw us host Glamorgan, and the game followed a very similar theme as the victory over Derbyshire. Again, we batted first, and again, we posted in excess of 400 - 433-8 declared to be precise, having batted for a day and a half. Mulder (128) and Hill (100) continued their outstanding starts to the season, and Callum Parkinson followed suit with the ball, recording an outstanding 6-37 as we skittled Marnus Labuschagne et al for just 194.

We enforced the follow-on and Glamorgan came back firing with the bat, with Sam Northeast leading the way with 96. Mulder displayed the full extent of his all-round talent as he added 6-94 to his earlier century, but they racked up 395 to leave us a target of 157. Floundering at 79-4, it looked like we might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but mercifully Ackermann steadied the ship with an unbeaten 58 and we made it home with five wickets to spare. Leicestershire won by 5 wickets.

Incredibly given the failures of 2022, we finish April top of the Division Two table, 11 points clear of Sussex. Wiaan Mulder has been the star of the show, picking up the Player of the Match award against both Derbyshire and Glamorgan. He's our top scorer with 301 runs from our first three matches, and is also our joint-top wicket-taker with 15 scalps, level with Callum Parkinson.

May will see us play another three County Championship fixtures before the Vitality T20 Blast begins with three matches in the last week of the month.

[Joe Baldwin]

May 2023

We began May with a trip to Derbyshire, who were looking to avenge our earlier victory. Leus du Plooy had made a big hundred in a losing cause there, and after they won the toss and elected to bat, du Plooy scored 108 as they posted 331 first up. In reply, half-centuries from Evans, Welch and Mulder pushed us to 311, making the game essentially a one-innings shoot-out over two days of cricket.

Rehan Ahmed had picked up four wickets with the ball on Day 1, and he did so again in Derbyshire's 2nd innings as they could only muster 202, leaving us a target of 223. A solid first-wicket partnership laid the foundation as we reached the close of Day 3 on 97-0, and Nick Welch would go on to make 75 as we reached the target with four wickets to spare. Four games played, four wins!

Fixture 5 pitted us against Sussex in a top-of-the-table clash, as the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Steve Smith and Ollie Robinson visited Grace Road. We won the toss and elected to bat first, and our openers delivered once again as both Welch and Evans made half-centuries. However, we collapsed from 203-2 to 278 all out, with Robinson bagging four, and Sussex emerged with a 56-run lead after Delray Rawlins and Tom Haines fired 70s.

A superb 2nd innings from us, with Evans making 100 and Ackermann a gut-wrenching but brilliant 98, saw us post 378 and set Sussex a target of 323 to win, which thanks to some excellent bowling from Chris Wright and Callum Parkinson, never looked likely. They took four wickets apiece and led us to victory by 131 runs.

Our fifth victory of the season saw us break the 100-point barrier, something Leicestershire hadn't managed to do in 14 games in 2022 - a mark of just how brilliantly we'd started the season.

Worcestershire were next in our final County Championship before the T20 Blast begins, and they prepared a batting-friendly wicket which necessitated the dropping of Rehan Ahmed in favour of Tom Scriven as I ditched our twin-spin approach. We won the toss and elected to bat, but despite the conditions, we found ourselves floundering at 122-5. Louis Kimber fired 84 to help lift us to 256, and a spirited bowling perfomance - led by the evergreen Chris Wright with 4-30 - restricted Worcs to 230.

Wiaan Mulder (87) and Peter Handscomb (74) shone in our second innings but weren't given much support as we mustered 268, setting a target of 295 to win. Mulder proceeded to take all of the first five wickets, reducing Worcs to 128-5, but a great 6th wicket partnership of 84 between Hose and Roderick dragged them back into the game. In a dramatic conclusion, man-of-the-match Dillon Pennington - the number 11 - blasted a cover drive to the fence as Worcestershire reached the target with just one wicket to spare, inflicting our first defeat of the season.

Despite this defeat, we'd won five wins out of six at the start of the County Championship campaign and we were sitting top of Division 2, 18 points ahead of Sussex and 23 points ahead of Worcestershire in 3rd. Wiaan Mulder has already plundered 558 runs and 34 wickets, making him by far our highest run-scorer and wicket-taker - Sam Evans (484 runs) and Callum Parkinson (24 wickets) are 2nd in both categories!

May would conclude with three Vitality T20 Blast fixtures, against Lancashire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

First up, we beat Lancashire by 14 runs, despite being bowled out without facing the full 20 overs. Louis Kimber made 53 from 32 balls as we posted 178, a total we defended by virtue of Naseem Shah's 3-24.

An epic encounter with Warwickshire followed, and we ended up losing by 1 wicket in improbable circumstances! Batting first again, we were again bowled out with five balls remaining for just 162 - Colin Ackermann starring with 53 from 29. A rapid start from Paul Stirling was eventually halted and we reduced Warwickshire to 100-6, before a late rally from the number 11, Liam Norwell, who scored 14 from 4 balls to win the game in the final over!

We rebounded with victory over Worcestershire, avenging our red-ball defeat in fine style. Chasing 176 to win, we actually fell to 12-3 after Lewis Hill and Arron Lilley both scored ducks, but a great partnership between Rishi Patel and Sol Budinger fired us to victory by five wickets.

This victory leaves us 4th in the North Group, ahead of a June packed with Vitality T20 Blast fixtures and a couple of County Championship fixtures as well.

[Joe Baldwin]

June 2023

June is a month typically dedicated to the Vitality T20 Blast, and having won two of our opening three games in the competition, I was full of optimism heading into a string of back-to-back T20 fixtures.

It didn't take very long for Derbyshire to bring us crashing back down to Earth in our 4th group stage game. Spinner Mark Watt took 6-14 as we were skittled for 97 - a target our opponents reached in 9.2 overs.

We responded in fine fashion, as an impressive 65* from keeper Lewis Hill fired us to an 8-wicket victory against Northamptonshire, who we'd bowled out for 127 - a result which lifted us to 4th in the standings after five matches.

Our inconsistent form continued as Durham beat us by five wickets on Matchday 6, with Bas de Leede starring for our opponents with 2-23 followed by 57 with the bat. Colin Ackermann had earlier scored 66 but we'd dropped Alex Lees twice early in Durham's innings and he was able to lay the foundation with 37 as they chased a target of 157.

The halfway point of the group stage saw us take on a star-studded Yorkshire side featuring Shan Masood, Jonathan Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Saud Shakil, Harry Brook, Dominic Bess and Adil Rashid. However, an inspired performance by Wiaan Mulder was more than a match for all of them. His 4-40, combined with Naseem Shah's 3-14, helped restrict Yorkshire to 163, and Mulder top scored with 42* as we chased it down with eleven balls to go. Another memorable moment was the competitive debut of teenage left-arm seamer Josh Hull - not a regen - who dismissed Harry Brook with the very first ball of his professional career!

However, that was as good as it got in the T20 Blast, as we would go on to lose our next six consecutive matches. Durham skittled us for 121 and Yorkshire for 125 as we fell well short of reasonable first innings targets, and then when we did post 170-6 against Worcestershire, Gareth Roderick fired 73* from 36 balls to chase it down with five balls to spare.

We posted 186 against Nottinghamshire but Ben Duckett (73) and Joe Clarke (52*) reached it comfortably, and Northamptonshire edged home to win by two wickets chasing 180 - Wiaan Mulder's 85 and 3-32 not enough. Mark Watt then repeated his bowling heroics with 3-15 as Derbyshire defended 166.

Finally, in the last fixture of the group stage, we broke our winless run, beating Nottinghamshire in a rain-affected match - our 71-2 from 7 being enough to chase down their 149-4 from 15.

Our chances of achieving our aims in the County Championship Division 2 were much stronger, and we had a couple of fixtures in June.

The first of these saw us travel to Gloucestershire. They'd prepared a seam-friendly wicket but we stuck with our twin-spin approach with Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson both playing. Ahmed's selection reaped an immediate award as his 6-60 helped us reduce Gloucestershire to 264 in their first innings. We took a significant lead as Peter Handscomb rediscovered his best form with a sensational 140, capably supported in the middle order by Lewis Hill's 73, and we posted 401 in response.

Chris Wright then made the most of the seamers conditions with 5-55 as Gloucestershire slumped to 172, leaving us a very simple target of just 36 - a total we reached without losing a wicket. The victory meant that at the halfway stage of the red-ball season, we sat 31 points inside the promotion places.

Then, in stark contrast to our struggles in the Blast, we absolutely demolished Durham at Grace Road, winning by 232 runs. Ajinkya Rahane was available for the first time in the season, rendering Handscomb unavailable as he's technically our Reserve, and we posted 406 batting first, thanks to half-centuries from Hill, Kimber and Mulder. Ahmed and Parkinson then took 7-94 between them as we bowled Durham out for 192 in reply, the visitors hampered by David Bedingham being forced to retire hurt.

We didn't enforce the follow-on as we felt the pitch was going to be extremely difficult to bat 4th on, as always seems the way on our spin-friendly pitches. We declared on 194-6 in our 2nd innings with a lead of 408, timing it so the bowlers could have a quick go at the Durham openers before tea on Day 3. It didn't take us long to seal victory as Rehan Ahmed spun his way to a 10-wicket-haul in the match with 6-52 in the 2nd innings - Durham could only muster 176.

This victory widened the gap at the top to 25 points - promotion was surely a formality with a 45-point buffer with 6 games remaining, considering the way we're playing at the moment!

[Joe Baldwin]

July 2023

With the Vitality Blast stretching into early July, we finished that competition and found we only had two County Championship fixtures lined up for the second half of the month as we continued our assault on the Division 2 title.

The first of these matches saw us travel to Glamorgan. Our youth players for the 2023 season had been promoted into the first team squad, but neither Dylan Oddie nor Josh Lyman looked particularly promising so didn't make the lineup. Glamorgan, on the other hand, gave a professional debut to Stanley Sweeney, who had a wage of £26K - considerably more than our youngsters.

Glamorgan batted first and Chris Ingram made 101 for the hosts, who posted 316 first up. We responded well, with India superstar Ajinkya Rahane delivering the goods with a wonderful 140 as we responded with 357 to take a slender first-innings lead. Chris Cooke fired 93 as Glamorgan set us a potentially tricky target of 257 batting last, but I needn't have worried - Sam Evans (109*) and Rahane (64*) combined with a mammoth third wicket partnership that saw us all the way home in the final session!

An epic encounter with Worcestershire followed. We won the toss and elected to bat on our traditional spin-friendly pitch, again designed to get the best out of Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson. We posted 335 to open the game, Rahane top scoring with 76, but Worcestershire roared past us with 395 in reply, courtesy of 124 from Azhar Ali. We retook the lead just two wickets down, but a collapse resulted in a second innings total of 174 and a 4th innings target of just 115.

But with the pitch turning square, carnage ensued. Worcestershire, having serenely navigated the new ball and reached 56-0, were then destroyed by the spinners. Ahmed claimed 5-17 and Parkinson 5-21 as the visitors slumped to 91 all out - an improbable 23-run victory which all but mathematically secured promotion. Our gap to 3rd place was 79 points with only 96 left on the table, and it was our 9th win in 10 County Championship fixtures in 2023!

With ten games in the books, Sam Evans (767 runs) has overtaken Wiaan Mulder (722 runs) as our leading run-scorer. However, both are behind the domestic trailblazers Toby Albert and Cheteshwar Pujara, who have both broken the 1000-run mark already! On the wicket-taking front, Rehan Ahmed leads the way with 48 with Callum Parkinson and Wiaan Mulder close behind on 44 each. Simon Harmer has 64, eight better than the next highest in the country.

August is exclusively dedicated to the Royal London One-Day Cup so we'll be reporting back on the eight group stage fixtures (and hopefully beyond!) in the next update.

[Joe Baldwin]

August 2023

As we entered the Royal London One-Day Cup, I was hopeful we could produce a strong showing as other counties would be impacted more heavily by the Hundred than ourselves - we would only lose Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson. However, as we lined up against Surrey for the first match of the group, I looked nervously on at the likes of Ben Foakes and Sean Abbott lining up for the opposition. There was still enough star quality on show to make our lives very difficult.

I was proved right. Foakes made 106 from 86 balls and led Surrey to 307, a total which we never threatened. Dan Moriarty took four wickets with his left-arm spin and we lost by 49 runs. Our best efforts to bounce back against Kent weren't good enough either - Ackermann made 91 as we posted 271, but any notion of this being a challenging target was put to rest by Marcus O'Riordan, who smashed 157 from 123 as Kent reached the total to win by 7 wickets with 7 full overs to spare.

With our One Day Cup dreams already hanging by a thread, Nottinghamshire extinguished them entirely by beating us by 9 wickets in a rain-affected match. Rain or not, they reached a revised target of 156 in just 21 overs - they had 15 more to work with if they'd needed. We were lacking in every department and not looking remotely competitive.

Having lost three out of three, we faced Lancashire looking to salvage some pride, already resigned to the fact we wouldn't be progressing to the knockout rounds of the competition. Despite a fantastic performance from Ackermann, who bowled his full allocation of 10 overs and took 1-42, Lancs were able to post 315-8, with Rob Jones blasting 99 from 67 balls. With a mammoth total to chase, Ackermann played well for 63 to cap a superb all-round performance, but it was Rishi Patel who took all the plaudits. He made a sensational 155 from 137 balls and we managed to reach the target, incredibly, with 34 balls to spare!

It felt so nice, he had to do it twice. We followed up our first One-Day Cup win with a second over Hampshire, and Rishi Patel again made a massive hundred - 152* this time, capably supported by 75 for Ajinkya Rahane. Hampshire had posted 313-9 but it proved no match for Patel and co, who timed the run chase to perfection and sealed a 6-wicket victory with one ball remaining.

Normal service was quickly resumed as we fell to disappointing defeats against Essex and Middlesex. We'd managed to bowl Essex out for 241, with Sir Alastair Cook making 89, but Simon Harmer's 3-33 and a lacklustre batting performance saw us fall agonisingly short by 16 runs. Middlesex saw a wider margin of defeat, as despite Wiaan Mulder taking 5-52 with the ball, they posted 299 and we fell 53 runs adrift.

We finished with a meaningless fixture against Yorkshire, but we bowled superbly to take our third victory of the competition. We were bowled out for 254 after 46 overs and defeat looked likely, but Colin Ackermann again inspired us with 4-51 as we bowled the visitors out for 242 and claim a 12-run victory.

The final standings showed we were bottom of our group with three wins out of eight, but for comparison, the leaders won five out of eight so the points were very close. We just lost too many games by too wide a margin.

September sees us pick up our County Championship ambitions, where we're on the precipice of glory.