County Seconds share absorbing tie with Lancs

Date: Friday 12 June 2009

Leicestershire Second XI (1 pt) 276-6 (Boyce 69, du Toit 55, Taylor 40, White 33*, Parry 3-32) tied with Lancashire Second XI (1 pt) 276-4 (Croft 115, Brown 79, Cross 61*, Gurney 2-65) in the Second XI Trophy.

Wayne White’s nerveless last-ball four ensured Leicestershire and Lancashire shared a thrilling tie in the SET at Grace Road.

Chasing 277 to win, the team needed five off the final ball to seal a win, so it needed a boundary of some sorts to ensure County got something from an absorbing encounter.

White (33*) duly delivered, smashing Kyle Hogg through extra-cover for four to ensure the spoils were shared, which was a fair outcome in a thoroughly entertaining clash between two sides with plenty of first-team experience in the ranks.

The bowling all-rounder's knock followed good contributions from Matthew Boyce (69), Jacques du Toit (55), James Taylor (40), Josh Cobb (32) and Tom New (21) as although nobody made a hude score, everyone chipped in.

Earlier in the game Lancs made 276-4 after winning the toss and electing to bat on a fine day with Steven Croft top-scoring with 116.

The all-rounder shared 119 for the second wicket with opener Karl Brown, who made an excellent 79 before falling lbw to skipper Jim Allenby.

Things had started brightly when Harry Gurney had Luke Procter caught at third-man by Alex Wyatt, but Brown and Croft built a platform impressively for the visitors.

When Brown fell, captain and ‘keeper Gareth Cross provided another useful foil for Croft as the duo shared a consecutive century stand in the innings.

Croft and Cross put on 125 for the third wicket, with Croft moving to a 124-ball century during the partnership.

The batsman found the boundary when needed and also picked up plenty of ones and twos in an enterprising knock, and Cross did well to score quickly too, as well as getting his partner back on strike.

Gurney ended the stand in his second spell towards the end of the innings, having Croft caught by Cobb at deep mid-wicket.

Although a little expensive, the left-armer was the most successful bowler with 2-65, while Carl Crowe was the most economical bowler by sending down ten overs for 40 runs in the middle of the innings.

White claimed the wicket of Hogg in the last over, but Cross finished unbeaten on 61 as Lancs compiled a good score.

County needed a good start, and Cobb and Boyce provided it in some style. The duo shared 73 for the first wicket, with Cobb striking the ball over the top impressively.

Boyce also found the boundary with regularity, including one marvellous drive through extra-cover.

County moved to 66 from the first ten overs, and Lancs delayed the second powerplay, which proved a good tactic.

Slow left-armer Steven Parry – who bowled exceptionally well – was bought on to take the pace off the ball, and two wickets fell in his first over.

The first was a run out initiated by Steven Mullaney, as the all-rounder threw down the stumps with Cobb well short of his ground.

The spinner then nipped one through Allenby’s defences as the steam lost two wickets for no runs, and the team then needed to consolidate.

Boyce and Taylor did that with a 52-run stand, although the left-hander fell on the sweep to Lancashire’s second slow left armer Simon Kerrigan for a well-played 69 with the score on 125.

Taylor and du Toit then put on 49 for the fourth wicket, before Hogg had the former well caught behind by Cross standing up.

du Toit and New threatened to take the game away from Lancs, but in a bizarre twist of symmetry, two wickets also fell in Parry’s last over.

It was a brave call to bring the spinner back in the batting powerplay, but it was astute thinking from Cross as Parry claimed both settled batsmen in consecutive deliveries.

Firstly, du Toit fell to a quite unbelievable catch by Croft, who followed up his batting heroics by running around from long-off to pouch a brilliant effort after a sprint and slide.

The all-rounder finished up at deep extra-cover to show the athletic nature of the catch, and New was then bowled from the next ball to leave the team with plenty to do.

It left White and Crowe in the middle with neither having faced a ball, and 45 were needed from the final five overs, which was always going to be a tall order.

White smashed a six and four from the next over bowled by Kerrigan, and after some decent bowling by the visitors, 20 runs were required from the final two.

Nine runs were taken from the penultimate over, thanks in large to a cheeky White four which he flicked over the top of his own stumps.

Only two runs were scrambled from the first three balls of the last, to leave a difficult task of nine runs from the last three deliveries.

White and Crowe ran consecutive twos to leave five needed from the last, and White then held his nerve brilliantly with a super clean hit through extra ensured the game finished in a tie.

It means County have won one, lost one and tied one of their opening three games in the competition, with all three games being highly entertaining.