Awesome Allenby leads Foxes to triumph

Date: Thursday 04 June 2009

Leicestershire Foxes (2 pts) 205-2 (Allenby 110, Taylor 41*, Boyce 34, du Toit 16*) beat Nottinghamshire Outlaws (0 pts) 135 (Gurney 3-21, Allenby 3-25, White 3-27) by 70 runs.

Jim Allenby’s stunning century helped set up an emphatic 70-run win for Leicestershire Foxes against Nottinghamshire Outlaws on a fairytale evening at Grace Road.

On an evening when records tumbled, Allenby made the Foxes’ second hundred in the format as the team landed a crucial success against their East Midlands rivals.

His fantastic 110 came off just 58 balls, with eight maximums struck alongside seven fours.

The feat was also the first domestic Twenty20 ton of the summer, and the maiden century scored at Grace Road in the competition.

It helped County to their highest-ever score at Grace Road with 205-2, and was the second highest-ever total in the format, behind the 221-3 made against Yorkshire at Headingley in 2004.

The knock was just one run shy of Darren Maddy’s career-best effort for the team, which was made in that game.

Amazingly, Allenby’s hundred was statistically identical to Maddy’s knock, as both centuries came from just 54 deliveries – the equivalent of just nine overs.

It all ensured the all-rounder goes into the record books as scoring the joint-fastest T20 100 in Leicestershire's history, which is a remarkable achievement.

Maddy’s brilliant 111 came from 60 balls altogether and was seen as something of a one-off at the time, so that shows how well Allenby played.

He and Matthew Boyce – who was opening for the first time in the format this season – got things off to a flier, as the Outlaws’ evening went downhill rapidly from the moment Chris Read won the toss and elected to field.

The Foxes dominated every minute and every aspect of the game, which started with eight fours and two sixes being scored in the first six overs, and the duo had 60 on the board by the end of the powerplay.

Boyce hit the ball nicely through the covers and also played some nice straight drives, while Allenby struck brutally straight and through mid-wicket.

Only Samit Patel bowled with any kind of control over the Foxes, and his analysis of 1-31 from four made him the only bowler to go at anything less than ten runs an over.

By the time the slow left-armer had Boyce caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Ali Brown for a quickfire 34 from 24 balls, the pair had shared 79 for the first wicket in less than nine overs.

James Taylor then came in to get the best seat of the house – watching Allenby in full flow – but also continued to make his mark in Twnety20 cricket.

The youngster pushed the ball around well and found gaps in batting sensibly in support of his colleague, and played no small role in a whirlwind stand of 105.

Allenby played a beautiful late cut and a powerful pull over mid-wicket as his 50 came up from 31 balls – but he wasn’t finished there by a long way.

He added a further three sixes between 50 and 100, with his second half-century coming from just 23 deliveries.

Allenby struck the ball with power throughout, playing strongly through mid-wicket and over or through the straight V.

Taylor bought deftness to the piece in a typically quirky knock, playing his full repertoire of cunning, inventive strokes.

Taylor was happy to lap-sweep, reverse-sweep and switch-hit, as well as picking up the bread-and-butter singles. He also sprinted magnificently between the wickets to give Allenby as much of the strike as possible.

The all-rounder then moved to his richly-deserved hundred with a glance for four through backward square-leg, and the whole ground rose to applaud the outstanding feat.

Luke Fletcher had Allenby caught behind in the 19th over, but if Notts thought that normality had been restored, they were mistaken.

Jacques du Toit ended with a strike rate of more than 300 as he struck 16 from just five balls, which included a beautiful clip for six in the final over.

Taylor, meanwhile, ended on a more-than-useful mature unbeaten 41 from 33 balls as County made a daunting total.

Notts needed to get off to a flier, but still understandably appeared shell-shocked when it was their turn at the crease.

Harry Gurney took a wicket in each of his opening three overs en route to 3-21 off four as the Outlaws’ chase had pretty much ended before it had started.

Firstly, Will Jefferson flicked a drive to mid-wicket where Boeta Dippenaar held the catch, and Alex Hales almost put his back out in edging an extremely wide delivery from the left-arm seamer.

Paul Nixon held on to that comfortable catch, and Samit Patel then misjudged a stroke and top-edged mid-wicket, where du Toit took a decent catch.

Everything was going well for the Foxes, illustrated by Allenby continuing his magic evening by taking two wickets in his second over.

Both came from low full-tosses – which is quite often a useful ball in T20 – as Bilal Shafayat (29) and Adam Voges (21) didn’t get hold of their shots.

When the dangerous Brown chipped a catch to du Toit at mid-wicket in Allenby’s third, the all-rounder had 3-25 in his spell to complete his amazing night.

The Outlaws were never in the chase, and Wayne White and former Outlaws bowler AJ Harris returned to wrap things up.

White took 3-27 in all, including the wickets of Mark Ealham, Andre Adams and Darren Pattinson.

Adams fell to a brilliant diving catch by Nixon, while Harris (1-15 from three) got the prize scalp of his former captain Read courtesy of a White catch in the deep between his haul.

It meant the Outlaws had been bowled out for 135, ensuring the Foxes moved up to third in the North Section on run rate - which was helped substantially with this triumph - ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Derbyshire.

It was a nigh-perfect performance, with a score of 200, a century, and all ten wickets falling to ten catches – including some skiers in the deep and Nixon’s super effort.

The team will travel in good spirits up the M1 tomorrow night, and although another performance like this is a lot to ask for, a win of any sorts would see the Foxes well in the hunt as the competition takes a break for a fortnight or so.