Batsmen ensure County draw

Date: Saturday 18 April 2009

Final result: Leics 183 (Allenby 62*, van der Wath 4-40, Lucas 4-46) and 174-4 (Dippenaar 68*, Nixon 39*, Hall 2-5) drew with Northants 387 (Hall 124*, Willey 60, Harris 4-109)

A tremendous battling rearguard from Leicestershire’s batsmen ensured the team drew with Northants in the Championship opener at Grace Road.

Firstly, Jim Allenby and AJ Harris shared 32 runs for the final wicket to ensure County’s first innings took an hour out of the day.

Then, in the second knock, Boeta Dippenaar and Paul Nixon put on an unbeaten 70 to steer the game into safer waters after Andrew Hall had taken a couple of quick wickets during the afternoon session.

Hall’s burst could have sparked Northants into life, but Dippenaar (68*) and Nixon (39*) negated the threat of the visiting attack to allow the sides to shake hands at 5pm.

Earlier in the day, Johannes van der Wath got one through Sam Cliff’s defences early on to ensure Northants’ quest to get 12 wickets in the day began in promising fashion.

It ended a promising knock by the young seamer, and the experienced Harris provided more stout resistance to Jim Allenby, who made an unbeaten 62.

Harris scored 17 himself before falling lbw to David Wigley, and Northants inevitably enforced the follow-on with County trailing by 204 runs an hour into the final day.

Tom New started brightly but chopped on to van der Wath before lunch, so County went in one down in their second innings at the interval.

There was more joy for Northants after the break as Matthew Boyce was dismissed by David Wigley.

He looked in little trouble alongside Dippenaar, but Wigley extracted a bit of pace from a bouncer and the left-handed opener mistimed his pull and was caught off the top edge by Hall at slip.

HD Ackerman played nicely in the glorious sunshine, and it was somewhat of a surprise when he mistimed a glance off his legs and was caught by Ben Howgego at square leg off Hall for 20.

When the seamer struck in quick succession by trapping Josh Cobb lbw to a ball that kept a little low, there was still work to do for the batsmen.

Dippenaar continued in bright form, though, timing a number of cuts and drives well.

His half-century came from 121 balls with eight fours, and he kept going alongside his skipper, who played the threat of Monty Panesar especially well.

England’s left-arm spinner did not get a wicket in the game, and that statistic went a long way to ensure the match finished with honours even.

Final points: Leics 7, Northants 11.