2009 Season Review - August - Part One

Date: Monday 18 January 2010

August was a busy and eventful month for Leicestershire CCC. Here is the first of a three-part take on the month.

The first day of the month saw a real landmark for James Taylor, who became the fifth youngest batter in England to make a double-century during the draw at Surrey as the calendar turned into August.

Taylor, who also became Leicestershire’s youngest-ever centurion, played superbly well. Not afraid to take on an attack that included Jade Dernbach and Andre Nel, the batter also stood up to some hostile tactics from Nel and some strange field placings designed to distract his attention.

His innings also fitted in with the team’s plans; the youngster upped the tempo as he went on and found the boundary with regularity. He also scampered well between the wickets and formed an excellent stand with du Toit, who was extremely aggressive.

He kept passing the landmarks with consummate ease, passing three-figures, then his previous first-class best of 122*, then 150, then a double century.

All told, he made an unbeaten 207 from 329 balls with 21 fours and two maximums. Seven bowlers were used throughout the innings, but no-one could shift the batter.

du Toit thrice struck straight sixes towards the changing rooms and members’ pavilion in a dominant display, and his second first-class century for the club came from just 123 balls with ten fours and those three sixes.

The duo put on an unbroken stand of 230 in total, which was just seven short of an all-time sixth wicket record for Leicestershire against Surrey when Dippenaar called time on the innings just before tea.

Taylor’s knock was also the highest individual score by a Leicestershire batsman against Surrey, beating Ben Smith’s double-hundred during the Championship-clinching game of 1998. That innings of Smith’s was outstanding, so to better that shows how good it was.

Earlier in the game, Dippenaar also played his finest Leicestershire knock during the innings, Ackerman and Tom New looked in good touch and Greg Smith also did a fine job seeing of the new ball after Boyce was run out in the opening over of the game.

It was easily the best batting display of the season, and although the evergreen Mark Ramprakash responded with a high-class 274, he was bowled by debutant Nathan Buck and there were plenty of reasons to be cheerful as the teams shook hands on Monday afternoon.

The match was the start of an extremely hectic schedule. The team continued on their travels to face Glamorgan but could not replicate the performance, going down to a defeat at the wonderful setting of Colwyn Bay.

It was certainly not all one-way traffic though, as an innings defeat would suggest. The margin of defeat meant the good work on the first two days got lost somewhat, but honours were very much even at the halfway stage of the game.

On the first day, Dippenaar and Ackerman batted beautifully but well just as they both looked set for hundreds. New and du Toit also made attractive 40s but again, were dismissed just when they were looking to push on.

It meant County, who handed a debut to Chris Thompson in the game, were left with a below par first-innings tally of just over 300.

However, Claude Henderson bowled beautifully to get the team back into the game, taking six wickets on the second day as Glamorgan went from a position of relative comfort of 252-3 to 296-8.

But things took a turn for the worse on day three. Robert Croft and Adam Shantry shared a record-breaking ninth-wicket stand against Leics, and by lunch on the final day at Rhos-on-Sea, County had succumbed to an innings defeat.

It was a remarkable turnaround in the literal sense, but not what everyone was expecting when arriving on the third morning, which was a glorious day like the first two. Everyone was expecting an even contest, so credit has to go to Glamorgan for forcing the win so powerfully.

Those two games were a sign of the hard work to come, as County were in the field for almost 1,000 overs in all competitions during the hectic month of August which included 19 days of Championship cricket (The Surrey match started on the last day of July).

Henderson was certainly a busy man as he beat the long-standing County record for the most overs ever bowled in a first-class innings at the Oval – and then broke it in the very next fixture! In total, he sent down consecutive stints of 64 and 67 overs and there was more work for the team to come throughout the month.