English County Cricket Update: Leicestershire beat Worcestershire despite problems at the top
Leicestershire put aside the backroom differences in the team, and played some good cricket to notch up their 4th win in 2010 season and that too with one day still to go in the match against Worcestershire.
There were all sorts of problems at the top level of the county, Leicestershire’s former CEO David Smith, who resigned this week, asked the members to immediately call am emergency meeting and look into the issues that eventually led to him parting ways with the county.
Smith had been unsettled for a while before he decided to finally hand in his resignation, he said that there were too many people trying to use their influence in the team, especially the county Chairman Neil Davidson, who Smith said had been trying to use his position to tinker with the selection policies. Smith added that he had worked very sincerely with Leicestershire and has the county’s interest at heart. Therefore, he would never indulge himself in something that he knows is not right for the team. He went on to say that, he has an E-mail that proves the chairman wanting to influence the team selections.
Davidson meanwhile has refused to make public comments in reply to that, but he did say that the allegations made by Smith are baseless.
All of these issues certainly can be overwhelming for any team, and to perform under such stress can be a task and a half for the men who actually go and do the business on the pitch.
Leicestershire showed that they are not bothered by what goes on at the top, and the team displayed some fantastic cricket, in a one sided match. Garth Andrew was the man who although was not able to change the match with his hundred( his 3rd against Leicestershire) but did delay the inevitable.
Andrew was in good touch, he played some fluent strokes smashed to beautiful sixes off Nadeem Malik, as he pulled him twice towards the cathedral boundary and led some stern resistance assisted well by the tail, off course it was all in vane in the end.
Worcestershire’s final 4 wickets added a total of 106 runs, and Andrew got 79 of those, while Matt Mason and Jack Shantry displayed some good survival skills at the other end.
Leicestershire had to chase down only 182 runs in the last innings, but still it could have been much less, had they been able to hold on to some catches in the field, the put down at least 5 good chances while Worcestershire were batting.
Apart from Andrew, there was the partnership between Daryl Mitchell and James Cameron for the 5th wicket that lasted 42 overs and was worth 138 runs, but it was ended when both were dismissed within 3 overs by Malik.
The target of 182 for Leicestershire could have been not so easy, if Worcestershire had been more disciplined with the ball. They could not make good use of the new ball and in an effort to get early wickets, probably tried too hard and sprayed the ball around. Leicestershire did not complain and capitalized by getting a solid opening stand of 61.
Phil Jaques, the man from Australia displayed why he is touted as the next Langer in Australia, the left hander played some flowing cover drives, while he was also particularly hard on anything pitched within his leg stump. He was sent back by Andrew .while his opening Partner Jefferson was not far behind, he was playing it more like a limited over match.
As soon as the openers were dismissed, Nixon and Taylor calmed things down, and made sure that they guided Leicestershire to an easy win.
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