Yorkshire Vikings v Leicestershire Foxes

Neil Whitaker reports from Headingley

LEICESTERSHIRE Foxes bounced back from their up run defeat to Derbyshire to beat Yorkshire Vikings by 32 runs at Headingley.

A record breaking T20  fifth wicket partnership for Leicestershire Foxes between  shipper Colin  Ackerman and Rishi Patel rescued the Foxes innings and gave their bowlers something to bowl at.

When the pair came together the Foxes had slumped to 51 for four  in eight overs by the time their partnership was broken the Foxes were on 160 for five the highest Vitality Blast T20 score of the season with two overs left.

Patel showed his intent from the moment he came in by drilling Adil  Rashid to the long on boundary and pulling the next ball to the mid wicket boundary. He  helped a short ball from  Matt Revis to the fine leg boundary, two balls later he hoisted Revis into the East stand for a six.  He went down the pitch to Shadab Khan  and launched him for a straight six. After starting the over with a six he ended it with another six  by reverse sweeping Shadab into the East stand. His  first T20  fifty came from 30  balls four fours three sixes.

Foxes head Coach Paul Nixon said: “We had to do that after yesterday’s performance which hurt us. I thought the way that Ackerman and Patel batted was magnificent and took the game deep.  The way they played two world class spinners was also magnificent as was their execution of shots.  We knew it was a good pitch with a fast scoring ground.”

Yorkshire head Coach Otis Gibson said: “We got out bowled on our own pitch which dosen’t sit very well with us. We didn’t play to our potential and I would like to think that this would be our only defeat of the season.  Full credit to the Foxes.  I thought they played well and executed their bowling plans well.  We lost the game in the first part when we didn’t execute our plans.  188 was far too many runs  and that put us under pressure.  If we had restricted them to 150 I think we would have had a great chance of winning.

We had three world class spinners in our team but they went for nearly 100 runs but their spinners bowled better than ours.”

After making one great dive on the point boundary to prevent an Ackerman boundary Harris Rauf was on the move to the next ball running to his right to prevent another boundary.  Ackerman wasn’t finished and he smashed Adil  Rashid in the next over to the extra cover boundary.  His 17th T20 came from 31 balls six fours with a six. 

Ackerman’s end came when he  tried to run Jordan  Thompson to the third man boundary but got a faint top edge to Tom Kohler-Cadmore.

At the start of the last over Patel drilled the first ball to Adam Lyth at long off. 

The Foxes were unchanged from the team that lost to Derbyshire Falcons on Saturday, won the toss and decided to bat.  They lost their first wicket in the second over when Scott Steel tried to drive Revis but got an outside edge and the ball spiralled to Rashid on the third man boundary.

After driving Sahadab to the extra cover boundary Hamish Rutherford top edged a slog to Thompson coming in from the deep mid wicket boundary.

Arron Lilley tried to smash Rauf down the ground but found Lyth at mid on and Raif’s over ended being a wicket maiden.

Lewis Hill swept Shadab over square leg into the east stand.  In the next over he missed a sweep off Rashid and was adjudged leg before.

In their chase the Vikings raced to 24 without loss in two overs with Lyth scoring all 24 of them but he was soon back in the hutch when he lofted Ben Mike to Rutherford at extra cover.  Lyth was disgusted with his dismissal that he turned to smash the stumps as he did on Friday.

Kohler-Cadmore edged Nareen-Ul-Haq to Parkinson  at short third man to bring in Joe Root.

Dawid Malan showed his class with a beautiful dive off Nareen-Ul-Haq to the extra cover boundary.  On 32  he hammered Steel straight back but the off spinner could’nt hold it at the time it looked like that would have cost the Foxes the match.

After adding 51 for the third wicket with Malan,  Root went  down the wicket to Mike but drove him to Rutherford at cover and that started the Vikings demise.

Malan drilled Ahmed over mid wicket for a six to take him into the forties.  He slogged swept Callum Parkinson to the mid wicket boundary to bring up his fifty but he top edged the next ball to Naveen-Ul-Haq at backward point who dove forward.

The run machine Harry Brook smashed the first two balls off Ahmed’s third over to the mid wicket boundary.  He flat batted a Roman  Walker for a six over cover.  He flung himself at another widish ball from Naveen  and he found the vacant third man boundary. Brook was the seventh out when he drilled Naveen to Walker at the long off boundary.

Shadab sliced a drive of Parkinson to the third man boundary but when he chased a widish delivery from Nareen-Ul-Haq he got a faint top edge to stumper Hill.

After failing to put bat to ball for two balls Thompson managed to hit the third but he hit to Steel at mid wicket boundary. Naveen n took his fourth wicket with a reaction caught and bowled off Bess.  Revis backed away from Walker and top edged to Hill.  Both Mike and Naveen-Ul-Haq took their best figures in the Vitality Blast T20.

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