v Leicestershire @ Grace Road C&G Round 1 4 May 2005

SCORECARD

Our form last year has given us a county in the first round of the C&G.  That makes it harder.  The fact that we have beaten the said county within the last 4 days and taken Surrey apart in between that game and this SHOULD make it easier...but this is the cup!

The 13 man squad who travel mirrors the really good weekend we have had and 7 of them really pick themselves for this tussle.  There is no room at all for Matthew Wood so we have to assume that his time has yet to come in the County matches. 

John Francis, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marcus Trescothick, Keith Parsons, James Hildreth, Ian Blackwell, Aaron Laraman and Rob Turner should all start if they are fit.  There was a worry about AL but is he has been picked to travel one has to assume he is fit to play and therefore will based on his excellent performance against this side less than a week ago.

The next few spaces are less certain and the number of bowlers we take will be determined by whether it is believed that we shold go with an extra experienced batsman in the top five.  Mike Burns has been an excellent one day batsmen for us but is having great difficulty this month.  The selectors kept faith with him on Monday and he was the one who did not prosper at Surrey's expense.  He did, however, make a very good hundred in the Warwickshire game at his old hunting ground...since then?  Nada!  We can't afford him tomorrow.  James Hildreth has shown he can fill the 5th spot and the internationals are good enough to play the 'pinch hitter' role at the front end.  The fact that Wood is not being considered tends to convince me that we will go with the bowlers.

I think they will go with the side as listed up to RT and then decide on 3 bowlers from a choice of 4.  Andrew Caddick, Simon Francis, Richard Johnson and Gareth Andrew.  But which three?  Richard Johnson will play.  He has done nothing wrong and looks solid and ready for these games, we aren't carrying him on the run up or on the outfield.  Simon Francis should play because he fulfilled the role on Monday that AL provided on Sunday.  The, "on the money man", who went for little and kept the batsmen guessing.  But do you play Gareth or Andrew? 

On one day form you have to say GA.  He has looked dangerous and has taken wickets...he has also gone for some but he is an excellent short fielder and looks like he wants it.  On "class" how can you leave a bowler like Caddick out?  He isn't showing it yet but if he does he is invaluable.  He isn't primarily a one day bowler but a one day spell from him can win you a game...and has.

Only the coaches know how near we are to the Caddick of old...will we see his like again ever?  You have to play your best man and Mark Garaway will know whether Caddy needs to bowl to get his rhythm and then he's there or whether he needs to prove that he can be the force he hhas been in the past.  IF he wants it and he's starting to show that the old form is there then you have to play him.  If not...give the youngster his head and protect him if it goes wrong.

I think we'll play Caddick.  I've yet to be convinced that that is the correct decision.  Here's to a win whatever decision they make.  Three in a week...unheard of!

The Game

And it still is!!  Put in on an abortion of a wicket we struggled from the start.  Some bloke called Willoughby (did he play on Sunday?) took 6 for 16 as we capitulated in the first hour to what seemed to be a humiliating defeat.  Jayasuriya is having a really bad time on unfamiliar wickets and went in 4 balls with 1 up.  Banger joined him with what was going to be a decent knock of 11 at 17.  Keith Parsons lasted 7 minutes and didn't add to the score while Hidlreth and John Francis followed suit before we got to 25...all LBW.  Bad pitch? Yes.  Playng across the line on a bad pitch?  Seems so in some cases.  When will they ever learn not to blindly follow each other to the slaughter?

Aaron Laraman did trouble the scorers... but not for long and he returned with the score on 28.  At least he was caught...but what was he doing going ariel in this situation?  Rob Turner offered his pad as well and it was gratefully received by the Foxes courtesy of the umpires.  Gibson C&B's Johnson for 8 and then had Caddick for 0 although he did provide support while Ian Blackwell tried to salvage something from this debacle.  58 for 9....I ask you.  Under what conditions can 58 for 9 be called "brilliant" by a first class coach?

Simon Francis is gaining a bigger following every match for putting up and shutting up early critics (including me).  He stood his ground with IB and they almost doubled the score, adding 36 before Blackie became the 6th lBW and the innings closed at 94.

If Francis can score 10 and Blackwell can score 40, how can 94 be a fair score?  Maybe conditions had eased by the time they got there.  But we are talking about 29 overs in overcast conditions.  What happened to the quality batsmen?  Where was their fight?  Where was their flexibility to play to the conditions?  It isn't the first time that 7 to 11 have amassed more runs than the front 6.  When you are 2 down you drop anchor and ride it out...don't you?

Leicestershire then illustrated what type of pitch it was by doing almost the same.  A better start became deja vu as they lost a wicket at 18 and 2 at 19 before they did exactly what we should have done.  Ackerman and Habib worked to settle the sinking hulk and put on, what became, a match winning 36 run partnership.

Good work by Francis in particular but also Johnson and Caddick got them rocking again as both the settled pair went either side of the 50 and then the collapse started again.  5 for 51 became 6 for 53 but Nixon held on to get them to 70 and then Gibson and Henderson saw them home.  We lose by 3 wickets on a garbage wicket where the toss decided the game.

We can talk about TV pressure to play the game and the need for inspectors to look at the pitch and we can hear the comments of our first team coach who claims that if we had won the toss we would have bowled them out for 45 and got them with the loss of 2 wickets.

Unfortunately we didn't win the toss Mark.  And we batted more poorly than a team we don't particularly rate who operated under roughly the conditions we experienced. 

We did not stand against their bowling and we did not give our bowlers (who performed manfully in an almost lost cause) enough to play with.  Leicestershire are not a good one day side and we know all about the Grace Road pitch...it isn't the first time.  We were poorly prepared and acted like rabbits in the headlights when it started going wrong.  We were the poorer side and we lost against a side that played better.

If we were "Brilliant" then obviously the Foxes were "Bloody Amazing"

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