Leicestershire v Somerset, County Championship Group 2, April 22nd to 26th 2021, Grace Road, Leicester. Leicestershire 233 (Overton 3-39) and 48-3 trail Somerset 318 (Abell 88, Davies 59) by 37 runs with 7 second innings wickets remaining
Somerset’s chance to bounce back from their chastening defeat last weekend with a trip to Leicester to take on the side most predicted to be the also-rans in Group 2 is now two days underway.
Frustratingly this is one of those games that we all have in the season where life gets in the way of cricket. So, with necessity being the mother of invention I’m going to try to weave the preview I’d started writing, my impressions of the first four sessions which I didn’t see or hear and the last two sessions of today which I was able to keep an eye on.
Two whole days where I couldn’t follow Somerset cricket seems like a lifetime, especially after last weekend. Especially as Tom Abell’s side need a win to avoid a gap with the top two widening. They also need a performance after being out batted and out bowled at Taunton. I felt guilt and a sense of letting the team down not being there with them for most of the last two days.
The pressure on the top order occupied a lot of our time and social media comment in the days between the two games but Leicestershire batted first delaying the scrutiny of the two Tom’s at the top of the order.
When you can’t follow a day’s play and look at the scorecard at the close it is easy to get a misleading impression. 233 all out seemed like a pretty decent effort from the Somerset bowlers on what should have been a prime batting day but from 74-5 just after lunch it was a tad disappointing. Leicestershire’s lower order giving Somerset a measure of their own medicine with some staunch lower order resistance.
Anthony Gibson tweeted that Somerset’s bowlers, who had been below their usual stellar levels at Taunton last weekend, had “got their mojo back”.
The other part of the day 1 close scoreboard was not a surprise. Disappointing but not surprising. 53-3 represented a bit of a recovery from 39-3 with the two openers and James Hildreth all gone. Against an “attack” that has leaked 600+ in both their games this season Somerset were in danger of squandering a huge opportunity to restore confidence.
I’d advocated keeping the same side and batting them in the same order for this game, desperately wanting both the openers to succeed. Partly because I believe in the youngsters in this team. Partly because I believe we need to show faith and stick with the team chosen for the first part of this competition.
The encouraging signs James Hildreth showed spending time in the middle last Saturday made me think that he would score big runs at Grace Road. His dismissal on the first evening was a tough blow.
But Jack Leach was an unbeaten nightwatchman at the close having kept his skipper company, important for his side but also hugely reassuring because I was very worried about our Jack after the Gloucester game. His rhythm while bowling was off and his usual frugality missing in the second innings. Worried that the England coaches had done more harm than good over the winter I’d mentally done 2+2 = 67 and was fretting.
Following on from his 2-23 in Leicestershire’s first innings my concerns seemed unfounded. His solidity with the bat under real pressure hugely encouraging. I’d half-seriously said on the Somerset Podcast on Tuesday that the option to move either Leach or Davey to the top of the order shouldn’t be dismissed. My thinking being that both have great temperaments and are technically correct, knowing, in the parlance, where their off stumps are.
The suggestion was not considered with any seriousness by my co-contributors but I still believe it has “legs”. A Jack Leach 50 on Friday morning would do nicely.
In the event he got just over half-way there but by the time he was out for 26 he had more than done his job with 26 off 68 balls and his side past the hundred. By lunch on day 2 Abell and Bartlett had taken Somerset on to 157/4, both batting beautifully. My suspicion from what I could glean however is that the surface was beginning to produce the odd ball that misbehaved and, with the hugely under-estimated Callum Parkinson getting lift and turn with his slow left arm, a lead of over a hundred would potentially be match defining.
The fifth wicket pair continued after lunch batting beautifully but both departed in quick succession at 214 and 219 when both seemed poised to make serious contributions. The skipper, understandably disappointed to get out 12 short of what would have been a well-deserved century.
George Bartlett was just two short of his fifty when he was out and with him Somerset’s hopes of a substantial lead on first innings seemed to go. I blame myself. I’d started doing the mental maths of calculating what the lead would be if these two were together at tea. What we could muster at 110 overs and whether we could declare and leave the Leicestershire openers an awkward few overs before the close.
If Tom Abell had had to drag himself away from the crease Bartlett looked as if he’d need a small explosion to shift him. Neither showed any dissent I hasten to add but their utter disappointment that they had missed out on big opportunities evident to see.
Cricket knows how to punish you when you have such thoughts. My Dad would have turned to me with that knowing look he had indicating he knew cricket far better than me, and reminded me that he always added two wickets to the Somerset score. I’m not sure who he got that from (it was pre-Boycott being a commentator) but boy was I fed up of hearing that through the seventies, eighties, nineties ……!
Craig Overton though is turning himself into a proper lower middle order batsman and with Steve Davies batting beautifully the pair reprised the middle session of last Friday with another significant partnership that transformed a deficit of 14 to a lead of 56.
Like Abell, Bartlett and even Leach both got out just when it seemed they were going on to bigger things. But despite Lewis and Marchant leaving without scoring Somerset were able to pick up a third batting point for the second week running and secure a first innings lead of 85.
While Leicestershire were no doubt delighted to have kept the lead under a hundred they would have been worried that they left themselves with most of the final session to bat against a potent Somerset attack more than capable of taking a handful of wickets in a short period of time.
After 13 balls the home side were 2-2 and when Marcus Harris was dismissed by an irresistible Craig Overton in the 11th over they were 21-3 still 64 behind. The absence of their skipper Colin Ackerman due to the concussion protocols after taking a ball in his face at first slip made Leicestershire’s plight even more serious.
Ackerman’s replacement Rishi Patel, batting at 4, showed real fight in the last hour finishing with 27 off 69 balls as Leicestershire closed trailing by 37. Craig Overton led the attack magnificently, almost unplayable his figures of 7-6-4-2 failing to do him justice!
Somerset should win this game. They should win tomorrow. A chase of around 100 done without loss. I live in hope.
