Norwell's 10-99 inspires innings victory
16 April 2017
Liam Norwell's name dominated the third day of Gloucestershire's first home Championship match of the season, as the willing Dorset born bowler took eight wickets to see Gloucestershire to victory over Leicestershire by an innings and six runs with a day to spare shortly after 5 o'clock.
It was fitting that Norwell should finish the match, in which he took five wickets in each innings, by having Ned Eckersley - by some distance Leicestershire's best batsman - caught on the boundary by Jack Taylor. He had taken a wicket with the second ball of the morning, and in between claimed six more on the day to finish with 5-66 and 5-33 respectively.
Listen to Liam Norwell's thoughts on the win and his 10 wickets here:
The day began with Leicestershire needing 152 to avoid the follow-on, and their position was hampered with Colin Ackermann being unable to bat. He had injured a finger while fielding and the blow taken on it when batting against Craig Miles on Saturday evening ended his participation in the match.
Ned Eckersley and Clint McKay were Leicestershire's overnight pair, but McKay's departure as he shouldered arms to Norwell in the first over didn't signal an early enforcement of the follow-on. Eckersley found a capable partner in Richard Jones, who having taken a blow on the helmet when ducking into a ball from Craig Miles, hung around for 22 overs in which the pair added 89, chiefly through Eckersley's careful shot selection.
25 not out overnight, he slowly grew in confidence by letting the ball come to him and playing it late, a leg glance off Miles bringing up his fifty with eight boundaries. Jones, despite scoring slowly, actually took a greater share of the strike and it was a surprise when Eckersley, having got to 88, was bowled going for an expansive drive off Norwell. His 5th wicket of the innings - Dent pouching an edge given by Griffiths - gave skipper Mustard the option of enforcing the follow-on with the lead standing at 207.
The talk at lunch, which Leicestershire took at 6-0 in their second innings, surrounded the possibility of a finish within the 66 overs that remained on the day and as in the first innings, Liam Norwell and David Payne both weighed in with early wickets. It was an hour's play from which Leicestershire never recovered.
In the first 12 overs of the afternoon session Leicestershire lost five batsmen, and with it any realistic hope of saving the game. Horton (6) edged a ball that climbed from Payne to 'keeper Mustard, and the inexperienced Dearden was caught by Bancroft at first slip off Norwell for 4. Leicestershire's third wicket pair of skipper Mark Cosgrove and Neil Dexter have nearly 20,000 first class runs between them, but when Bancroft took a fine low catch off Norwell to remove Dexter for four Leicestershire were 21-3.
It must have seemed a strange sensation shortly afterwards for Eckersley to find himself walking back out to bat again after Pettini's tentative defensive push proved no equal to another accurate delivery from Norwell. Only 54 minutes cricket had elapsed in between his two innings, and five wickets had gone down in between.
Fleetingly, Cosgrove drove fluently when there was room to do so, but a fine yorker by Payne accounted for the Australian left hander and his departure for 26 pointed the way towards a day off if the other Gloucestershire bowlers could maintain the pressure.
In the end they managed it but not before it took a mix up between Eckersley and Ben Raine to break a stand that threatened to see Gloucestershire bat again.
Against Miles and Liddle, who were introduced together after a long opening stint for Payne and Norwell, Leicestershire's sixth wicket pair collected a flurry of boundaries. True, there were gaps with attacking fields but the bowlers will not be happy with their accuracy.
Liddle in particular struggled to bowl the right length, and when Eckersley drove him past mid on for a boundary he had scored more than 100 runs on the day across his two innings, his second innings fifty coming at a run a ball.
The calamitous moment came when the left handed Raine, who had played positively for his 42, set off for a single as Eckersley played the ball towards van Buuren at square leg. His partner stayed where he was, and an accurate throw to the bowler's end saw Raine unable to recover his ground and end a stand that had been worth 86 in 15 overs.
McKay stayed with Eckersley until tea - the only blot on Norwell's day being a dropped catch at mid off - but his return, and that of Payne, for one final burst after the resumption proved decisive.
Still needing 31 to make Gloucestershire bat again, they fell just short. McKay (27) was caught low at third slip by Hankins off Norwell, and Mustard clung one handed to a low edge from Jones which gave Payne his third wicket, but this was Norwell's day.
His only previous 10 wicket haul in a Championship match was at Chelmsford in 2015, but he equalled in here when Eckersley's game resistance ended as he was caught on the point boundary by Jack Taylor for 85. Norwell had taken five wickets in each innings, Gloucestershire had maximum points, and the gloom after the defeat at Kent had been well and truly lifted.
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