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Promotion chasing Leicestershire beat Glos by eight wickets

5 September 2023

Leicestershire kept themselves in the hunt for promotion from Division Two, closing out a three-day win over Gloucestershire by mid-afternoon, an unbroken partnership of 161 between Colin Ackermann (93) and skipper Lewis Hill (62) guiding them home by an impressive eight-wicket margin.

Leicestershire have not played Division One cricket in the LV=Insurance County Championship since 2003 and realistically the odds against them returning next year are long, especially if Worcestershire consolidate their grip on second place by completing a win over Glamorgan at New Road.

But the Foxes have a game in hand away to Sussex next week. If they can come back from the south coast with a fourth win of the season it would set up an intriguing finale in which Leicestershire and Worcestershire both have to face Yorkshire and Durham in their last two fixtures.

Gloucestershire, relegated from Division One last season, are still looking for a first win of their campaign, having been bowled out here for 159 and 212 in conditions that, for the first two days at least, favoured the bowlers. It left Leicestershire needing 168 to win, a target they secured inside 42 overs.

At the start of the day, Leicestershire needed 10 overs to prise out the two remaining Gloucestershire wickets at Monday’s close, or rather three from Wiaan Mulder after the seamers were initially held back to allow spinners Colin Ackermann and Louis Kimber to address the matter of their side’s sedate over-rate, which stood at minus two overnight even after the usual adjustments.

Once the dial had been sufficiently moved, Mulder bowled Dom Goodman, who chopped on, with his sixth ball and had Luke Charlesworth leg before with his 16th. Gloucestershire were grateful for an unbeaten 41 from Zaman Akhter - his highest score in 12 first-class innings to date.

After two days in which batting had often looked a perilous occupation, Gloucestershire would have felt the outcome was no foregone conclusion and they were encouraged by removing both Leicestershire openers in the first five overs, both caught behind off Josh Shaw, who tempted Rishi Patel to nibble at one outside off stump and profited again via a thin top edge as Sol Budinger slashed at a much wider ball.

But Hill and Ackermann avoided further mishaps in the 15 overs left before lunch, eventually beginning to push the scoreboard along, taking turns to hit three boundaries in an over off Luke Charlesworth and Akhter in trimming 76 runs off the requirement to leave another 95 needed.

The pair were watchful after lunch as Shaw went for three consecutive boundaries at the Pavilion End with Zafar Gohar’s left-arm spin building pressure at the other end.

It was eased, though, when Ackermann took back-to-back boundaries off Shaw and as their partnership moved into three figures, Hill completed his seventh half-century of the season from 74 balls, quickly followed by Ackermann’s from 84.

With time on their side, the duo had the luxury of knowing they need not take any risks, waiting for the inevitable bad ball to put away, Ackermann eventually taking the lead role, cuts and late cuts providing the biggest proportion of his 14 boundaries.

Gloucestershire skipper James Bracey said:

“We started the game poorly and ended it poorly and that’s the story, really.

“We were pretty good in the middle of the game the way we fought back to bowl them out. The way we came back with the ball was brilliant from a very young attack.  It was a great learning curve for the likes of Dom and Luke.

“If you had given us the position we were in this morning at the end of day one we would have been delighted with that because it gave us a real sniff.

“The way we started and finished with the bat second innings was pretty good but we just lacked the big partnership that would have given us something more to defend.

“We started to put together some nice partnerships at times, a couple of 20s and 30s, a couple of 50s and 60s, but when we came under pressure we got out, sometimes because we gave our wickets away, sometimes just because they bowled well. That’s something we have struggled with all year.

“The pitch did get better. There weren’t so many demons in it yesterday than at the start, so it was an important toss to win. But having said that, we could have done a lot more to help ourselves as well.  

“We’re desperate to get a couple of wins on the board before the end of the season. It doesn’t help that we keep getting bowlers injured, but if the batters can show there is something about them, hopefully we can put some big scores together and set it up for the bowlers.”

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